Home air conditioning (1 year) = 6.33 M AI prompts
Home air conditioning (1 year) equals roughly 6.33 M AI prompts on the electricity side: 1,900,000 Wh, while an average text prompt weighs just 0.3 Wh. The math, the source and detailed equivalents are right below, with public, verifiable numbers.
Figures updated on June 30, 2026 · Source : US EIA : usage électrique des foyers
The electricity of a prompt covers inference: the work the model does in the data center while answering, cooling included. It does not include model training or server manufacturing. The everyday action, meanwhile, is measured at the plug, so the comparison is one use against another use.
Why 6.33 M prompts?
The math fits in three lines, using public, sourced values:
- 1.Home air conditioning (1 year): 1,900,000 Wh (US EIA : usage électrique des foyers)
- 2.1 text prompt: 0.3 Wh (published range: 0.24 to 0.4 Wh)
- 3.1,900,000 Wh ÷ 0.3 Wh ≈ 6.33 M prompts
In other words, “Home air conditioning (1 year)” weighs as much as 6.33 M questions asked to a generative AI. It is an order of magnitude, not a to-the-decimal measurement: sources publish ranges, and we use a median value, explained in our methodology.
What about a generated image or a reasoning prompt?
Not every AI use weighs the same. A generated image costs about 9 Wh and a “reasoning” prompt about 20 Wh, versus 0.3 Wh for a simple text prompt. So “Home air conditioning (1 year)” is also roughly 211,111 times one generated image, or 95,000 times one reasoning prompt.
Convert your own usageWhere do these numbers come from?
The value we use for “Home air conditioning (1 year)” comes from “US EIA : usage électrique des foyers”, referenced like all our data on the Sources page. No number on this page is made up: every value can be traced back to a public document.
On the prompt side, published values range from 0.24 to 0.4 Wh: Google and OpenAI have shared their own figures, and the research institute Epoch AI produced an independent estimate. We use 0.3 Wh.