What Your Digital Life Uses

How much energy and water does it take to scroll TikTok, watch YouTube, join a Zoom call, or prompt ChatGPT?

Calculate Your Digital Habits

Digital inventory

Calculator overview

Use this tool to estimate a typical day of digital activity. Enter prompts, streaming time, meetings, or browsing, and the totals update as you go. Some streaming rows also let you choose a device because phones, laptops, and TVs can change total energy a lot. If you want a quick example, start with a starter mix and adjust from there. You will see four measures: server and network energy, total energy, direct water, and total water. For more detail on where the calculations come from, see the Sources & Method page.

How to use it

  • Enter rough amounts for the activities you actually use in a typical day.
  • Watch the summary cards update as you add prompts, streaming, meetings, or social-media time.
  • Use the quick anchors to translate the totals into everyday reference points.

AI tasks

Media and search

Meetings

Assumptions and sources

The lower table shows each activity's current row values, confidence label, and source links.

Activity Qty Status Server + network Total energy Direct water Total water
AI text prompts Uses an everyday text-prompt estimate of about 0.3 Wh while keeping a separate prompt-specific water estimate of 0.26 mL direct and 1.3 mL total.
Sources Epoch AI (2025) Jegham et al. (2025)
0 prompts Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
High-reasoning prompts Uses the long high-reasoning 33.8 Wh benchmark rather than the much smaller medium-query comparison value, so this row stays an intentional outlier.
Sources Jegham et al. (2025) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 prompts Inferred 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
AI image generation Uses an open-model image-generation average and the same water-conversion rule used across the broader comparison set.
Sources Roucy-Rochegonde et al. (2025) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 images Inferred 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Coding-agent use Uses the current one-hour coding-agent benchmark and adds a 30 Wh device allowance in the total-system column.
Sources Couch (2026) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
TikTok or short-video scrolling Built from device-side social-video measurement plus streaming-style infrastructure assumptions; keep this row estimated until a platform-specific cloud-side benchmark exists.
Sources Greenspector (2021) Holter (2025) Kamiya (2020) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Instagram scrolling This remains an analogy-based estimate built from social-media measurement plus streaming comparisons, useful for relative scale rather than platform accounting.
Sources Greenspector (2021) Kamiya (2020) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Snapchat Another low-confidence social-media estimate built from broader comparison logic rather than a platform disclosure.
Sources Greenspector (2021) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
YouTube watching Uses the same CDN-style video benchmark as Netflix so the calculator keeps an apples-to-apples streaming anchor for the cloud-side and total-system columns.
Sources Kamiya (2020) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Inferred 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Netflix streaming Uses the IEA/Kamiya 22 Wh cloud-side and 77 Wh total benchmark used throughout the site's streaming comparisons.
Sources Kamiya (2020) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Inferred 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Email, cloud docs, and browsing This is a teaching bundle for light browsing, email, and cloud documents rather than a per-click benchmark.
Sources Internal synthesis (2026)
0 daily blocks Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Zoom as participant Uses a one-hour participant meeting estimate in which network plus platform routing form the cloud-side figure and participant device energy is added back for the total-system column.
Sources Mytton (2023) Verdecchia et al. (2022) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 hours Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL
Zoom as host Uses a hosted Zoom estimate that counts all participant devices in the total-system column.
Sources Mytton (2023) Verdecchia et al. (2022) Internal synthesis (2026)
0 meetings Estimated 0 Wh 0 Wh 0 mL 0 mL

Method note: The first energy column is a cloud-side view that usually combines server and network demand, not a pure server-only accounting. The tool keeps direct-versus-total water explicit, but many non-AI rows still use broader electricity-based water conversions because most platforms do not disclose their own water use.