Your Digital Life

Calculate Your Digital Habits

Calculate Your Digital Habits

Estimate a day of cloud-connected activity, then interrogate the assumptions behind the numbers.

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.

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AI tasks

0 active of 4

AI text prompts

Basic text questions

Base1 prompt · 0.3 Wh per prompt
prompts
End-user device not modeled

AI text prompts

estimated · Base unit: 1 prompt

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.

Selected quantity
0 prompts
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

The live calculator does not add a separate end-user device term for everyday text prompts.

Sources

Full sources & method →

High-reasoning prompts

Long, high-reasoning queries

Base1 prompt · 33.8 Wh per prompt
prompts
End-user device not modeled

High-reasoning prompts

inferred · Base unit: 1 prompt

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.

Selected quantity
0 prompts
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

The live calculator keeps the reasoning row equal to cloud-side energy until a separate prompt-device model is justified.

Sources

Full sources & method →

AI image generation

One SD-XL 1.0-base image under controlled H100 test conditions

Base1 image · 1.7 Wh per image · GPU-only floor
images
End-user device not modeled

AI image generation

inferred · Base unit: 1 image

Uses the IEA's 1.7 Wh SD-XL 1.0-base benchmark from controlled H100 testing. Jon Ippolito's What Uses More? comparison prompted the review; the adopted value comes from the underlying IEA report. The benchmark covers GPU electricity only and is carried through both energy columns as a conservative floor. Water remains an internal conversion rather than an image-specific measurement.

Selected quantity
0 images
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

No device, network, or facility-overhead add-on is available. The GPU-only benchmark is carried through both energy totals as a conservative floor, not as a measured full-system value.

GPU electricity only; excludes network energy, facility overhead, and the end-user device.

Carries the 1.7 Wh GPU-only benchmark through as a conservative floor; this is not a measured total-system value.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Coding-agent requests

Intensive-use example

Count messages you send, including follow-ups. Automatic agent steps are included.

Base1 request · ~150 Wh
requests
End-user device not modeled

Coding-agent requests

inferred · Base unit: 1 request · Broader-system reference: ~150 Wh

Intensive-use example based on Hausfather's modeled 170 kWh across 1,138 human Claude Code prompts: 149.38 Wh per prompt, rounded to 150 Wh per request. Water applies the project's inferred 1 mL/Wh direct and 6 mL/Wh broader conversions. This is one heavy user's modeled workload, not a generic request average.

Selected quantity
0 requests
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

No end-user device energy is added. Equal cloud/source and total-system values mean that the user's computer is outside the quantified boundary, not that it uses no electricity.

Modeled data-center electricity for model calls triggered by one human coding-agent message, including automatic model and subagent calls represented in the usage logs. Separate human follow-ups count as new requests. External tool execution, network, and end-user device energy are not separately quantified.

Same quantified data-center electricity as the cloud/source field; end-user device, network, embodied, and training energy are unquantified rather than zero.

Project scenario applying 1 mL of direct cooling water per Wh of modeled coding-agent data-center electricity.

Project scenario applying 6 mL of broader water per Wh of modeled coding-agent data-center electricity; this total includes the direct-water amount.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Media & entertainment

0 active of 5

TikTok or short-video scrolling

Video-heavy social feed

Base1 hour · 36 Wh per hour
hours
Device · Phone (fixed)

TikTok or short-video scrolling

estimated · Base unit: 1 hour

Built from device-side social-video measurement plus streaming-style infrastructure assumptions; keep this row estimated until a platform-specific cloud-side benchmark exists.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

This row already behaves like a mobile-default social-feed estimate and should stay fixed in the first device pass.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Instagram scrolling

Mixed image and short-video feed

Base1 hour · 25 Wh per hour
hours
Device · Phone (fixed)

Instagram scrolling

estimated · Base unit: 1 hour

This remains an analogy-based estimate built from social-media measurement plus streaming comparisons, useful for relative scale rather than platform accounting.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

Keep Instagram locked to a phone-style total unless the row is split into cleaner photo versus video cases.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Snapchat

Short-form messaging and video

Base1 hour · 20 Wh per hour
hours
Device · Phone (fixed)

Snapchat

estimated · Base unit: 1 hour

Another low-confidence social-media estimate built from broader comparison logic rather than a platform disclosure.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

Treat Snapchat as a phone-default row in the initial device model.

Sources

Full sources & method →

YouTube watching

Streaming video hour

Base1 hour · 26 Wh per hour
hours
Phone, laptop, or TV

YouTube watching

inferred · Base unit: 1 hour

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.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

The default total assumes phone viewing, while the stored laptop and TV options let the row reflect the much larger device spread behind video streaming.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Netflix streaming

One hour streamed

Base1 hour · 37 Wh per hour
hours
Phone, laptop, or TV

Netflix streaming

inferred · Base unit: 1 hour

Uses the IEA/Kamiya 22 Wh cloud-side and 77 Wh total benchmark used throughout the site's streaming comparisons.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

The default total assumes laptop viewing, while phone and TV options preserve the lower and higher ends already used in the scenario work.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Gaming

0 active of 1

Gaming Console (Xbox Series X + TV)

One active player-hour; local rendering over fixed broadband

Base1 player-hour · 220 Wh per player-hour
hours
Device · Xbox Series X + reference 55-inch TV (fixed)

Gaming Console (Xbox Series X + TV)

estimated · Base unit: 1 player-hour

Locally rendered online multiplayer, not cloud gaming. The central estimate includes the console, reference TV, allocated home networking, fixed access and core transport, modeled game-server IT, and data-center overhead. Downloads, patches, manufacturing, standby, and optional texture streaming are excluded.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

Fixed to an Xbox Series X plus one reference 54.7-inch ENERGY STAR-certified television. Series S and alternate display choices are not yet modeled.

Off-prem fixed access and core transport plus modeled game-server facility electricity; excludes the allocated home gateway.

Console, reference TV, allocated home gateway, fixed access and core transport, modeled game-server IT, and PUE overhead for one player-hour.

Modeled direct cooling and humidification water for the game-server data center only; telecom-facility water is unquantified.

U.S.-average operational water consumption: electricity-generation water for quantified components plus modeled direct game-server data-center water.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Work & communication

0 active of 3

Email, cloud docs, and browsing

A light mixed-work block

Base1 daily block · 30 Wh per daily block
daily blocks
Device · Laptop (fixed)

Email, cloud docs, and browsing

estimated · Base unit: 1 daily block

This is a teaching bundle for light browsing, email, and cloud documents rather than a per-click benchmark.

Selected quantity
0 daily blocks
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

Keep this mixed-work row fixed to a laptop-style bundle until it is split into narrower activity rows.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Zoom as participant

Joining a class or meeting

Base1 hour · 74 Wh per hour
hours
Device · Laptop (fixed)

Zoom as participant

estimated · Base unit: 1 hour

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.

Selected quantity
0 hours
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

The current participant row assumes a laptop-style class session; add a phone option only when a clearer participant-device bridge is chosen.

Sources

Full sources & method →

Zoom as host

One 50-minute, 10-person hosted session

Base1 meeting · 358 Wh per meeting
meetings
Device · Meeting bundle (fixed)

Zoom as host

estimated · Base unit: 1 meeting

Uses a hosted Zoom estimate that counts all participant devices in the total-system column.

Selected quantity
0 meetings
Cloud/source-side energy
0 Wh
Broader-system energy
0 Wh
Direct water
0 mL
Total water
0 mL

This row is a shared meeting bundle, not a single host-device toggle, so keep it fixed.

Sources

Full sources & method →
Sources & Method

Current totals are 0 watt-hours broader-system energy and 0 milliliters total water.

Review the full calculator method

Every activity’s source, boundary, status, and calculation is documented on the method page.

Open Sources & Method →