I know people LOOOOOOVE to use how many bajillion gallons (wtf is a gallon? is that a bucket? learn to use litres) AI data centers use, without looking into how much that is as a percentage of total water use:
Basis: 322 billion US gallons per day, equivalent to 117.53 trillion gallons per year. Percentages are calculated against total US water withdrawals in 2015. (USGS)
| Category | Annual volume, trillion US gallons | Share of total US water withdrawals | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total US water withdrawals | 117.530 | 100.000% | USGS, 2015 (USGS) |
| Thermoelectric power | 48.545 | 41.304% | USGS: 133 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Irrigation | 43.070 | 36.646% | USGS: 118 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Public supply | 14.235 | 12.112% | USGS: 39.0 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Industrial, self-supplied | 5.402 | 4.596% | USGS: 14.8 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Aquaculture | 2.756 | 2.345% | USGS: 7.55 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Mining | 1.460 | 1.242% | USGS: 4.00 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Domestic, self-supplied | 1.190 | 1.012% | USGS: 3.26 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| Livestock | 0.730 | 0.621% | USGS: 2.00 billion gal/day (USGS) |
| All data centers: direct water consumption, 2023 | 0.0174 | 0.0148% | LBNL: 66 billion liters (LBNL) |
| All data centers: direct plus electricity-related consumption, 2023 | 0.2288 | 0.1947% | LBNL: 66 billion liters direct plus nearly 800 billion liters indirect (LBNL) |
| AI servers: annual scenario estimate, 2024–2030 | 0.193–0.297 | 0.164–0.253% | Nature Sustainability: 731–1,125 million m³ per year (Nature Sustainability) |
The first eight categories add up to 99.879%. The small difference from 100% is caused by rounding in the USGS daily figures.
The data-center and AI rows represent water-consumption footprints, while the USGS sector rows represent water withdrawals. They are included for scale comparison and should not be added to the sector totals.