Google says its electricity use rose 37% in 2025 as AI grows

In short: Google says its electricity use jumped 37 percent in 2025, mainly because it is building and running more data centers for AI and other services.

What's going on

Google’s latest sustainability report says the company used 37 percent more electricity in 2025 than in 2024. Google also says its total electricity use is up more than 250 percent since 2019.

The main reason is its data centers, which are large buildings full of computers that run services like Google Cloud, YouTube, and many AI products. In 2025, Google’s data centers used more than 42 million megawatt-hours of electricity, up from 30.6 million in 2024. That is roughly in the range of what some entire countries use in a year, according to the report.

Even with the higher electricity use, Google says its operational carbon emissions fell by 2 percent in 2025. Operational emissions are the pollution tied to running its buildings and data centers. Google credits this to buying large amounts of clean energy, including deals for 12 gigawatts of “net-new” clean power in 2025.

Google also points out a key limitation: a company can buy renewable energy on paper, but still draw local electricity that comes from fossil fuels. That is why Google says it is pushing toward “24/7 carbon-free energy,” meaning matching clean energy to its use hour by hour in the places where it operates (like trying to refill a bathtub at the same speed and location as the drain).

What to watch

Google says it will need more clean energy investments and closer work with local partners as AI infrastructure expands. It also reported supply chain emissions rose 25 percent, partly because some suppliers rely on power grids with limited carbon-free energy. Separately, an analyst flagged a possible Texas data center site linked to a natural gas plant, and Google said it has not signed an agreement for how much power it would use.

Source: Arstechnica