A web search and an AI prompt can return the exact same fact. They don't cost the same to produce it. This page defaults to the most recent (2025) figure on both sides — a company's own disclosure where one exists, and the closest credible independent estimate where it doesn't. Every number is labeled either way, and you can switch sources with the toggles below.
Energy is only one part of the bill. Carbon depends on how the electricity was generated; water is drawn to cool the servers that answered you. Here's how a single search stacks up against a single AI prompt on each meter.
The headline "AI uses 10× more energy than search" comes from a 2023 estimate that today's companies say is out of date. The current, self-reported figures above are much closer together — sometimes AI comes out lower. But three things change the real picture.
One prompt is rarely one message.
A search is usually a single round trip. A chat is a back-and-forth — several prompts to get to one answer, each one billed separately.
Complexity multiplies the cost fast.
The 0.24–0.34 Wh figures above are for short text answers. Long documents, reasoning-heavy prompts, code generation, or image and video output can run 10–100× higher per request.
Scale erases small differences.
Billions of prompts a day means even a fraction of a watt-hour compounds into real electricity, water, and grid demand — regardless of which side of this page is technically "cheaper."
Comparisons age unevenly.
Google's only official search figure is from 2009 — this page defaults to a 2025 independent re-estimate instead, so it isn't comparing 16-year-old hardware to brand-new AI infrastructure. On that fairer footing, modern search comes in well below either AI figure. The underlying reason: a lookup against an index is inherently cheaper than a full neural-network pass per output token. That gap has narrowed with more efficient AI serving, but it hasn't closed. Switch the search card to "2009 official" to see the only number Google has actually put its own name to.
Where a company has published its own number, this page uses it. Where it hasn't — a modern search figure — the closest credible independent estimate is used instead, clearly labeled as such. Further independent research is cited below for context on why estimates vary.