AI Energy Use: Data & Research

AI systems consume enormous and rapidly growing amounts of energy. As of 2025, the power required to train frontier models has been doubling annually, and new data centers are placing significant demands on power grids. The energy efficiency of AI hardware has been improving by roughly 40% each year, but the growth in compute demand has been outpacing it. Epoch tracks the power requirements of frontier AI, how efficiency gains compare to the growth in compute usage, and what the balance between energy demand and supply means for AI development.