Gemma 3 27B Environmental Impact
Google's open-source model for self-hosting
Per query = Short query (~300 tokens)
Energy per query
0.75 Wh
CO2 per query
0.30 g
Water per query
1 mL
Processing location
Self-hosted (varies)
Provider
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
475 g CO2/kWh (27% renewable)
How does Gemma 3 27B compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Gemma 3 27B is a dense 27B parameter model estimated at ~0.75 Wh per short query. It's designed to run on a single GPU (including consumer RTX 4090), making it one of the more accessible open-source models.
Power Source & Carbon
As an open-source model, deployed across diverse infrastructure. Carbon impact depends on hosting location.
Water Usage
At ~1.4 mL per query in a data centre. Zero water when self-hosted on personal hardware.
What does your Gemma 3 27B usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Gemma 3 27B.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Gemma 3 27B use per query?
Each Gemma 3 27B query consumes approximately 0.75 Wh of energy. This is 3x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Gemma 3 27B's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Self-hosted (varies), each query produces approximately 0.30 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 475 g CO2/kWh with 27% renewable energy.
How much water does Gemma 3 27B use?
Each query consumes approximately 1 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Gemma 3 27B compare to a Google search?
A Gemma 3 27B query uses 3x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Gemma 3 27B uses 0.75 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer (decoder-only)
Parameters
27B
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2025-03-12
Open source
Yes