GPT-5 Mini Environmental Impact
Compact GPT-5 variant for cost-sensitive applications
- Architecture
- Multimodal Transformer (distilled)
- Context
- 256,000 tokens
- Provider
- OpenAI
Energy per query
0.80 Wh
3x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.35 g
US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
3 mL
~345 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Azure / Multi-cloud
Provider
OpenAI
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
450 g CO2/kWh (25% renewable)
How does GPT-5 Mini compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
GPT-5 Mini delivers much of GPT-5's capability at ~0.8 Wh per query — roughly 4x more efficient than the full model. Designed for high-volume production use cases where cost and speed matter more than peak performance.
Power Source & Carbon
Same multi-cloud infrastructure as GPT-5. The smaller model size allows more efficient GPU utilisation.
Water Usage
At ~2.9 mL per query, significantly less than the full GPT-5.
About GPT-5 Mini
GPT-5 Mini is a text and chat model from OpenAI, released in August 7, 2025. Compact GPT-5 variant for cost-sensitive applications. Each query uses 0.80 Wh of energy and produces 0.35 g of CO₂. That's about 2.7x what a Google search consumes.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — OpenAI has not published official energy data for GPT-5 Mini. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
GPT-5 Mini in Context
At global scale
With an estimated 10M+ daily users averaging 10 queries each, GPT-5 Mini consumes roughly 80 MWh of electricity per day — enough to power 2667 homes.
Your yearly GPT-5 Mini footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual GPT-5 Mini usage consumes 7.3 kWh — comparable to running a LED light bulb for a month. That produces 3.2 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
OpenAI GPT Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your GPT-5 Mini usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use GPT-5 Mini.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does GPT-5 Mini use per query?
Each GPT-5 Mini query consumes approximately 0.80 Wh of energy. This is 3x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is GPT-5 Mini's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Azure / Multi-cloud, each query produces approximately 0.35 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 450 g CO2/kWh with 25% renewable energy.
How much water does GPT-5 Mini use?
Each query consumes approximately 3 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does GPT-5 Mini compare to a Google search?
A GPT-5 Mini query uses 3x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while GPT-5 Mini uses 0.80 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Multimodal Transformer (distilled)
Context window
256,000 tokens
Release date
2025-08-07
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2025-06