Image Generation

Ideogram 2.0 Environmental Impact

Q: What is Ideogram 2.0's carbon footprint?

Based on the carbon intensity of its inference location (Cloud (US)), each Ideogram 2.0 query produces approximately 1.2g of CO2.

Q: How does Ideogram 2.0 compare to a Google search?

A Ideogram 2.0 query uses 12x more than a traditional Google search in terms of energy consumption. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Ideogram 2.0 uses 3.5 Wh per query.

Q: How much water does Ideogram 2.0 use?

Each Ideogram 2.0 query consumes approximately 6.5 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.

HeavyEstimated

Specialised in text rendering within images

Architecture: Diffusion model (proprietary)
Provider: Ideogram

3.5 Wh

Energy per query

1.2 g

CO₂ per query

7 mL

Water per query

12x more than

vs Google search

Energy per query

3.5 Wh

12x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)

CO2 per query

1.2 g

US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)

Water per query

7 mL

~154 queries to fill 1 litre

Processing location

Cloud (US)

Provider

Ideogram

How does Ideogram 2.0 compare?

Ranked #101 of 152 models by energy per query

View full comparison

Detailed Breakdown

Energy Consumption

Ideogram 2.0 is estimated at ~3.5 Wh per image. It's known for superior text rendering in images, which may involve additional model passes for text accuracy verification.

Ideogram — Official site

Power Source & Carbon

Ideogram runs on US-based cloud infrastructure. No environmental data published.

Ideogram — Official site

Water Usage

Estimated at ~6.5 mL per image based on energy and cloud WUE.

Ideogram — Official site

About Ideogram 2.0

Ideogram 2.0 is a image generation model from Ideogram, released in August 19, 2024. Specialised in text rendering within images. Each query uses 3.5 Wh of energy and produces 1.2 g of CO₂. That's 12x the energy of a Google search — reflecting the computational demands of image generation.

These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Ideogram has not published official energy data for Ideogram 2.0. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.

Ideogram 2.0 in Context

31.9 kWh

per year

Your yearly Ideogram 2.0 footprint

At 25 queries per day, your annual Ideogram 2.0 usage consumes 31.9 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 10.9 kg of CO₂.

12x

vs a text query

Image vs text: the energy gap

Generating one image with Ideogram 2.0 uses 12x more energy than a text conversation with ChatGPT. The diffusion process that creates images requires many iterative passes through the model, each refining the image from noise — far more compute per output than generating text one token at a time.

What does your Ideogram 2.0 usage cost the planet?

Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Ideogram 2.0.

Calculate My Compute

Frequently Asked Questions

How much energy does Ideogram 2.0 use per query?

Each Ideogram 2.0 query consumes approximately 3.5 Wh of energy. This is 12x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).

What is Ideogram 2.0's carbon footprint?

Based on the carbon intensity of Cloud (US), each query produces approximately 1.2 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 Ideogram 2.0 use?

Each query consumes approximately 7 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.

How does Ideogram 2.0 compare to a Google search?

A Ideogram 2.0 query uses 12x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Ideogram 2.0 uses 3.5 Wh.