LLaMA 4 Maverick Environmental Impact
Open-source MoE — 128 experts, frontier capability
- Architecture
- Multimodal Transformer (MoE, 128 experts, iRoPE)
- Parameters
- 400B
- Context
- 1,000,000 tokens
- Provider
- Meta
Energy per query
1.8 Wh
6x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.72 g
Global Average grid (475 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
3 mL
~294 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Self-hosted (varies)
Provider
Meta
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
475 g CO2/kWh (27% renewable)
How does LLaMA 4 Maverick compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
LLaMA 4 Maverick activates 17B of its 400B total parameters per token, routing across 128 experts. Despite the same 17B active parameter count as Scout, Maverick requires an 8×H100 node (with FP8 quantisation) because all 400B parameters must be loaded in memory. This larger memory footprint and more complex routing increase energy per query to approximately 1.8 Wh.
Power Source & Carbon
As an open-source model, Maverick is deployed on diverse infrastructure. It requires a multi-GPU setup (8×H100), limiting it to cloud or enterprise hardware. Meta's own data centres run about 60% on renewable energy.
Water Usage
At approximately 3.4 mL per query when run in a data centre. The multi-GPU requirement means more cooling is needed than for single-GPU models like Scout.
About LLaMA 4 Maverick
LLaMA 4 Maverick is an open-source text and chat model from Meta, released in April 5, 2025, that runs below the category average for energy consumption at 1.8 Wh per query. Because its weights are publicly available, it can be self-hosted on any infrastructure — meaning its carbon footprint depends entirely on where and how you choose to run it. At 400B parameters, it open-source moe — 128 experts, frontier capability.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Meta has not published official energy data for LLaMA 4 Maverick. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
LLaMA 4 Maverick in Context
Your yearly LLaMA 4 Maverick footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual LLaMA 4 Maverick usage consumes 16.4 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 6.6 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
Meta LLaMA Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your LLaMA 4 Maverick usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use LLaMA 4 Maverick.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does LLaMA 4 Maverick use per query?
Each LLaMA 4 Maverick query consumes approximately 1.8 Wh of energy. This is 6x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is LLaMA 4 Maverick's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Self-hosted (varies), each query produces approximately 0.72 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 LLaMA 4 Maverick use?
Each query consumes approximately 3 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does LLaMA 4 Maverick compare to a Google search?
A LLaMA 4 Maverick query uses 6x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while LLaMA 4 Maverick uses 1.8 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Multimodal Transformer (MoE, 128 experts, iRoPE)
Parameters
400B
Context window
1,000,000 tokens
Release date
2025-04-05
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2025-02