o3-pro Environmental Impact
Extended reasoning version of o3 for complex problems
Energy per query
35.0 Wh
117x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
15.3 g
US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
126 mL
~8 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 o3-pro compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
o3-pro uses significantly extended chain-of-thought reasoning — potentially running for minutes on a single query. At ~35 Wh per complex query, it is one of the most energy-intensive models per-query. It achieves the highest scores on mathematical and scientific reasoning benchmarks but at enormous computational cost.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on dedicated high-compute GPU clusters. The extended thinking time means sustained GPU utilisation far beyond typical query patterns.
Water Usage
At ~126 mL per query, o3-pro consumes roughly a small glass of water per complex reasoning task.
About o3-pro
o3-pro is a text and chat model from OpenAI, released in June 10, 2025. Extended reasoning version of o3 for complex problems. Each query uses 35.0 Wh of energy and produces 15.3 g of CO₂. That's 117x the energy of a Google search — reflecting the computational demands of text and chat.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — OpenAI has not published official energy data for o3-pro. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
o3-pro in Context
The efficiency alternative
Gemini Nano performs the same type of task using just 0.01 Wh per query — 100% less energy than o3-pro. For a user sending 25 queries per day, switching would save 319.2 kWh per year.
At global scale
With an estimated 10M+ daily users averaging 10 queries each, o3-pro consumes roughly 3500 MWh of electricity per day — enough to power 116667 homes.
Your yearly o3-pro footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual o3-pro usage consumes 319.4 kWh — a meaningful fraction of household electricity. That produces 139.6 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
OpenAI o3 Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your o3-pro usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use o3-pro.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does o3-pro use per query?
Each o3-pro query consumes approximately 35.0 Wh of energy. This is 117x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is o3-pro's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Azure / Multi-cloud, each query produces approximately 15.3 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 o3-pro use?
Each query consumes approximately 126 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does o3-pro compare to a Google search?
A o3-pro query uses 117x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while o3-pro uses 35.0 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Transformer with extended chain-of-thought reasoning
Context window
200,000 tokens
Release date
2025-06-10
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2025-05