o4-mini Environmental Impact
OpenAI's latest compact reasoning model with tool use
- Architecture
- Transformer with adaptive chain-of-thought and tool use
- Context
- 200,000 tokens
- Provider
- OpenAI
Energy per query
1.5 Wh
5x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.65 g
US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
6 mL
~167 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Azure US East / Sweden
Provider
OpenAI
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
450 g CO2/kWh (25% renewable)
How does o4-mini compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
o4-mini is the most efficient reasoning model from OpenAI at ~1.5 Wh per query. It supports native tool use and image input while maintaining competitive reasoning quality. Each generation of mini reasoning models has roughly halved energy consumption.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on Microsoft Azure and multi-cloud infrastructure. OpenAI expanded to AWS and Google Cloud in 2025, potentially allowing greener region placement.
Water Usage
At ~6 mL per query, o4-mini is the most water-efficient reasoning model available.
About o4-mini
o4-mini is a text and chat model from OpenAI, released in April 16, 2025. OpenAI's latest compact reasoning model with tool use. Each query uses 1.5 Wh of energy and produces 0.65 g of CO₂. That's 5x 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 o4-mini. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
o4-mini in Context
At global scale
With an estimated 10M+ daily users averaging 10 queries each, o4-mini consumes roughly 150 MWh of electricity per day — enough to power 5000 homes.
Your yearly o4-mini footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual o4-mini usage consumes 13.7 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 5.9 kg of CO₂.
What does your o4-mini usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use o4-mini.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does o4-mini use per query?
Each o4-mini query consumes approximately 1.5 Wh of energy. This is 5x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is o4-mini's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Azure US East / Sweden, each query produces approximately 0.65 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 o4-mini use?
Each query consumes approximately 6 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does o4-mini compare to a Google search?
A o4-mini query uses 5x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while o4-mini uses 1.5 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Transformer with adaptive chain-of-thought and tool use
Context window
200,000 tokens
Release date
2025-04-16
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2025-03