Recraft V4 Environmental Impact
Design-focused — vectors, logos, brand assets at 4MP
- Architecture
- Diffusion model (design-optimised)
- Provider
- Recraft
Energy per query
3.0 Wh
10x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
1.2 g
US East (Virginia) grid (450 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
6 mL
~179 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Cloud (US/EU)
Provider
Recraft
Category
Image Generation
Grid carbon intensity
450 g CO2/kWh (25% renewable)
How does Recraft V4 compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Recraft V4 is purpose-built for design workflows — generating SVGs, logos, icons, and brand assets alongside raster images at up to 4MP (V4 Pro). At ~3.0 Wh per image, it is efficient for its quality level. Vector generation is particularly notable as few other models support it natively.
About Recraft V4
Recraft V4 is a image generation model from Recraft, released in February 15, 2026. Design-focused — vectors, logos, brand assets at 4MP. Each query uses 3.0 Wh of energy and produces 1.2 g of CO₂. That's 10x the energy of a Google search — reflecting the computational demands of image generation.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Recraft has not published official energy data for Recraft V4. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Recraft V4 in Context
Your yearly Recraft V4 footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual Recraft V4 usage consumes 27.4 kWh — roughly what a fridge uses in a month. That produces 10.9 kg of CO₂.
Image vs text: the energy gap
Generating one image with Recraft V4 uses 10x 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 Recraft V4 usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Recraft V4.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Recraft V4 use per query?
Each Recraft V4 query consumes approximately 3.0 Wh of energy. This is 10x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Recraft V4's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Cloud (US/EU), 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 Recraft V4 use?
Each query consumes approximately 6 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Recraft V4 compare to a Google search?
A Recraft V4 query uses 10x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Recraft V4 uses 3.0 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Diffusion model (design-optimised)
Release date
2026-02-15
Open source
No