Veo 2 Environmental Impact
Google's video generation model
- Architecture
- Diffusion Transformer (video)
- Provider
Energy per query
350.0 Wh
1167x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
46.0 g
Google Global Network grid (300 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
380 mL
~3 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
Google global network (64% renewable)
Provider
Category
Video Generation
Grid carbon intensity
300 g CO2/kWh (64% renewable)
How does Veo 2 compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Veo 2 consumes approximately 350 Wh per ~8-second video clip. While comparable in scale to OpenAI's Sora, Veo 2 benefits from Google's TPU infrastructure which is generally more power-efficient than GPU-based inference. Video generation remains one of the most energy-intensive AI tasks.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on Google's global TPU infrastructure with 100% renewable energy matching and a PUE of 1.10. Google's lower carbon intensity (130 g CO2/kWh market-based) significantly reduces the per-query emissions compared to Sora on Azure.
Water Usage
At approximately 380 mL per video clip, Veo 2's water consumption is substantial but significantly lower than Sora's estimate, partly due to Google's more efficient cooling infrastructure.
About Veo 2
Veo 2 sits at the high end of AI energy consumption at 350.0 Wh per generating one short video clip — over 1167x what a Google search uses. Google's video generation model, released in December 16, 2024, google's video generation model. The extreme energy cost reflects the computational complexity of video generation: generating coherent frames across both space and time.
Veo 2 benefits from running in Google Global Network, one of the cleaner grid regions in our dataset at 300 gCO₂/kWh with 64% renewable energy. The same model running in a coal-heavy region would produce significantly more carbon per query.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — Google has not published official energy data for Veo 2. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Veo 2 in Context
The video generation premium
One Veo 2 generation uses 350.0 Wh — the equivalent of 29 full smartphone charges. Video generation requires running a diffusion model across both spatial and temporal dimensions, making it fundamentally more compute-intensive than text or image tasks. This is not an efficiency problem to be solved; it is an inherent characteristic of the task.
Google Veo Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Veo 2 usage cost the planet?
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Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Veo 2 use per query?
Each Veo 2 query consumes approximately 350.0 Wh of energy. This is 1167x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Veo 2's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Google global network (64% renewable), each query produces approximately 46.0 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 300 g CO2/kWh with 64% renewable energy.
How much water does Veo 2 use?
Each query consumes approximately 380 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Veo 2 compare to a Google search?
A Veo 2 query uses 1167x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Veo 2 uses 350.0 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Diffusion Transformer (video)
Release date
2024-12-16
Open source
No