GoKawiilGoogle reported that its annual electricity consumption rose by 37 percent in 2025—the largest increase in the company’s history as Silicon Valley’s AI data center buildout continues. But the tech giant says it kept operational carbon emissions down by continuing to purchase massive amounts of clean energy.
The company’s latest sustainability report acknowledges that Google’s total electricity usage has increased by more than 250 percent since 2019, which the company attributed to ongoing growth in Google Cloud, YouTube video streaming, and data center construction and operations supporting various AI products and services. The unprecedented 37 percent annual increase is part of an ongoing trend, given how Google’s total electricity consumption also grew by 27 percent in 2024.
“While the path to achieving our climate ambitions will not be linear—given our AI infrastructure buildout is currently accelerating faster than the grid is decarbonizing—we remain focused on scaling abundant and affordable clean power globally and progressing technological innovations that drive down emissions across our operations and the broader industry,” according to the Google sustainability report.
As the bulk of electricity usage, Google’s data centers consumed more than 42 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2025 compared to 30.6 million megawatt-hours of electricity in 2024. That means Google’s data center energy usage rivals the electricity consumption of entire countries such as New Zealand, Denmark, and Nigeria. More self-reported details from Google are available in the full sustainability report, including water consumption numbers for various data center campuses.
Despite the steep rise in electricity consumption, Google reported actually reducing operational emissions by 2 percent over the same year period. Such apparent “decoupling of electricity-related emissions” from growth in electricity usage is potentially promising, but Google said it would need to boost “clean energy investments and closer partnerships with local stakeholders in the years ahead.”