STRAIGHT ANSWER
How much water do U.S. data centers use?
Berkeley Lab modeled about 66 billion liters of direct on-site water consumption by all U.S. data centers in 2023, plus nearly 800 billion liters consumed indirectly through electricity generation. Both figures cover every data center, not AI alone.
The context
The 2024 LBNL report estimates hyperscale and colocation facilities account for 84 percent of the direct total. Indirect water uses a national average of 4.52 liters per kWh across 176 TWh of 2023 data center electricity. For scale, U.S. data centers used about 4.4 percent of national electricity in 2023.
What this answer does not say
- That AI alone consumed 66 billion liters.
- That the two figures should be added without noting they are different boundaries.
- That any single site or state matches the national average.