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A 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that U.S. data centers consumed approximately 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters) of water directly through cooling in 2023 and projects this could double, or even quadruple, by 2028. The same report indicated indirect water use through electricity to power these facilities was around 211 billion gallons (800 billion liters) in 2023. However, these figures are based on fast-changing industry conditions.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee have analyzed public records and government documents from top data center companies, finding that many do not disclose their water usage. For instance, one data center in Iowa reportedly consumed over a billion gallons (3.8 billion liters) of water, enough to supply all residential needs for five days.
Data centers generate significant heat, requiring large amounts of water for cooling—up to 25% of local community supplies in some cases. In 2023, Google reported consuming nearly 23 billion liters of water across its data centers. Some systems, like evaporative cooling, use and release water into the atmosphere as steam. Others, such as closed-loop systems, reuse cooled water but require more energy to operate chillers.
The amount of water “consumed,” meaning it is withdrawn from local supplies and not returned, provides a key metric for evaluating data center water usage. Government data can be difficult to access due to confidentiality concerns, so researchers turned to corporate sustainability reports, which offer valuable insights into data center water use but are often inconsistent across companies.
Sustainability reports by Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Digital Realty, and Equinix reveal significant variability in reported water usage. While some like Meta provide breakdowns of their total operations, others do not break down data center-specific figures.
In 2023, Meta consumed approximately 813 million gallons (3.1 billion liters) globally, with 95% used by its data centers. Google’s operations worldwide consumed about 6.4 billion gallons (24.2 billion liters), 95% of which was for data center cooling. The Google data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa, consumed the most water at over a billion gallons (3.8 billion liters) in 2024.
Given society’s growing interest in AI and the rapid expansion of the data center industry, consistent and transparent tracking of water consumption is crucial for informed decision-making about locations, regulations, and sustainability by public officials and the community.
