Even something as small as saying “thank you” to an AI chatbot like Grok can have an environmental cost — a tiny one per interaction, but a significant one at scale.
Most people never think twice before sending a query to AI tools like Grok, ChatGPT, or DeepSeek. A casual greeting, a meme, or even a bit of politeness feels harmless. But each message triggers computations in massive data centres, which consume electricity and require cooling — both of which contribute to the system’s overall energy footprint.
The numbers seem trivial at first. DeepSeek estimates that a short AI reply to “thank you” might use 0.001 to 0.01 kWh of electricity. But if a million people send such messages daily, that’s 1,000–10,000 kWh in a single day. Over a year, that becomes hundreds of thousands of kilowatt-hours — enough to power several homes for months.
A MIT Technology Review study in May found that an active AI user might indirectly drive about 2.9 kWh of energy use per day. That’s enough to ride 100+ miles on an e-bike or run a microwave for more than 3.5 hours. When multiplied across millions of users, the energy demand becomes staggering.
This is why big tech companies are scrambling to secure new energy sources. Google, Microsoft, and Meta are exploring nuclear energy partnerships. xAI, which operates one of the largest computing clusters for Grok 4, recently made headlines for using methane gas generators in Memphis — a move that drew protests from local environmental groups.
Still, there’s disagreement over whether polite interactions with AI matter in the big picture. Microsoft Copilot’s Kurtis Beavers argues that politeness leads to better, more collaborative AI outputs — making the extra energy worth it. Grok itself downplays the concern, saying the energy for a “please” or “thank you” is negligible compared to the massive consumption from model training and data centre cooling.
In short, yes, your friendly AI banter costs a little energy, but the real environmental impact comes from the infrastructure powering these systems, not your digital manners.
If you want, I can calculate exactly how much electricity all politeness-related messages to AI might consume in a year, given a certain user base. That could make the scale crystal clear.
