GAI Tools Leave Large Carbon Footprints

Growing demand for generative AI tools continues to raise serious concerns about the technology’s environmental impact.

OpenAI's ChatGPT tool produces the most Co2 overall, according to findings of a study, as a result of its popularity -- with an estimated more than 200 million weekly active users.

When the company had about 64 million visitors each month, the site is estimated to have had a monthly CO2 output of more than 260,000 kg, about equal to 260 New York to London flights. 

Large language models such as ChatGPT are some of the most energy-guzzling technologies, but research reveals that despite the monthly carbon output, its CO2 emissions per page view are significantly lower than the top worst tools.

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It produces around 1.6g of CO2 per page view, according to KnownHost, a web reseller of domain names. The company released research results from a study it conducted showing how generative AI tools leave behind some of the largest carbon footprints.

For this study, KnownHost used a seed list of 50 Generative AI Tools and their URLs. It tested the tools and web pages through an online calculator that rates websites on a scale from A+ to F. These URLs were then crawled by Screaming Frog SEO Spider to determine the amount of carbon produced per page view, which was then multiplied by estimated site traffic, per Ahrefs, to establish how much CO2 is produced.

Some GAI models like ChatGPT that base its products on GAI emit much less per page views, despite using massive amounts of water and electricity. MusicGen, which emits the least CO2 per page view out of the 50 tools studied, produces just 0.07g of CO2 per page, with an estimated monthly CO2 emissions of 335g.

With a rating of A+, only 4% of web pages are greener than MusicGen.

Grok comes in second with a carbon rating of A -- producing only 0.17g of CO2 per page view -- is followed by Fliki with a website carbon rating of C and CO2 output of 0.19g per page view.Artbreeder produces 0.23g of CO2 per page view while Appy Pie Design round up the bottom five with 0.26g of CO2 produced per page view.

Bloomberg Intelligence in 2023 estimated generative AI to become a $1.3 trillion market by the end of 2032, but these tools -- and the need for more computing power and carbon emissions -- have raised concerns about the technology’s environmental impact.

Shedding light on the concerns, KnownHost also released a list of some of the biggest offenders, GAI tools leave behind some of the largest carbon footprints.

The research calls out Rytr, an AI-powered writing tool that helps users create content for a variety of purposes like marketing, has the worst carbon footprint with 10.1g of CO2 produced per page view.

Each visit to Rytr’s website produces 13 times more CO2 than the global average (carbon calculator) of 0.8g. The analysis found that on a scale of A+ to F, the AI tool has a carbon rating of D, and 52% of websites are greener than Rytr.

Rytr's tool, which specializes in content writing, has an estimated monthly CO2 output of 1057.39kg carbon. This is equivalent to just under nine flights from New York to Boston entering the atmosphere each month.

Spellbook, per the data, estimates this AI tool has the second-worst carbon footprint is with 6.5g of CO2 produced per page view. The tool specializes in contract drafting and reviewing and is aimed at corporate and commercial lawyers in law firms and companies.

With an additional $20 million in funding raised in 2024, Spellbook, a startup, aims to take the lead in the evolving legal AI market, but the tool produces an estimated 20.2kg of CO2 each month. The website currently has a carbon rating of F, with a shocking 97% of websites proving greener than Spellbook.

Wordtune, the third tool with the worst carbon output, with 4.4g of CO2 produced per page view.  The website is rated F and produces an estimated 1204.38kg of Co2 per month. 

Synthesia ranks fourth with 3.3g of CO2 produced per page view. Overall, the website produces an estimated 1530.74 kg of CO2 per month.

Deep Dream Generator ranked fifth with 2.7g of CO2 produced per page view, which amounts to around 750kg per month.


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