For a short text query, the order of magnitude is about 0.3 Wh: Google measured a median query to its Gemini assistant at around 0.24 Wh, Sam Altman cited 0.34 Wh for ChatGPT, and an independent benchmark put GPT-4o, withdrawn from ChatGPT in February 2026, at around 0.43 Wh. That is about the same as a Google search. On a reasoning model or with a long prompt, consumption can climb to 15-40 Wh.
Read the source article: How much energy does a ChatGPT query use? About 0.3 Wh in 2026