this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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The University of Rhode Island's AI lab estimates that GPT-5 averages just over 18 Wh per query, so putting all of ChatGPT's reported 2.5 billion requests a day through the model could see energy usage as high as 45 GWh.

A daily energy use of 45 GWh is enormous. A typical modern nuclear power plant produces between 1 and 1.6 GW of electricity per reactor per hour, so data centers running OpenAI's GPT-5 at 18 Wh per query could require the power equivalent of two to three nuclear power reactors, an amount that could be enough to power a small country.

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[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 8 points 1 day ago (18 children)

And perhaps even more importantly, the per-token cost of GPT-5's API is less than GPT-4's. That's why OpenAI was so eager to move everyone onto it, it means more profit for them.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (11 children)

I don’t believe api costs are tied all that closely to the actual cost to openAI. They seem to be selling at a loss, and they may be selling at an even greater loss to make it look like they are progressing. The second openAI seems like they have plateaued, their stock evaluation will crash and it will be game over for them.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago (10 children)

I based my argument on actual numbers that can be looked up and verified. You "believe" that they "seem" to be doing something else. Based on what?

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

To be fair, OpenAI's negative profitability has been extensively reported on.

Your point stands though; there's no evidence they're trying to decrease revenue. On the contrary, that would be a huge red flag to any vested interests.

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