AI data center water use is hard to compare because figures may count water consumed onsite, water used to generate electricity, companywide totals, or an allocation for a facility. During the week before November 5, 2026, voters passed 40 of 41 proposed local measures restricting data centers in the United States.
Those numbers answer different questions. A company total cannot tell a community what one site uses, and an allocation is not a daily consumption measurement.
What a water-use figure actually counts
Onsite water covers a facility’s own operations, including cooling. Indirect water is associated with generating the electricity the facility uses. A figure may also describe a whole company’s operations or an amount allocated to one site, rather than water measured at that site.
For example, Equinix’s operations consumed 1.2 billion gallons of water in 2025, 10% more than in 2024. That is a companywide total, not a reading for the company’s San Jose facility.
Meta’s planned data center in Lebanon, Indiana, could receive an allocation of up to 8 million gallons per day by 2031. Meta describes that as peak use on the hottest days and says it expects to reach the maximum only a few days each year. The company also says the planned facility will use closed-loop liquid cooling and no water for most of the year. These are projections and company statements, not a measured daily total.
SpaceX’s Colossus 1 outside Memphis has a reported utility allocation of up to 1.28 million gallons per day. That figure describes an allocation, not the facility’s measured consumption. A separate estimate attributed to researcher Shaolei Ren puts possible use at up to 10 million gallons per day for a 1-gigawatt AI data center. It is an upper estimate, not a typical rate for every facility.
To make sense of a water figure, match its boundary, location and period, then check whether it reports measured use, a company total or an allocation.
Why cooling shifts water and electricity demand
Liquid cooling can circulate coolant inside a closed loop, carrying heat away from servers. But the heat still has to leave the building. The external system that releases it to the surroundings is where water and electricity demands can trade off.
| External cooling method | Water implication | Electricity implication |
| Dry cooling | Uses less water than evaporative cooling. | Can require more electricity, especially in hot weather. |
| Evaporative cooling | Loses water through evaporation. | Uses less electricity than dry cooling. |
| Hybrid cooling | Combines cooling approaches. | The balance depends on the approaches used. |
An English-language video shows server racks and liquid-cooling equipment at an Equinix data center in San Jose, then explains the difference between internal circulation and external heat rejection.
Why electricity changes the water footprint
A site’s cooling total leaves out water consumed to generate its electricity. That indirect share can be substantial: Meta’s reported companywide water consumption was 21 billion gallons in 2024, about 96% of it indirect. The figure covers Meta as a whole, not its AI operations or one facility.
For U.S. data centers, estimates of annual indirect water use vary widely. A 2024 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study estimated 211 billion gallons; a Ceres analysis estimated as much as 4 trillion gallons. The estimates use different methods, and there is no shared standard protocol for calculating indirect use. They should not be read as two measurements made on the same basis.
An English-language animated explainer traces cooling, evaporation and the distinction between water used at a data center and water associated with electricity generation.
The electricity boundary can also change how cooling systems compare. A 2025 Phoenix-area study co-authored by University of Arizona associate professor Kerri Hickenbottom found that air-cooled chillers could have more than 2.5 times the indirect water consumption of water-cooled chillers in that region. Phoenix Water Services’ review of large data-center proposals considers estimated onsite water use, but not indirect water from electricity generation.
