How Much Water Does a Data Center Use? Calculator and Facility Data
A data center's on-site water use runs from close to nothing for air-cooled designs to roughly 9,000 to 11,000 gallons a day for each megawatt of IT load for evaporative cooling, using the efficiency figures operators publish. Where a site falls in that range depends on its cooling system, climate and load, so enter yours below and compare it with the 94 sites and aggregates that 5 operators report. The largest U.S. figure is Google's Council Bluffs, IA campus, which consumed 1346.0 million gallons in 2025.
Water use reported by facility
Operator-reported figures in millions of U.S. gallons, with the year and the report page. A blank cell means the operator does not publish that measure. Nothing here is estimated.
Showing 94 of 94
| Council Bluffs, IA | 1,746.4 | 1,346.0 | |
| Mayes County, OK | 1,396.7 | 1,081.4 | |
| New Albany, OH | 1,008.1 | 835.7 | |
| Berkeley County, SC | 988.5 | 901.7 | |
| St. Ghislain, Belgium (BE) | 714.4 | 450.8 | |
| Papillion, NE | 677.8 | 548.2 | |
| The Dalles, OR | 654.3 | 469.0 | |
| Eemshaven, Netherlands (NL) | 532.2 | 405.7 | |
| Montgomery County, TN | 499.5 | 424.7 | |
| Lockbourne, OH | 460.8 | 359.5 | |
| Douglas County, GA | 440.6 | 367.1 | |
| Henderson, NV | 401.7 | 239.4 | |
| Lenoir, NC | 378.3 | 344.3 | |
| Bristow, VA | 359.6 | 267.6 | |
| Microsoft | Quincy (WA) | 341.3 | |
| Lancaster, OH | 307.1 | 135.8 | |
| Quilicura, Chile (CL) | 278.2 | 143.0 | |
| Midlothian, TX | 263.6 | 220.2 | |
| Amazon Web Services | All AWS-operated data centers in Virginia (state total), VA (aggregate) | 263.2 | |
| Microsoft | Phoenix (AZ) | 259.2 | |
| Sterling, VA | 258.4 | 199.8 | |
| Omaha, NE | 241.8 | 183.9 | |
| Amazon Web Services | All AWS-operated data centers in Oregon (state total), OR (aggregate) | 241.5 | |
| Leesburg, VA | 238.1 | 190.7 | |
| Jackson County, AL | 191.0 | 173.6 | |
| Meta | Clonee (Ireland) (IE) | 150.8 | |
| Microsoft | Singapore (SG) | 111.7 | |
| Microsoft | San Antonio (TX) | 111.0 | |
| Microsoft | Boydton (VA) | 95.6 | |
| Inzai, Japan (JP) | 94.6 | 73.2 | |
| Amazon Web Services | All AWS-operated data centers in Ohio (state total), OH (aggregate) | 93.6 | |
| Fredericia, Denmark (DK) | 88.8 | 71.8 | |
| Meta | Prineville (OR) | 86.6 | |
| Meta | Fort Worth (TX) | 82.2 | |
| Meta | Odense (Denmark) (DK) | 77.1 | |
| Ashburn, VA | 76.5 | 53.2 | |
| Microsoft | Des Moines (IA) | 69.7 | |
| Red Oak, TX | 67.0 | 50.4 | |
| Storey County, NV | 66.7 | 6.7 | |
| Meta | Los Lunas (NM) | 66.6 | |
| Meta | Altoona (IA) | 63.9 | |
| Microsoft | Ashburn (VA) | 63.1 | |
| New Haven, IN | 62.2 | 37.8 | |
| Meta | Huntsville (AL) | 55.2 | |
| Meta | Gallatin (TN) | 54.2 | |
| Microsoft | Chicago (IL) | 53.9 | |
| Microsoft | Cheyenne (WY) | 49.7 | |
| Amazon Web Services | All AWS-operated data centers in California (state total), CA (aggregate) | 40.7 | |
| Meta | Stanton Springs (GA) | 38.6 | |
| Meta | Sarpy (NE) | 37.5 | |
| Meta | Eagle Mountain (UT) | 35.1 | |
| Meta | DeKalb (IL) | 27.7 | |
| Meta | Henrico (VA) | 24.3 | |
| Amazon Web Services | All AWS-operated data centers in Indiana (state total), IN (aggregate) | 24.2 | |
| Meta | New Albany (OH) | 22.7 | |
| Microsoft | Jakarta (ID) | 22.2 | |
| Mesa, AZ | 19.4 | 9.7 | |
| Meta | Mesa (AZ) | 15.1 | |
| Middenmeer, Netherlands (NL) | 13.6 | 9.3 | |
| Microsoft | East Wenatchee (WA) | 13.5 | |
| Microsoft | Hollands Kroon (NL) | 12.2 | |
| Meta | Kansas City (MO) | 10.8 | |
| Meta | Luleå (Sweden) (SE) | 7.7 | |
| Microsoft | Kuala Lumpur (MY) | 6.1 | |
| Microsoft | Atlanta (GA) | 5.0 | |
| Microsoft | Queretaro (MX) | 5.0 | |
| Microsoft | Dublin (IE) | 4.8 | |
| Hamina, Finland (FI) | 4.3 | 0.4 | |
| Meta | Forest City (NC) | 4.2 | |
| Microsoft | Madrid (ES) | 4.0 | |
| Microsoft | Gävle-Sandviken (published as 'Gävle - Sandviken') (SE) | 3.7 | |
| Hanau, Germany (DE) | 3.4 | 1.9 | |
| Microsoft | Manassas (VA) | 2.9 | |
| Wilmer, TX | 2.6 | 0.3 | |
| Microsoft | Melbourne (AU) | 2.4 | |
| Microsoft | Sydney (AU) | 2.1 | |
| Microsoft | Busan (KR) | 1.8 | |
| Microsoft | Milan (IT) | 1.6 | |
| Sydney, Australia (AU) | 1.4 | 0.2 | |
| Frankfurt, Germany (DE) | 1.2 | 0.2 | |
| Microsoft | Taipei (TW) | 1.1 | |
| Microsoft | Vienna (AT) | 1.1 | |
| CyrusOne | PHX6 (Phoenix campus), AZ | 1.1 | |
| San Bernardo, Chile (CL) | 0.9 | 0.1 | |
| Microsoft | Copenhagen (DK) | 0.8 | |
| Dublin, Ireland (IE) | 0.5 | 0.1 | |
| Phoenix, AZ | 0.5 | 0.1 | |
| Microsoft | Warsaw (PL) | 0.5 | |
| Pflugerville, TX | 0.4 | 0.1 | |
| Montreal, Canada (CA) | 0.3 | 0.1 | |
| Microsoft | Malmo (SE) | 0.3 | |
| Winschoten, Netherlands (NL) | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| Amazon Web Services | AWS data centers in Atlanta (as published in the Georgia fact sheet), GA (aggregate) | 0.0 | |
| Microsoft | Auckland (NZ) |
- Reported water figures from Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon Web Services, CyrusOne, and on-site water use effectiveness ranges for evaporative, adiabatic and air-cooled systems from LBNL and operator reports. Free to view; please credit Megawatt Index and link to this page.
- Google 2026 Environmental Report (covers calendar year 2025), Microsoft 2026 Environmental Data Fact Sheet (FY25), Table 15, LBNL 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report
- , 174 published figures
Method, and where the sources disagree
On-site water = IT load in kW × utilization × 24 hours × WUE (liters per kWh of IT energy), divided by 3.785 to get U.S. gallons. WUE, as The Green Grid defines it, is a site's yearly water use divided by its IT energy. The calculator runs it three times with the low, middle and high WUE published for the cooling type you pick, so the answer is a range and never a single number. The people figure divides the middle daily estimate by 82 gallons, what EPA WaterSense reports each American uses at home in a day (USGS, 2015).
“Closest reported site” compares your middle yearly estimate with each reported site's yearly figure and picks the nearest one. It uses consumption where the operator publishes it (Google) and withdrawal where it does not (Microsoft, Meta), and says which. The facility figures are copied as published, never estimated.
Where sources disagree
Published WUE differs a lot, and the calculator keeps that spread instead of averaging it away. All values are liters per kWh of IT energy unless the source leaves the unit unstated.
| Figure | L/kWh | Source and page |
|---|---|---|
| LBNL modeled annual average site WUE across all US data centers through 2023 (published as 'just over 0.36') | 0.36 | 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, p. 48 (PDF p. 49), Figure 4.7 text |
| LBNL modeled aggregate median site WUE for the hyperscale category (2023 cooling mix); LBNL notes it would be 0.40 if adiabatic systems ran at a 0.2 L/kWh median | 0.32 | 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report, p. 47 (PDF p. 48) |
| CyrusOne 2025 operating WUE Site, nonstandard wet (water-cooled) facilities | 1.35 | CyrusOne 2026 Sustainability Report, p. 36, 'Average Operating WUE Site (ISO WUE1) (L/kWh)' table (2018, 2024, 2025) |
| Equinix 2025 WUE at sites using evaporative cooling | 1.41 | Equinix 2025 Sustainability Report, p. 26 |
| NTT DATA FY2024 WUE, evaporative sites only | 1.42 | NTT DATA Group ESG Data: Environment Data, 'Data Center WUE' table (FY2022, FY2023, FY2024) |
| Digital Realty 2025 weighted average WUE, sites with evaporative cooling | 1.73 | Digital Realty 2025 Impact Report, p. 15, WUE table (2025, 2024, change, non-potable share) |
| CyrusOne 2025 operating WUE Site, standard dry (air-cooled) facilities | 0 | CyrusOne 2026 Sustainability Report, p. 36, 'Average Operating WUE Site (ISO WUE1) (L/kWh)' table (2018, 2024, 2025) |
| Digital Realty 2025 weighted average WUE, sites with non-evaporative cooling | 0.07 | Digital Realty 2025 Impact Report, p. 15, WUE table (2025, 2024, change, non-potable share) |
Mytton (2021), citing the Uptime Institute, puts a small 1 MW data center with evaporative cooling at about 25.5 million liters a year, or 18,500 gallons a day, higher than the operator range above. Water used to generate the electricity is a separate figure: LBNL estimates 4.52 L/kWh of facility electricity for U.S. data centers in 2023, and the U.S. average PUE was 1.4. WUE counts on-site water only. See the cooling types and water page for every parameter, and the PUE benchmarks for operators' fleet PUE and WUE.
Limits of this data
- The calculator is an estimate for a hypothetical site, shown as a range because published WUE varies widely within each cooling type. It is never a figure for a real facility.
- No published source gives a numeric adjustment for climate. LBNL describes its low values as best practice in favorable climates and its high values as poor efficiency in hot, humid ones, so read the low end for cool, dry places and the high end for hot, humid ones.
- Only a few operators publish site-level water. Google publishes withdrawal, consumption and discharge by site; Microsoft and Meta publish withdrawal only; AWS publishes state or metro totals, marked as aggregates. Most colocation companies publish company-wide totals only.
- Site names and boundaries are the operator's. A “campus” can include several buildings and phases, and operators differ on whether they report withdrawal or consumption.
- Closed-loop liquid cooling at the chip still rejects heat through one of the systems above; no source publishes a separate WUE for it.
- Water used to generate the electricity a site consumes is not in the on-site figures.
- Two of the evaporative WUE figures (Equinix and Digital Realty) do not state their unit in the source table; their reports describe WUE in liters per kWh of IT energy.
Sources
- 1.Google 2026 Environmental Report (covers calendar year 2025)
- 2.Microsoft 2026 Environmental Data Fact Sheet (FY25), Table 15
- 3.Meta Platforms: Meta 2025 Environmental Data Index (covers 2024)
- 4.Amazon Web Services: AWS Sustainability Fact Sheets (California, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia)
- 5.CyrusOne 2026 Sustainability Report (covers 2025)
- 6.CyrusOne 2026 Sustainability Report (covers 2025): p. 36, 'Average Operating WUE Site (ISO WUE1) (L/kWh)' table (2018, 2024, 2025)
- 7.Digital Realty 2025 Impact Report: p. 15, WUE table (2025, 2024, change, non-potable share)
- 8.2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (Shehabi et al., LBNL-2001637, December 2024): p. 47 (PDF p. 48)
- 9.Mytton, D. (2021) Data centre water consumption. npj Clean Water 4, 11: section 'Water use in data centre cooling'
- 10.Equinix 2025 Sustainability Report: p. 26
- 11.NTT DATA Group ESG Data: Environment Data: 'Data Center WUE' table (FY2022, FY2023, FY2024)
- 12.EPA WaterSense, Statistics and Facts (each American uses an average of 82 gallons a day at home, from USGS 2015 estimates)
Frequently asked questions
How much water does a data center use?
It depends on size and cooling. Using published efficiency figures, each megawatt of IT load running all day uses roughly 0 gallons a day on site with air-cooled systems and 9,000 to 11,000 gallons with evaporative cooling, before counting the water used to generate its electricity.
How much water does an AI data center use?
The same arithmetic applies: IT load times hours times WUE. AI sites draw more megawatts, so the totals are larger, but operators do not publish a separate figure for AI facilities. The reported sites in the table are the operators' own numbers for their data centers.
Why do some data centers use so little water?
Sites that reject heat with air-cooled chillers or dry coolers use little or no water on site, but those systems use more electricity, which can raise the water used at power plants. Evaporative cooling towers use more water and less electricity.
Is water withdrawn the same as water consumed?
No. Withdrawal is water taken from a utility or a well. Consumption is the part that is not returned, mostly evaporated in cooling. Discharge is water returned to a sewer or treatment system. Operators publish different measures, so the table keeps them in separate columns.
Can I download the data?
Yes. The CSV keeps each value and unit as the operator published it, with the report and page. It is free to view; please credit Megawatt Index and link to this page.
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