US data centres used 17 billion gallons of water on site in 2023, golf courses 30× more
The real problem is local: many new data centres are being built in places short of water. Nationally, golf courses use about 30× more.
US water use in context
Billion US gallons per year. Log scale: each gridline is 10× the previous. Blue = data centres (all workloads, not just AI).
What this measures: How much water US data centres use in a year, next to other big water users.
Annual values derived from published daily or litre figures. Years and metrics differ (consumption vs water applied vs withdrawal; USGS 2015 is the latest national compilation in this form). National totals hide local water stress, which is where data-centre water use matters most.
Show data table and sources
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| US data centres, on-site (2023) | 17.4 bn gal | consumption |
| US data centres, via power plants (2023) | 211 bn gal | indirect consumption |
| US golf courses (2024) | 531 bn gal | irrigation applied |
| US livestock (2015) | 730 bn gal | withdrawal |
| US thermoelectric power plants (2015) | 1,573 bn gal | consumption |
| US irrigation (2015) | 26,718 bn gal | consumption |
- 2024 United States Data Center Energy Usage Report (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)
- Golf courses reduce water usage by 31 percent, according to national survey (GCSAA)
- Estimated use of water in the United States in 2015 (Circular 1441) (USGS)
Across the US, data centres use little water next to golf courses or farm irrigation. The pressure shows up in particular places.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) estimates that all US data centres consumed 66 billion litres (about 17.4 billion gallons) of water on site in 2023, up from 21 billion litres in 2014. A further ~800 billion litres (~211 billion gallons) were consumed indirectly, at the power plants supplying their electricity.
For scale: US golf facilities applied about 1.63 million acre-feet of water in 2024, roughly 531 billion gallons. That is about 30× data centres’ on-site use and over twice on-site plus power-plant use combined. In the latest national USGS compilation (2015), irrigation consumed 73 billion gallons per day.
The criticism that holds up is local. A 2025 Bloomberg analysis found more than two-thirds of US data centres built or planned since 2022 are in water-stressed areas. Single sites can matter to their communities: Memphis’s utility says xAI’s Colossus facility uses up to 1 million gallons a day.
What it means
Nationally, data-centre water use is small next to golf or farm irrigation, so claims that AI is draining America’s water overstate it. But one large site can strain a town’s supply, especially in dry regions where many are being built. For any new data centre, the useful question is where its water comes from.
Caveats
- Metrics differ: LBNL reports consumption, golf figures are water applied, and USGS figures are labelled as withdrawal or consumption.
- Years differ (2015, 2023, 2024); no newer national USGS compilation exists in the same form.
- LBNL doesn’t separate AI from other data-centre work, and hyperscale use is projected to grow to 60–124 billion litres by 2028.