# U.S. Data Centers Used 66 Billion Liters of Water in 2023

By Simon Yoon

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/technology/30279
Published: 2026-10-12T12:16:27.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-12T12:16:27.000Z
Section: Technology

> Electricity consumed by those facilities was linked to nearly 800 billion liters of water use at power-generation facilities, highlighting a separate indirect footprint.

U.S. data centers consumed about 66 billion liters, or 17.4 billion gallons, of water directly in 2023, while the electricity used by those facilities was linked to nearly 800 billion liters of water consumption at power-generation facilities.

The facilities consumed about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity, representing 4.4% of U.S. electricity use. The average indirect water-consumption intensity was 4.52 liters per kilowatt-hour.

Those figures measure two different parts of the data-center footprint. Site water-use effectiveness, or WUE, measures water consumed at a facility for each kilowatt-hour of information-technology load. It does not automatically include water used to generate the electricity powering the facility.

Cooling technology affects the direct measure. The analysis modeled nine cooling-system types, including air-cooled chillers, water-cooled chillers, economizers, dry cooling and liquid-cooling systems. Air-cooled chillers are preferred when minimizing on-site water use is important, while water-cooled chillers use cooling towers that evaporate water.

Company disclosures provide operational WUE metrics, while the national figures are modeled estimates and should not be treated as directly comparable measurements. Amazon Web Services lists global WUE of 0.12 liters of water withdrawn per kilowatt-hour of IT load in 2025 and North American WUE of 0.08 liters.

Microsoft lists average WUE of 0.27 liters per kilowatt-hour in 2025, down from 2.3 liters per kilowatt-hour at its first-generation facilities. The figures show a reduction in Microsoft’s reported operational metric, while the AWS figures provide current global and regional measurements.

The broader water impact varies with the electricity mix, generation technology and location. The modeled estimate uses regional grid and power-generation data but does not include individual power-purchase agreements or behind-the-meter generation, which can affect the result.

U.S. data-center electricity consumption is projected to reach 325 to 580 terawatt-hours in 2028, equal to 6.7% to 12% of national electricity use. The report treats cooling-related water use and electricity-related water use as separate components of the sector’s footprint.