The carbon footprint of ChatGPT Plus
OpenAI publishes some per-prompt figures: a single figure in a blog post by its CEO, with no methodology, model or prompt length. Below is what a ChatGPT Plus subscription plausibly emits in a month, with every assumption shown, and a pass that funds well beyond it.
Disclosed by the maker
ChatGPT Plus$20/mo plan · Standard paid ChatGPT usage
Estimated emissions a month
9.7 g – 1.4 kg CO₂e
At the high end, about 0.15 quarter-pound beef burgers a month.
Everyday pass · $3 a month
Funds about 110 kg of verified carbon credits a month — roughly 80× the high end of this estimate.
The assumptions
- Plus
- 10 to 100 queries a day, with up to 25% long reasoning answers at the high end.
- Per query
- An average ChatGPT query, as stated by OpenAI's CEO. OpenAI has published no methodology, model or prompt length behind it, and no emissions figure — the CO₂e range is our calculation from the energy figure.
- Left out
- Image and video generation, and the large contexts coding agents read on every step — no published study measures those yet.
Plan details from OpenAI — ChatGPT pricing, checked 2026-09-15. Carbon Shredder is not affiliated with OpenAI. How we estimate every plan.
Common questions
- How much CO₂ does ChatGPT Plus produce?
- By our estimate, 9.7 g – 1.4 kg CO₂e a month — from light use to hard daily use with long reasoning answers. Nobody outside OpenAI knows actual usage, so this is a range, not a measurement.
- Does OpenAI publish the environmental impact of ChatGPT Plus?
- OpenAI publishes some per-prompt figures: a single figure in a blog post by its CEO, with no methodology, model or prompt length.
- What does the climate pass for ChatGPT Plus fund?
- The Everyday pass costs $3 a month and funds about 110 kg of verified carbon credits at today's price — roughly 80× the high end of our estimate. The credits are retired in your name with registry serial numbers.
- Does the pass make ChatGPT Plus carbon neutral?
- No. It funds verified carbon credits, which you can check on a public registry. The emissions from your AI use still happened — the honest claim is how many kilograms of credits you funded.