DeepSeek-R1-0528 Environmental Impact
Major upgrade to R1 reasoning — significantly improved capabilities
Energy per query
32.0 Wh
107x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
16.8 g
China grid (525 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
118 mL
~8 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
DeepSeek Cloud (China)
Provider
DeepSeek
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
525 g CO2/kWh (33% renewable)
How does DeepSeek-R1-0528 compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
DeepSeek-R1-0528 is a significant upgrade to the original R1, with improved reasoning quality and reduced refusal rates. At ~32 Wh per reasoning query, it remains one of the most energy-intensive models per-query due to extended chain-of-thought generation. As an open-source model, it's widely self-hosted on cheaper infrastructure.
Power Source & Carbon
DeepSeek's hosted API runs on Chinese infrastructure, which we model at ~525 g CO2/kWh (Ember Global Electricity Review 2026, down from ~550). Self-hosted deployments can use any hardware, and the model's open-source nature (MIT licence) enables deployment on cleaner grids.
Water Usage
At ~118 mL per reasoning query on DeepSeek's hosted API. Self-hosted deployments vary by location.
About DeepSeek-R1-0528
DeepSeek-R1-0528 is a 671B-parameter text and chat model from DeepSeek, released May 28, 2025. Major upgrade to R1 reasoning — significantly improved capabilities. At 32.0 Wh per query, it uses 107x the energy of a Google search. It runs on a Mixture-of-Experts with chain-of-thought reasoning architecture.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — DeepSeek has not published official energy data for DeepSeek-R1-0528. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
DeepSeek-R1-0528 in Context
The efficiency alternative
Gemini Nano performs the same type of task using just 0.01 Wh per query — 100% less energy than DeepSeek-R1-0528. For a user sending 25 queries per day, switching would save 291.9 kWh per year.
Your yearly DeepSeek-R1-0528 footprint
At 25 queries per day, your annual DeepSeek-R1-0528 usage consumes 292.0 kWh — a meaningful fraction of household electricity. That produces 153.3 kg of CO₂.
Key Insights
DeepSeek DeepSeek Family
What does your DeepSeek-R1-0528 usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use DeepSeek-R1-0528.
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How much energy does DeepSeek-R1-0528 use per query?
Each DeepSeek-R1-0528 query consumes approximately 32.0 Wh of energy. This is 107x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is DeepSeek-R1-0528's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of DeepSeek Cloud (China), each query produces approximately 16.8 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 525 g CO2/kWh with 33% renewable energy.
How much water does DeepSeek-R1-0528 use?
Each query consumes approximately 118 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does DeepSeek-R1-0528 compare to a Google search?
A DeepSeek-R1-0528 query uses 107x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while DeepSeek-R1-0528 uses 32.0 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Mixture-of-Experts with chain-of-thought reasoning
Parameters
671B
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2025-05-28
Open source
Yes
Training data cutoff
2025-05