Doubao Pro Environmental Impact
ByteDance's AI assistant — one of China's most popular chatbots
Energy per query
0.80 Wh
3x more than a Google search (0.3 Wh)
CO2 per query
0.42 g
China grid (525 gCO₂/kWh)
Water per query
3 mL
~333 queries to fill 1 litre
Processing location
ByteDance Cloud (China)
Provider
ByteDance
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
525 g CO2/kWh (33% renewable)
How does Doubao Pro compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
Doubao (豆包) is ByteDance's AI assistant, one of the most popular in China with 60M+ monthly active users. At ~0.8 Wh per query, it is reasonably efficient. ByteDance benefits from massive scale and its own Volcano Engine cloud infrastructure.
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on ByteDance's Volcano Engine infrastructure in China. Subject to China's coal-heavy grid (525 g CO2/kWh average).
Water Usage
At ~3.0 mL per query, reflecting typical Chinese data centre cooling requirements.
About Doubao Pro
Doubao Pro is a text and chat model from ByteDance, released in May 15, 2024. ByteDance's AI assistant — one of China's most popular chatbots. Each query uses 0.80 Wh of energy and produces 0.42 g of CO₂. That's about 2.7x what a Google search consumes.
These figures are estimates derived from hardware specifications and API benchmarks — ByteDance has not published official energy data for Doubao Pro. Actual consumption may vary significantly depending on batching, quantisation, and infrastructure optimisations that we cannot observe from outside.
Key Insights
ByteDance Doubao Family
How energy efficiency has evolved across versions.
What does your Doubao Pro usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use Doubao Pro.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does Doubao Pro use per query?
Each Doubao Pro query consumes approximately 0.80 Wh of energy. This is 3x more than a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is Doubao Pro's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of ByteDance Cloud (China), each query produces approximately 0.42 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 Doubao Pro use?
Each query consumes approximately 3 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does Doubao Pro compare to a Google search?
A Doubao Pro query uses 3x more than a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while Doubao Pro uses 0.80 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Dense Transformer
Context window
128,000 tokens
Release date
2024-05-15
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2024-04