GPT-4.1 Mini Environmental Impact
OpenAI's efficient mid-range model
Per query = Short query (~300 tokens)
Energy per query
0.18 Wh
CO2 per query
0.08 g
Water per query
0.65 mL
Processing location
Azure US East / Sweden
Provider
OpenAI
Category
Text / Chat
Grid carbon intensity
450 g CO2/kWh (25% renewable)
How does GPT-4.1 Mini compare?
Detailed Breakdown
Energy Consumption
GPT-4.1 Mini sits between Nano and the full 4.1, estimated at approximately 0.18 Wh per query based on API pricing ratios ($0.40/M input vs $2.00/M for 4.1, suggesting ~0.2x the compute).
Power Source & Carbon
Runs on Microsoft Azure infrastructure in US East (Virginia) and Sweden Central.
Water Usage
At approximately 0.65 mL per query, GPT-4.1 Mini has a negligible water footprint.
What does your GPT-4.1 Mini usage cost the planet?
Use our calculator to estimate your personal environmental footprint based on how often you use GPT-4.1 Mini.
Calculate My ComputeFrequently Asked Questions
How much energy does GPT-4.1 Mini use per query?
Each GPT-4.1 Mini query consumes approximately 0.18 Wh of energy. This is about the same as a traditional Google search (~0.3 Wh).
What is GPT-4.1 Mini's carbon footprint?
Based on the carbon intensity of Azure US East / Sweden, each query produces approximately 0.08 g of CO2. The grid in this region has a carbon intensity of 450 g CO2/kWh with 25% renewable energy.
How much water does GPT-4.1 Mini use?
Each query consumes approximately 0.65 mL of water, primarily used for cooling the data centers that process the request.
How does GPT-4.1 Mini compare to a Google search?
A GPT-4.1 Mini query uses about the same as a Google search in terms of energy. A Google search uses approximately 0.3 Wh, while GPT-4.1 Mini uses 0.18 Wh.
Technical Details
Architecture
Transformer (decoder-only, distilled)
Context window
1,047,576 tokens
Release date
2025-04-14
Open source
No
Training data cutoff
2025-03