What is the footprint of an hour of Netflix?
About 57 g of CO₂e for an hour of Netflix, YouTube or any streamed video, from the data centers and networks that deliver it. That's like driving 0.16 miles in an average gas car. Your TV or laptop's own power is extra, and shows up on your home electricity bill.
One hour
- Data center and network power
- 77 Wh
- Carbon
- 57 g CO₂e
- Water consumed
- 339.2 mL
A month at 2 hours a day
- Hours
- 61
- Carbon
- 3.4 kg CO₂e
- Healthy life lost
- 4.9 sec
- Water consumed
- 21 L
How I got this
the IEA puts an hour of streaming at about 36 g of CO₂ and 0.077 kWh for the data centers and networks. To that I add 12% for getting fuel to the power plants, 5% for power lost on the wires, and a quarter for building the servers and the buildings they sit in. Cooling water and the water used at power plants come from the same power figure.
The car comparison uses 8.89 kg of CO₂ a gallon at 25 miles a gallon. Every factor and source is on How it's calculated.
What it costs to cover
A month at 2 hours a day comes to $0.05 in donations, including my margin for an estimate. That's below the $1.00 smallest payment, so you can add it to a plan with other items, or pay once. For someone born in 1995, $38.20 with fees covers every hour since age 12 and every year to age 85, on a grid that gets cleaner each year.
Measure your own use and see what it would cost to cover.