- Amazon says its data centers used 0.12 l/kWh in 2025; Google used 1.15 l/kWh
- Air-based cooling is used 90% of the time, keeping water only for when it is really needed
- The company has also raised safe operating temperatures for equipment, reducing cooling needs.
Amazon has revealed exactly how much it used its global data center operations in 2025, and at 2.5 billion gallons (the equivalent of 9.5 billion liters), it’s less than we might have expected.
Although 2025 was a big year for data center expansion, Amazon says water use at its directly owned facilities fell 2% year over year, seeing an impressive water use effectiveness (WUE) of 0.12 L/kWh, seven times better than the industry average of 0.84 L/kWh and a personal improvement of 52% from 2021.
While closed-loop cooling likely drove some of this improvement, Amazon says its data centers now use outside air cooling about 90% of the time.
Amazon says water use in data centers is actually declining
Since air-based cooling does the heavy lifting, Amazon said evaporative cooling systems, which are considered water-intensive, are only used during warmer weather conditions.
To offset some of the cooling requirements, the company also managed to increase the temperatures at which servers can safely operate, reducing actual cooling needs in the first place.
Comparing itself to key hyperscale rivals in 2024, Amazon emerged as a clear leader, consuming 0.15 l/kWh. Meta came in second place with 0.19 l/kWh, and Microsoft consumed double that (0.3 l/kWh). Google fell short, with 1.15 l/kWh.
Where water is required, Amazon says it is committed to expanding recycled water cooling to more than 120 locations in the U.S. by the end of the decade, up from 24 sites today. The year 2030 is also Amazon’s goal to become a water-positive country, a goal it claims is 75% of the way there.
However, while the numbers paint a remarkable picture of leadership, Amazon’s data excludes partner locations as well as construction and manufacturing-related consumption.
“As demand for cloud computing continues to grow, so does our commitment to doing more with less and leaving communities better than we found them,” the company said on its blog.
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