Know Your QueryWeight™

ByteThirst™ is a free Chrome extension and CLI tool that estimates the water, energy, and CO₂ cost of every AI interaction across 14 platforms — from chat to code generation. QueryWeight is the estimated environmental footprint of every AI query you make.

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100% private. Your conversations never leave your device.

QueryWeight
16 queries · 2 platforms
est. 5.6 mL
≈ 1.1 tsp
≈ 5.93 Wh
CO₂ ≈ 2.31 g

AI Code Generation Uses est. 130× More Resources

A single vibe coding session generates dramatically more estimated environmental impact than a typical text chat.

Text Chat
est. 0.30 Wh
≈ 0.28 mL water per query
ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
Vibe Coding
est. 41 Wh
≈ 38.5 mL water per session
Lovable.dev, Bolt.new

Source: Couch, S.P. (2026), “Electricity use of AI coding agents”

How It Works

Four steps. No setup. No learning curve.

Step 1

Install & Forget

Add ByteThirst to Chrome. It runs silently in the background — no setup, no account, no interruptions.

Step 2

See Your QueryWeight

Open the popup anytime to see your daily and weekly estimated AI footprint — water, energy, and CO₂ with standard volume conversions.

Step 3

Understand & Share

Generate weekly impact cards and share your estimated usage on social media. Earn achievement badges along the way.

Step 4

Go Team

Upgrade to Teams and see your organization’s collective QueryWeight. Set shared goals and build awareness together.

Estimates Across 14 AI Platforms

From everyday chat to vibe coding — ByteThirst estimates the environmental cost across the AI tools you use most.

Chat
ChatGPT Claude Gemini Copilot Perplexity Mistral You.com
Code
Lovable.dev Bolt.new Google AI Studio
Specialized
Poe HuggingChat NotebookLM Figma AI

What You Get

Everything you need to understand your AI’s estimated environmental footprint.

Monthly Annual
Free Tier
Free — forever

Everything you need to understand your AI footprint.

  • Daily & weekly QueryWeight dashboard
  • Water, energy & CO₂ estimates with ranges
  • 14 AI platforms including code builders
  • Volume conversions (tsp, tbsp, fl oz, cups)
  • 6 achievement badges
  • 1 shareable social impact card per week
  • Community Benchmarks (opt-in on all tiers)
  • CLI tool for terminal-based AI tracking
  • Local-first — no account required

Chrome Extension

Download Now

Install the CLI

npm install -g bytethirst
Premium
$3.33 /month

$39.99 billed annually

Advanced analytics for impact-conscious users.

  • Everything in Free, plus:
  • Historical trend analytics (30/60/90-day)
  • Unlimited social impact cards
  • Usage spike alerts
  • Code generation impact breakdowns
  • 15+ badges with streak tracking
  • Unified Chrome Extension and CLI dashboard
  • Early access to new platform support
Sign Up
Collaborative
$13.33 /seat/month

$160 per seat billed annually

Collaborative QueryWeight insights for your team. 5-seat minimum.

  • Everything in Premium, plus:
  • Team QueryWeight dashboard
  • Team goals and challenges
  • Admin controls & insights
Learn More

Enterprise (100+ seats) — SSO, API access, and Scope 3 reporting.

Contact us for custom pricing →
View full pricing comparison →

What Is a QueryWeight?

QueryWeight is the estimated environmental cost of a single AI interaction — expressed in water, energy, and carbon.

💧

Water

Data centers use water for cooling. Every AI query contributes to an estimated water footprint — from fractions of a milliliter to tens of milliliters for code generation.

⚡

Energy

AI models consume energy with every inference. A standard text query uses an est. 0.30 Wh — while a code generation session can use est. 41 Wh.

🌎

Carbon

Energy generation produces CO₂. ByteThirst converts estimated energy use into carbon emissions using the US grid average of est. 0.39 kg CO₂/kWh.

Transparent by Design — The QueryWeight Pipeline

Every number has a source. Every estimate shows uncertainty.

Your AI Query Token Estimation Energy (Wh) Water (mL) CO₂ (g)
est. 0.30 Wh
Energy per standard query
Source: Epoch AI, 2025
est. 0.94 mL/Wh
Water-to-energy ratio
Source: OpenAI, 2025
est. 0.39 kg/kWh
US grid carbon intensity
Source: EPA eGRID, 2023
est. 130×
Code generation vs. text chat impact
Source: Couch, 2026
Read the full methodology →

Privacy Is the Foundation

We built ByteThirst to be private by default, not private by promise.

What we NEVER collect

  • Your conversations (prompts or responses)
  • What topics you discuss
  • Exact timestamps (only the date)
  • URLs you visit
  • Your identity (free tier)
  • Browser fingerprint

What stays on your device

  • Number of queries per day (by platform)
  • Estimated token counts
  • Model type (e.g., GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet)
  • Date (no time)

Local by default. All QueryWeight calculations happen on your device. Premium transmits only your email and subscription status. Teams shares daily aggregate QueryWeight per platform with your admin. On any tier, you can opt in to anonymous Community Benchmarks — no personal info is ever collected.

Read the full privacy policy →

Also Available as a CLI

Estimate the environmental impact of terminal-based AI tools — Claude Code, Aider, GitHub Copilot CLI, Cursor, and OpenAI Codex.

Terminal 
——— ByteThirst™ Session Summary ———————————————————————————
  💧 est. 0.1 mL
  ⚡ ≈ 0.06 Wh energy
  🌍 ≈ 0.02 g CO₂
  Queries: 1 · Platform: claude · Model: sonnet (standard)
  QueryWeight™ values are estimates.
————————————————————————————————————————
Learn More about the CLI

npm install -g bytethirst

Share Your QueryWeight

Generate a beautiful impact card every week and share it on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Reddit.