Amazon reported its data centers withdrew about 2.5 billion gallons of water globally in 2025, a figure that seems large but is dwarfed by the 117 trillion gallons withdrawn in the US alone in 2015. For context, US lawns and landscaping use 3.3 trillion gallons annually, California almond orchards consume 1.3 trillion gallons per year, and US golf courses use 531 billion gallons annually.
Other tech companies also report relatively small water usage: Google used over 6.1 billion gallons in 2024, Microsoft about 2.75 billion, and Meta about 1.4 billion. Despite the low aggregate numbers, individual data centers can still strain local water supplies.
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