Questions

Colored sites are the 77 major AI data centers we track in detail, across 29 states. For each one we have satellite-based estimates of power, construction progress, chips and cost.

Gray sites are 1,671 other existing US data center buildings and campuses recorded by OpenStreetMap volunteers. They range from telecom and colocation buildings to large cloud campuses; Amazon Web Services operates the most. They are gray because no estimates of their size or power are available, not because they are small. Some may also run AI workloads.

Where a gray facility sits on the same site as a tracked project, it is counted once, as part of the project.

The detailed list covers the major AI sites tracked by Epoch AI; most are planned at 100 MW or more. Smaller projects, early proposals and data centers no volunteer has mapped yet may be missing. The public record section covers the largest projects so far.

If you know of one, send a link to a public document (a permit, agenda, filing or news report) through corrections.

A data center that uses 1 megawatt (MW) around the clock draws about as much power as 812 average US homes. A gigawatt (1,000 MW) is about 812,000 homes. The tracked sites run 12.6 GW today.

Based on the average US home using 10,791 kWh a year (EIA, 2022). Homes use more at some hours than others; data centers run near full load all day.

Power, compute and cost for tracked sites are estimates by Epoch AI, based on satellite images of buildings, cooling and power equipment, checked against permits and company statements. Epoch reports that about 80% of its estimates fall within a factor of 1.4 of the true value.

“Planned” means the size a site reaches once every phase is built. News reports often quote a different number because companies may count total power (including cooling) rather than the power used by the computers, or count future phases.

This site doesn’t answer that, and we’re careful not to imply it. We show each state’s average home electricity price from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (US average 18.2¢ per kWh in August 2026, +3.4% from a year earlier). Prices change for many reasons: fuel costs, grid upgrades, weather and regulation. Who pays for new power lines and plants serving a data center is decided by your state utility commission; those decisions appear in the public record when we have them.

It depends on how it is cooled. Some designs use almost no water; others use millions of gallons a day in hot weather. Few operators publish water use for individual sites, so most figures here are estimates or water allocations granted by local utilities, and they are labeled that way.

One IT professional, independently. It is not funded by or affiliated with any company, government, political party or campaign, and it carries no advertising. If that ever changes, it will be stated on the About page.

The data is refreshed automatically every week; the last update was Nov 15, 2026. Public-record entries are added as decisions happen.

No. The Near me search runs in your browser. Your ZIP code or location is not sent to us or saved.

Yes, under the original licenses. Satellite estimates: Epoch AI, CC BY 4.0 (credit Epoch AI). Existing facilities: OpenStreetMap contributors via PNNL, ODbL (free download of our copy: existing-data-centers.geojson). Electricity prices: U.S. EIA, public domain. Please link back to the original sources.