This browser plugin lets you track your AI 'water footprint' and pay it back to communities in need

Date:
Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:20:38 +0000

Description:
A new plugin enables you to see exactly how much water your AI prompts are using up, and make a donation to offset it by giving water back to
communities in need.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter
This browser plugin tracks your AI prompts and 'water footprint' in real time It makes the environmental cost of AI feel harder to ignore It also lets you offset that usage by donating to a non-profit providing clean water to millions A new plugin for Chrome , Firefox and Edge called 'Bottle It Back' tracks your AI usage across all the major AI platforms, and helps you give back some of that water to the people who really need it with a donation to a Planet Water Foundation.

AI is particularly greedy with its water usage because of all the water cooling that goes on in AI data centres. According to Bottle It Back, one AI prompt consumes approximately 38ml of water during the cooling process. Get
to 15 prompts and youve used up a whole bottle of water. When you're talking to an AI chatbot it's easy to forget that each prompt comes with that hidden cost to the environment. Chatbots may encourage us to ask anything, but each line we're typing is using up a tiny bit of water. Article continues below
You may like Sam Altman says ChatGPT water use claims are completely untrue' This free tool cuts the AI hype and gets back to the web This trick will get ChatGPT to question itself Bottles per day Sustainability Week 2025 This article is part of a series of sustainability-themed articles we're running
to observe Earth Day 2026 and promote more sustainable practices. Check out all of our Sustainability Week 2026 content. I've been using the plugin, and when I saw how many bottles of water I was actually using a day it hit home
in a very personal way. According to the University of Illinois Urbana, AI will drain about 1,200 billion liters of water by 2030. The amount of water I used may feel insignificant in comparison, but it felt like I owned it.

The plugin tracks all the main AI chatbots in real time, including ChatGPT , Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Meta AI, DeepSeek, Copilot and Grok, so it
doesn't matter which chatbot you prefer.

The point of Bottle it Back isnt just to make you feel guilty, or encourage you to cut down on your AI although it will give you tips it actually
offers you a way to offset your usage by giving water back to the people who really need it.

You can give back the amount of water you consume to Planet Water Foundation, a non-profit organization providing safe water access to communities in need across 33 countries. Its programs are focused in schools across the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, and in communities impacted by natural disasters worldwide. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from
us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

All you need to do is click on the Give water back button in the browser extension to make a donation to the foundation that matches your usage.
(Image credit: Bottle It Back) Something we can do There are obvious limitations to the plugin, since it doesn't work on mobile, and it does raise issue of where responsibility for the environmental impacts of AI should ultimately lie should it be with us, the users, or with the AI companies? However, it does finally empower us to do something about our personal water usage.

Taking the water used by data centers and turning that impact into tangible, life-saving water for families that need it shows that small actions do matter. Our individual water usage might not add up to much, but it does ease any guilt you might feel over using AI and if we all get involved, it can make a huge difference. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. The best SSDs for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing

Read our full guide to the best SSD 1. Best overall: WD_Black SN8100 2. Best budget: Orico O7000 3. Best gaming: SK Hynix Platinum P51 4. Best professional: Samsung 9100 Pro 5. Best for PS5 Samsung 990 Pro



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/this-browser-plugin-lets-you -track-your-ai-water-footprint-and-pay-it-back-to-communities-in-need


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)