Data Center Power Cost & TCO Calculator
The power bill is the largest operating cost of an AI facility. Model it from rack density, rate, and PUE — then project it across the asset life with escalation.
racks × kW
IT × PUE
8,760 hours
with escalation
Results update live as you type. For planning and field-check estimates — always verify against applicable standards and equipment ratings.
Why the power bill decides where AI gets built
The core equation is short: rack kW × rack count × PUE × 8,760 hours × rate. It compounds fast. Twenty racks at 60 kW with a 1.3 PUE draw 1.56 MW from the grid — about 13.7 GWh a year — so every cent per kWh in the rate is worth roughly $137,000 annually. That is why AI capacity concentrates where industrial power is cheap and abundant, and why a facility's PUE and its negotiated rate matter more to lifetime economics than most capex line items.
Over a 5–15 year horizon, escalation dominates. Utility industrial rates have historically risen 2–4% a year, and constrained markets are moving faster; modeling a flat rate flatters the pro forma. Large loads can push back — through fixed-price PPAs, hedges, time-of-use scheduling of deferrable training jobs, or co-located generation — but every one of those levers gets negotiated against the baseline this calculator produces.
Power is typically 40–60% of an AI data center's total cost of ownership once the facility is running, ahead of staffing and maintenance. If you are underwriting a site, run the sensitivity: rate ±2¢ and PUE ±0.15 usually swing the model more than anything else on the sheet.