Google AI usage smashes past a Quadrillion tokens in a month
AI use is exploding, when you look at Token use, but there's more to the story than just giant numbers.
Key takeaways
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to take off around the world and Google this week announced that it processed nearly a quadrillion tokens across its AI services.
- In an OpenAI blog post, the rival Generative AI company said that one token was usually equivalent to four characters in English, while one paragraph usually meant around 100 tokens.
- The transcript of the US Declaration of Independence contains 1,695 tokens.
Cite or link to this article
Griffin, M. (2025) 'Google AI usage smashes past a Quadrillion tokens in a month', 311 Institute, 25 October. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/google-ai-usage-smashes-past-a-quadrillion-tokens-in-a-month/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to take off around the world and Google this week announced that it processed nearly a quadrillion tokens across its AI services. Tokens are units of data processed by AI models during training and inference, giving some context into the scale of the usage of Google services. Tokens can be made up of text, images, audio clips, videos, or another modality.
In an OpenAI blog post, the rival Generative AI company said that one token was usually equivalent to four characters in English, while one paragraph usually meant around 100 tokens. The transcript of the US Declaration of Independence contains 1,695 tokens.
The Future of AI and Generative AI 2040, by Matthew Griffin
“We processed almost 1,000,000,000,000,000 tokens last month, more than double the amount from May,” Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said on X.
The increase in tokens processed may not necessarily mean a doubling in usage, but more that reasoning models process significantly more tokens per use. Google began rolling out a family of Gemini 2.5 reasoning models from the end of March.
Increasing the number of tokens processed requires an increase in data center infrastructure. This month, Google said that it expected data center capex for the year to increase by $10 billion to $85bn.
“With compute, there’s the amount of compute you have for training, often it needs to be colocated, so actually even bandwidth constraints between data centers can affect that,” Hassabis said on the Lex Fridman podcast.
“But because now AI systems are in products being used by billions of people around the world, you need a ton of inference compute now. And then on top of that, there’s the thinking systems, the new paradigm of the last year, where they get smarter the longer amount of inference time you give them at test time.
“So all of those things need a lot of compute, and I don’t really see that slowing down. And as AI systems become better, they’ll become more useful and there’ll be more demand for them.”
What this means for your organisation
Token counts overstate usage growth.
Google's token total more than doubled from May. That does not necessarily mean usage doubled. Reasoning models process significantly more tokens per use, so track what each task delivers, not only the raw volume.
Deeper thinking needs more compute.
Demis Hassabis says thinking systems get smarter the longer they are given at test time. Google expects data centre capex for the year to rise by $10 billion to $85bn. Large reasoning models are rated Act now, so test where they earn their extra compute.
Plan for demand that keeps rising.
Hassabis does not see compute demand slowing, because better systems become more useful and are wanted more. Generative AI is also rated Act now, and chips built for neural networks too. Set capacity and budget plans before usage forces the issue.
Three questions for your next leadership meeting
- Which of our AI uses justify slower, deeper reasoning, and which need quick answers?
- Do we track tokens used per task, or only total usage?
- How would our compute needs change if demand for AI doubled?
The trends and technologies behind this story
From the 311 Starburst, the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit’s map of the technologies and trends shaping the next 50 years.
Analysis by the 311 Strategic Intelligence Unit, from Matthew Griffin’s article and 311 data. First published on Fanatical Futurist.
FAQ
Why does this matter?
AI use is exploding, when you look at Token use, but there's more to the story than just giant numbers.
About the author
Matthew Griffin Founder, President and Futurist, 311 Institute
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."
Read full bio
Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 17-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder, President and Futurist of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.
An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity programme, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.
Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.
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Sources and further reading
- on X x.com
- increase by $10 billion to $85bn datacenterdynamics.com