ChatGPT Carbon Tracker

Raghav Talwar, Konrad Barbers, Peiyan Liu, Shalakha R S.

Group 15.

Paper. Website. Source code.

The ChatGPT Carbon Tracker project focuses on the often-ignored environmental effects of large language models during user interactions. It does this by creating a lightweight browser extension that runs on the client side, which estimates and shows the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT in real time. By counting the tokens in messages from both the user and the assistant, this tool gives users easy-to-understand feedback on their energy use and related emissions through a straightforward, unobtrusive interface. This open-source tool works with both Chromium-based browsers and Firefox, helping users become more conscious of their digital carbon footprint and encouraging sustainable AI practices without needing backend access or modifications to ChatGPT itself.