AI Data Center Power Calculator

Planning examples

Same formulas as the calculator. Click a rack count to load that row. These are screening cases, not industry-standard racks. A small air-cooled row, the 100-rack default, and a documented rack-scale product example answer different questions.

The 8-rack row is an air-cooled screening case: 8 × 40 kW = 320 kW IT, × 1.40 = 448 kW facility. The 10-rack row uses 142.5 kW only as a product-documentation figure, the same order of magnitude as NVIDIA’s GB300 NVL72 “up to 142 kW” note. It is not a rating for every AI rack. Read GPU rack power before you reuse 142.5.

IT load and facility power formula

IT load (kW) = number of racks × kW per rack

Facility power (kW) = IT load × PUE

Facility overhead (kW) = facility power − IT load

1 MW = 1,000 kW. PUE is total facility power divided by IT equipment power. This page multiplies. It does not measure PUE. For what the ratio includes, use PUE planning. For why one rack can be 7 kW or about 120 kW, use GPU rack power and the rack density ranges.

Example 1: 100-rack default

100 racks × 100 kW/rack = 10,000 kW (10.00 MW) IT load. × 1.25 PUE = 12,500 kW (12.50 MW) facility power. Overhead = 12,500 − 10,000 = 2,500 kW (2.50 MW). Next step: take 12,500 kW to kW to kVA. At a power factor you choose, such as 0.95, that screen is about 13,158 kVA. This calculator does not apply power factor.

Example 2: Eight air-cooled racks

8 × 40 kW = 320 kW IT. × 1.40 PUE = 448 kW facility. Overhead = 448 − 320 = 128 kW. Use this shape when the hall is still in the air-cooled high-density band, not when you are copying a liquid-cooled rack-scale nameplate.

Example 3: Ten documented high-power racks

10 × 142.5 kW = 1,425 kW (1.43 MW) IT. × 1.18 PUE = 1,681.5 kW (1.68 MW) facility. Overhead = 256.5 kW. NVIDIA’s DGX GB200 user guide states about 120 kW for an NVL72 rack, and the GB300 NVL72 reference architecture lists a full rack up to 142 kW. Those documents describe specific products. Enter the average for the racks you are actually planning.

Racks that do not share one kilowatt rating

Add IT kilowatts, then multiply once by PUE. Twenty racks at 40 kW are 800 kW. Four racks at 120 kW are 480 kW. Combined IT load = 1,280 kW across 24 racks, so the average is 1,280 ÷ 24 ≈ 53.3 kW/rack. Enter 24 and 53.3. At PUE 1.25, facility power ≈ 1,280 × 1.25 = 1,600 kW. Do not type 120 kW into a hall where most racks are 40 kW.

What this estimate leaves out

The result is real power for the average you typed. It does not add N+1 or 2N redundancy, diversity, nameplate-versus-metered gap, transformer loss beyond the PUE ratio, utility capacity, or a growth margin. Facility overhead is not an order for chillers, pumps, or UPS modules. After facility kW, the engineering chain on this site is kW to kVA, then 3-phase power when you have a line voltage.

What to calculate next

Use this page when you already have a rack count and an average IT kilowatt figure and you need facility megawatts, or when you want to compare two PUE assumptions on the same IT load. Use rack density when you still need a kW-per-rack band, PUE planning when you need the ratio explained, and GPU rack power when the question is one server versus a rack-scale product. This page does not size cooling, breakers, or backup plant.