What is the carbon footprint of YouTube?

Using YouTube for just one hour generates approximately 46g of CO2. This is equivalent to manufacturing 2 plastic bottles.

How many trees do I need to plant to offset YouTube?

To offset a year of typical usage of YouTube (approx. 16.8kg of CO2), you would need to plant about 1 trees.

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Carbon Footprint of YouTube

Did you know that using YouTube for just one hour generates 46g of CO2? That's equivalent to manufacturing 2 plastic bottles.

Calculate Your Footprint

How many hours do you use YouTube per week?

hrs/week

0 kg

Yearly CO2 Emissions

0 trees

Needed to Offset

"Watch videos while planting a real forest."

Yearly Impact Comparison

IdleForest

YouTube

*IdleForest offsets ~200kg CO2/year on average per user.

Sources & Methodology

Carbon Trust (2021) & IEA

Estimates ~55g/hr for streaming video.

IdleForest Calculation

Offset calculations assume an average mature tree absorbs ~20kg CO2 per year. Usage hours are based on typical user averages.

Compare with Related Apps

Netflix

Streaming

55g CO2 / hour

Requires 2 trees/yr to offset

Twitch

Streaming

55g CO2 / hour

Requires 2 trees/yr to offset

Spotify

Streaming

2g CO2 / hour

Requires 1 trees/yr to offset

About IdleForest

IdleForest is a passive browser extension that plants trees while you browse, game, or stream. It uses your unused internet bandwidth to fund reforestation projects.

Download for Windows

3x TREES

✓Free to use

✓No account required

✓Open source