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Frequently Asked Questions

When should I use CodeCarbon vs EcoLogits?

Use CodeCarbon when you run code on hardware you control—training models, local inference, or any code on your machine, server, or cloud VM. Use EcoLogits when you call GenAI APIs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral, etc.) and want to estimate the environmental impact of those requests. Both are complementary: CodeCarbon for local computing, EcoLogits for remote API inference.

How accurate are your estimations?

It is hard to quantify the entirety of computing emissions, because there are many factors in play, notably the life-cycle emissions of computing infrastructure. We therefore only focus on the direct emissions produced by running the actual code, but recognize that there is much work to be done to improve this estimation.

What are the sources of your energy carbon intensity data?

For cloud computing:

  • Google Cloud: Google publishes carbon intensity of electricity for Google Cloud.
  • AWS: Amazon has not made datacenter carbon footprints publicly available.
  • Azure: Microsoft has a Sustainability Calculator but does not publish datacenter carbon intensity.

For private infrastructure:

How do I offset my emissions?

There are many offsetting schemes, and it is hard to recommend any single one. For one-shot offsetting, the Gold Standard is often used, and has many offsetting projects to choose from at different prices. There are often local initiatives as well, so try researching what exists in your region/country. For a recurring offset, Project Wren lets you estimate your monthly carbon emissions and offset them via a monthly subscription. Keep in mind that offsetting is a good choice, but reducing your emissions should be the priority.

Does CodeCarbon work on Windows/Mac/Linux?

Yes! CodeCarbon supports: - Linux (primary) - macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) - Windows (experimental)

Can I use CodeCarbon in a Docker container?

Yes. See our Advanced Installation guide for Docker setup.

How can I help?

If you find any functionality missing in the CodeCarbon repo, please open an issue so that you (and others!) can help add it. We did our best to cover all use cases and options, but we count on the open source community to help make the package an even greater success.

Is my data sent anywhere?

By default, CodeCarbon saves emissions data locally. You can configure HTTP output to send data to your own endpoints. We do send data to our API when the user allows it and logs in. No data is sent to third parties without explicit configuration.

What hardware does CodeCarbon support?

CodeCarbon supports various CPU architectures, GPUs, and cloud providers. For details on measurement priority and supported hardware, see the Methodology page.

How do I report a bug?

Please open an issue on GitHub with: - Your environment details - Steps to reproduce - Expected vs actual behavior