Data Center Cost 2026
What It Costs to Build, Lease and Run a Data Center, Every Figure Sourced and Dated
$17.6 million per megawatt to build. About $204 per kilowatt a month to lease. A record 1.4 percent vacancy. The numbers behind every build, lease and GPU decision in 2026, from Cushman & Wakefield, CBRE, Uptime Institute, Berkeley Lab and others, updated every quarter.
Price My RequirementBuilding, buying or financing a facility? See data center consulting.
Figures as of September 2026. Every figure is linked to its published source; figures marked MCA calculation are our arithmetic on those sources.
Data center cost in 2026: building a modern data center in the US and Canada costs an average of $17.6 million per megawatt all in, excluding chips and servers, up 21 percent since late 2024, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Leasing the same capacity cost about $196 per kilowatt per month for a 250 to 500 kW requirement in primary North American markets at the end of 2025, according to CBRE, and rates rose a further 4.3 percent in the first half of 2026. Running a data center is dominated by power: the industry's average PUE has held at 1.54 for six years. And for AI, the hardware inside can cost far more than the building: an eight-GPU H100 server runs $250,000 to $320,000, and a GB200 NVL72 rack $2 million to $3 million or more.
Data Center Costs: Quick Answers
About $17.6 million per MW of IT capacity for a modern greenfield facility in the US and Canada, excluding chips and servers. Cushman & Wakefield, 2026
$9.80 to $13.30 per watt for construction in major US markets, from Phoenix and Columbus to Silicon Valley. Turner & Townsend
AI-ready, liquid-cooled facilities cost 7 to 10 percent more to build than comparable air-cooled ones. Turner & Townsend
About $196 per kW per month for 250 to 500 kW at the end of 2025, about $204 by mid-2026. CBRE; the mid-2026 figure is an MCA calculation.
176 TWh in 2023, 4.4 percent of US electricity, projected at 6.7 to 12 percent by 2028. US DOE and Berkeley Lab
About 66 billion liters directly in 2023, roughly 17.4 billion gallons, 84 percent of it in hyperscale facilities. Berkeley Lab, via DCD
Retail rates run about $350 to $1,400 per kW per month in the New York metro, so a 5 kW cabinet is roughly $2,000 a month before cross-connects and setup. Metro Colo Advisory pricing guide
About $1.2 million a year at the average industrial rate of 8.71 cents per kWh and the average PUE of 1.54. MCA calculation from EIA and Uptime Institute figures.
At 2026 averages, leasing 1 MW for about seven years costs roughly what building it does, before operating costs. MCA calculation from Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Data Center?
Construction cost is quoted per megawatt of IT capacity, or per watt, which is the same number divided by a million. The two most-cited benchmarks measure different things: Cushman & Wakefield's figure is all in, including land and site work; Turner & Townsend's index covers construction only.
Source: Turner & Townsend and Turner & Townsend news release. Free to cite with a link to this page.
| Figure | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| All-in greenfield development cost, US and Canada | $17.6 million per MW, excluding chips and GPUs | Cushman & Wakefield, 2026 |
| Change in cost per MW since late 2024 | +21 percent | Cushman & Wakefield |
| Construction cost inflation, traditional data centers, 2025 | 5.5 percent, down from 9.0 percent in 2024 | Turner & Townsend |
| Premium for AI, liquid-cooled facilities | 7 to 10 percent over comparable air-cooled builds | Turner & Townsend |
| Average project cost per square foot | $960 in the 12 months to November 2025, up from $534 | ConstructConnect, via Quartz |
| Powered land, primary US markets | $584,000 per MW in 2026 to date, up 51 percent | Cushman & Wakefield |
| Average US data center land cost | $5.59 per square foot, about $244,000 per acre, 2024 | Cushman & Wakefield, via Quartz |
Where the money goes. Electrical systems (utility service, switchgear, UPS and generators) are typically the largest single category of construction cost, followed by mechanical and cooling. Liquid cooling shifts more of the budget into mechanical systems, which is where the AI premium comes from. For developers and investors deciding what to build, the data center consulting practice covers feasibility, specification and operator fit, and the powered shell and build to suit guides cover the two main development structures.
At $17.6 million a megawatt, the expensive decisions are made before design locks: how much IT load the power actually supports, what the building should be, and who will lease it. A feasibility study answers that in writing, at a fixed fee, before capital is committed. You'll hear back within 24 hours from the principal who would run it.
How Much Does It Cost to Lease Data Center Capacity?
Most companies lease rather than build. Tenant pricing is quoted per kilowatt of committed power per month, and in 2026 the larger the requirement, the faster its price is rising: the volume discounts large tenants used to count on have narrowed or disappeared in the tightest markets.
Source: CBRE North America Data Center Trends H1 2026. Free to cite with a link to this page.
| Figure | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average asking rate, 250 to 500 kW, primary markets | $195.94 per kW per month at end of 2025, up 6.5 percent, the fourth straight annual rise | CBRE, H2 2025 |
| Change in that rate, first half of 2026 | +4.3 percent, nearly double the rise a year earlier | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Implied rate, mid-2026 | About $204 per kW per month | MCA calculation from the two CBRE figures |
| Retail colocation, New York metro | About $350 to $1,400 per kW per month; a 5 kW cabinet about $2,000 a month | Metro Colo Advisory pricing guide, market estimate |
| Rent increase on renewals at Digital Realty, Q2 2026 | +25.4 percent on a cash basis, a company record | Digital Realty Q2 2026 results |
| Cross-connect, per connection | Roughly $100 to $400 a month, plus setup | OSH, IPTP |
| Remote hands | Roughly $75 to $350 an hour, higher after hours, with minimums | IPTP |
Send us the requirement: power, cabinets or megawatts, location and date. You'll hear back within 24 hours with the facilities that fit, quoted against what comparable deployments pay, and for a move, a five-year comparison with the move included. Placement costs you nothing; the provider you choose pays us.
The terms that protect a tenant at renewal are covered in the data center lease guide, rates by market in the colocation pricing guide, and requirements of 1 MW and up in wholesale colocation.
How Much Does It Cost to Run a Data Center? Power, PUE and Water
Once built, a data center's largest ongoing cost is electricity: the power for the IT equipment plus the overhead to cool it and distribute power, which is what PUE measures. At the global average PUE of 1.54, every dollar of power used by IT equipment carries about 54 cents of overhead.
Source: US Department of Energy and Berkeley Lab. Free to cite with a link to this page.
| Figure | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Average data center PUE worldwide | 1.54, unchanged for the sixth consecutive year | Uptime Institute, 2025 |
| Implied data center power demand, 2028 | 74 to 132 GW, at 50 percent average utilization | Berkeley Lab |
| Direct water consumption, US, 2023 | About 66 billion liters, about 17.4 billion gallons | Berkeley Lab, via DCD; gallons are an MCA calculation |
| Share of that water used by hyperscale facilities | 84 percent | Berkeley Lab, via DCD |
| Projected hyperscale water use, 2028 | 60 to 124 billion liters | Berkeley Lab, via DCD |
| Direct water consumption, 2014 | 21.2 billion liters | Berkeley Lab, via DCD |
How Much Does It Cost to Power a Data Center?
The electricity bill for 1 MW of IT load depends on two numbers: the price per kilowatt-hour and the facility's PUE. US industrial customers paid an average of 8.71 cents per kWh in May 2026, according to the EIA, though large data centers negotiate their own tariffs, and rates range from about 6 cents in Texas and Louisiana to more than 20 cents in California and New England.
MCA calculation: 8,760 MWh times PUE times $87.10 per MWh. Sources: EIA Monthly Energy Review, August 2026; Uptime Institute. Free to cite with a link to this page.
Power density. Average rack density across the industry is rising slowly, concentrated in racks of 10 to 30 kW; about one facility in eight reports some racks at 30 to 59 kW, and racks above 100 kW remain rare, according to the Uptime Institute. AI is the exception: current rack-scale GPU systems draw roughly 120 kW per rack and up, and need direct-to-chip liquid cooling. The AI and GPU colocation guide covers which facilities can host them, and the direct to chip cooling guide how the cooling works.
How Much Does AI Hardware Cost?
For AI deployments, the equipment inside the building costs far more than the building. These are published market ranges; GPU prices move quickly, so check the date.
| Item | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA H100 GPU | $25,000 to $40,000 | GPU Smith, July 2026 |
| Eight-GPU HGX H100 server | $250,000 to $320,000 | CloudZero, August 2026 |
| NVIDIA B200 GPU | About $40,000 to $45,000 | GPU Smith, July 2026 |
| Eight-GPU HGX B200 server | About $390,000 | GPU Smith, July 2026 |
| GB200 NVL72 rack, 72 GPUs | About $2 million to $3 million, some quotes to $3.4 million | GPU Smith, July 2026 |
| GB300 NVL72 rack, 72 GPUs | About $3.7 million to $4 million, estimated | GPU Smith, July 2026 |
| Renting an H100, per GPU-hour | $1.49 to $6.98, depending on provider | CloudZero, August 2026 |
| Median on-demand H100 rate, specialist GPU clouds | About $3.25 per GPU-hour; hyperscalers about $6.88 | Metro Colo Advisory GPU rental tracker, September 2026 |
| Typical on-demand H100 rate | About $3.99 per GPU-hour, $31.92 for an eight-GPU server | SAVRN GPU price tracker, September 2026 |
MCA calculation from the figures above. At the specialist-cloud median of $3.25 per GPU-hour, renting comes to about $685,000 over three years, still nearly twice the cost of owning. Owning wins when the hardware runs most of the time; renting wins for short or variable work, and reserved terms from specialist GPU clouds sit in between. Free to cite with a link to this page.
For renting rather than buying, the GPU rental guide has current on-demand and reserved prices, and CoreWeave competitors compares the providers. Dedicated servers without the GPU premium are covered in bare metal.
Data Center TCO: Building Versus Leasing 1 MW
Using only the published averages on this page: building 1 MW costs about $17.6 million up front, excluding servers, while leasing it costs about $2.45 million a year plus metered power. The lines cross after about seven years. It is an illustration, not a quote; real projects vary widely by market, density and term.
MCA calculation from Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE figures. Free to cite with a link to this page.
Why most companies lease
Seven years is longer than most will commit to one site, the builder still carries operating costs and risk after year seven, and a lease avoids a two to four year wait for power. Wholesale colocation covers leasing at scale.
When building pays
At large scale, over long horizons, where power is already secured. That decision, and the specification that decides who can ever lease the building, is what data center consulting covers, and buying an existing facility is covered in data center due diligence.
When neither is the question
For steady workloads now in the public cloud, the comparison that matters is cloud against colocation or bare metal. See cloud repatriation and the cloud vs colocation calculator.
Leasing capacity? We price it for free
Colocation, wholesale, GPU or bare metal: send the power, location and date, and every provider that fits quotes it at once, benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay. The provider you choose pays us. Price my requirement.
Building, buying or financing? That is consulting
Feasibility, build-versus-lease analysis for your site and power, acquisition due diligence, and market studies, in writing at a fixed fee from $50,000. Scope an engagement.
Connectivity and Cloud Costs
| Figure | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AWS internet egress, US regions | About $0.09 per GB for the first 10 TB a month, falling in tiers to about $0.05 above 150 TB | AWS data transfer pricing |
| AWS Direct Connect data transfer out, US | About $0.02 per GB, roughly 78 percent below first-tier internet egress | AWS Direct Connect pricing |
| AWS Direct Connect dedicated port | About $219 a month at 1 Gbps, $1,643 at 10 Gbps | AWS Direct Connect pricing |
| Data transfer into AWS | Free | AWS |
In practice, a company sending 200 TB a month out of AWS to its own data center would pay about $13,800 a month over the internet and about $6,000 over a private link, before partner fees (MCA calculation). Data center connectivity covers the options, and FinOps consulting covers cutting the cloud bill itself.
Data Center Capacity and Market Figures
| Figure | Number | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Vacancy, primary North American markets, H1 2026 | 1.4 percent, a record low | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Vacancy, Northern Virginia | 0.2 percent | CBRE |
| Total supply, primary markets | 10,903 MW, up 33.7 percent | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Capacity under construction | 7,481 MW, up 24.8 percent, a record | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Construction already preleased | 80.4 percent, up from 74.3 percent | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Future capacity still available, primary markets | Under 1,500 MW, about six months of demand | CBRE, H1 2026 |
| Net absorption, H1 2026 | 1,456 MW, up nearly 12 percent | CBRE |
| Largest construction market | Atlanta, nearly 2,900 MW under construction | CBRE |
| North American development pipeline | $2.3 trillion, $492 billion under construction | Cushman & Wakefield |
What those numbers mean for a buyer: with most new capacity preleased before it is built, the time to start a search is well before the need. For an investor, they are why data center due diligence now starts with power and tenant demand rather than the building. See wholesale colocation, and for market-by-market rates, Atlanta, Northern Virginia, Dallas, Chicago and the New York metro.
How Long Does It Take?
Sources: CBRE US Real Estate Outlook 2026; Wood Mackenzie, via Data Center Knowledge; Digital Realty. Transformer weeks converted to months (MCA calculation).
| Stage | Typical time | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New power interconnection for large campuses | 24 to 48 months or more | CBRE |
| Substation transformer lead time | More than 160 weeks in 2026, up from about 140 in 2023 | Wood Mackenzie, via DCK |
| Construction of a sub-50 MW building | Traditionally 12 to 18 months, a range CBRE says no longer holds as campuses grow | CBRE |
| Lease signing to rent commencement | Nine months, weighted average, Digital Realty Q2 2026 | Digital Realty |
| Projects blocked or delayed by local opposition, Q1 2026 | At least 75 projects, about $130 billion | Data Center Watch |
| Projects blocked or delayed by local opposition, Q2 2026 | At least 45 projects, nearly $68 billion | Data Center Watch |
Power, equipment and permission, not construction, now set most timelines. Roughly $200 billion of projects were blocked or delayed by local opposition in the first half of 2026 alone (MCA calculation, adding Data Center Watch's two quarters). That is why preleasing reaches into 2027 and beyond, and why the consulting practice spends as much time on power as on buildings.
How to Cite This Page
Writers, analysts and researchers are welcome to use any figure or chart on this page. Please cite this page with a link, alongside the original source shown beside each figure.
Method. Figures come from the published sources linked beside each one and were checked in September 2026. Figures marked MCA calculation are our arithmetic on those sources. The page is updated each quarter as new reports are released. For a figure behind a specific requirement, or a comment on the record, contact us.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a data center cost?
A modern greenfield data center in the US and Canada costs an average of $17.6 million per megawatt of IT capacity all in, excluding chips and servers, according to Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 guide. A 10 MW facility therefore costs about $176 million before any IT equipment.
What is the data center construction cost per MW?
Construction alone runs about $9.8 million to $13.3 million per MW in major US markets, according to Turner & Townsend, with Silicon Valley the most expensive and Phoenix and Columbus among the least. All-in development cost, including land and site work, averages $17.6 million per MW.
How much does an AI data center cost?
AI-ready, liquid-cooled data centers cost 7 to 10 percent more to build than comparable air-cooled facilities, according to Turner & Townsend. The GPUs inside cost far more than the building: a single GB200 NVL72 rack runs about $2 million to $3 million or more.
What is the data center cost per square foot?
The average data center project cost $960 per square foot in the 12 months to November 2025, up from $534 a year earlier, according to ConstructConnect data reported by Quartz. Per-megawatt figures are more useful for comparing data centers, because density varies so much.
How much does it cost to lease data center space?
About $196 per kW per month for a 250 to 500 kW requirement in primary North American markets at the end of 2025, according to CBRE, rising 4.3 percent in the first half of 2026. At about $204 per kW, 1 MW costs roughly $2.45 million a year before metered power.
How much does a colocation cabinet cost per month?
Retail colocation in the New York metro runs about $350 to $1,400 per kW per month depending on the building, so a 5 kW cabinet costs roughly $2,000 a month before cross-connects, setup fees and remote hands. Those are asking rates; negotiated rates typically land 15 to 30 percent lower.
How much does it cost to power a data center?
About $1.2 million a year per megawatt of IT load at the US average industrial rate of 8.71 cents per kWh and the average PUE of 1.54, an MCA calculation from EIA and Uptime Institute figures. A modern facility at PUE 1.2 costs about $0.9 million; an older one at 1.8 about $1.4 million. Large data centers negotiate their own tariffs, and rates vary from about 6 cents per kWh in Texas to more than 20 cents in California.
Is it cheaper to build or lease a data center?
At 2026 averages, leasing 1 MW for about seven years costs roughly what building it does, before the builder's operating costs. That is why most companies lease: seven years is longer than most will commit to one site, and a lease avoids a two to four year wait for power. Building pays at large scale, over long horizons, where power is secured.
What are the main data center operating costs?
Power is the largest, including the overhead measured by PUE, which averages 1.54. Others include staffing, maintenance, water, insurance and connectivity. For tenants, the main recurring costs are the per-kW rate, metered power, cross-connects and remote hands.
How much water does a data center use?
US data centers directly consumed about 66 billion liters of water in 2023, roughly 17.4 billion gallons, according to Berkeley Lab. Hyperscale facilities accounted for 84 percent. Use varies widely with cooling design and climate.
How much electricity do data centers use?
US data centers used 176 TWh in 2023, 4.4 percent of US electricity, according to Berkeley Lab and the Department of Energy. Their projection for 2028 is 325 to 580 TWh, or 6.7 to 12 percent of US electricity.
What is a good PUE for a data center?
The worldwide average is 1.54, according to Uptime Institute, and it has not improved for six years. Lower is better: 1.0 would mean every watt goes to IT equipment, so newer facilities are usually judged against that average, and the best new builds run around 1.2.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy GPUs?
For hardware that runs most of the time, buying usually wins: one eight-GPU H100 server costs about $360,000 over three years to own and host in colocation, against about $840,000 to rent on demand around the clock at $3.99 per GPU-hour, or about $685,000 at the specialist-cloud median of $3.25. For short or variable work, renting or a reserved term wins.
Why are data center costs rising?
Power availability, supply chain constraints for electrical and cooling equipment, skilled labor shortages and AI demand. Cushman & Wakefield reports development costs up 21 percent per MW since late 2024, and CBRE reports vacancy at a record low 1.4 percent.
Pricing an Actual Requirement?
Published averages tell you the market. They do not tell you what a specific building will quote for your requirement, or whether your site or acquisition holds up. There are two ways we help, and you'll hear back within 24 hours either way.
Colocation, wholesale, GPU and bare metal, benchmarked against what comparable deployments pay, with the terms negotiated before you sign. Free to you; the provider you choose pays us.
Feasibility studies, build-versus-lease analysis, acquisition due diligence and market studies, delivered in writing at a fixed fee agreed before work starts.
Leasing: the colocation pricing guide, wholesale colocation, the data center lease guide and the provider comparison.
AI and cloud: AI and GPU colocation, GPU rental, cloud repatriation, bare metal, FinOps consulting and the cloud vs colocation calculator.
Building and investing: data center valuation, data center financing, data center consulting, powered shell, build to suit, data center due diligence, data center tiers and direct to chip cooling.
Networks and moving: data center connectivity, hybrid cloud, private cloud, data center migration and how it works.
