Kardashev scale calculator

Humanity's Kardashev rating was 0.731 in 2024. Enter any power to rate it, or a growth rate to see when humanity would reach Type I.

Updated October 2026

Worked example

The results above when the page opens, step by step.

1. Humanity's average power in 2024: 2.022 × 10¹³ W (20.2 TW). EIA (Mar 2026) · data year 2024 · Method
2. log₁₀(2.022 × 10¹³) = 13.306.
3. K = (13.306 − 6) ÷ 10 = 0.731: below Type I.
4. At 1.8% a year, the years to 10¹⁶ W are log₁₀(10¹⁶ ÷ (2.022 × 10¹³)) ÷ log₁₀(1.018) = 2.6942 ÷ 0.007748 = 347.7 years. 2024 + 347.7 → about 2372.
5. The same to all sunlight on Earth, 1.74 × 10¹⁷ W: 3.9346 ÷ 0.007748 = 507.8 years → about 2532, 160 years later.

How it works

Ratings use the decimal Kardashev scale (after Carl Sagan, 1973): K = (log₁₀ P − 6) ÷ 10, with power P in watts. Type I (often written Type 1) is 10¹⁶ W, Type II 10²⁶ W and Type III 10³⁶ W. Some writers set Type I at all sunlight on Earth instead: the sunlight that reaches our planet, about 1.74 × 10¹⁷ W. The calculator shows both.

The year is a projection, not a forecast: humanity's power in 2024 grown at a steady rate. The default, 1.8% a year, is how fast humanity's power grew on average from 1980 to 2024, rounded. It always starts from the data year, 2024, never from today's date.

The formulas, sources and data years are on the method page. To size a swarm of collectors around the Sun, try the Dyson swarm calculator.