The idle GPU tax: What it is, why it's getting worse, and how you can fix it

The idle GPU tax, also called the AI compute tax or model parking tax, is the power and cost you pay to keep a model loaded in GPU memory and ready to serve even when zero tokens are being processed. Parasail notes that average GPU utilization across the tech industry sits at just 5%, meaning roughly 95% is idle waste, and explains why this is getting worse and how to fix it.