Introducing Large Language Models as the Next Challenging Internet Traffic Source

Abstract: This article explores the growing impact of LLMs and Generative AI (GenAI) tools on Internet traffic, focusing on their role as a new and significant source of network load. As these AI tools continue to gain importance in applications ranging from virtual assistants to content generation, the volume of traffic they generate is expected to increase massively. These models use the Internet as the global infrastructure for delivering multimedia messages (text, voice, images, video, etc.) to users, by interconnecting users and devices with AI agents typically deployed in the cloud. We believe this represents a new paradigm that will lead to a considerable increase in network traffic, and network operators must be prepared to address the resulting demands. To support this claim, we provide a proof-of-concept and source code for measuring traffic in remote user-agent interactions, estimating the traffic generated per prompt for some of the most popular open-source LLMs in 2025. The average size of each prompt query and response is 7,593 bytes, with a standard deviation of 369 bytes. These numbers are comparable with email and web browsing traffic. However, we envision AI as the next "killer application" that will saturate networks with traffic, such as Peer-to-Peer traffic and Video-on-demand dominated in previous decades.