Techniques are described for estimating and managing energy consumption for query processing. Embodiments of the invention may generally receive a query to be executed and calculate an initial estimated energy consumption value for the received query. If the initial estimated energy consumption value does not exceed a threshold amount of energy, embodiments of the invention may submit the query for execution. Once execution of the query has begun, embodiments of the invention may calculate an updated estimated energy consumption value for the executing query, and if the updated value exceeds the threshold amount of energy, may halt the execution of the query.