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Quick usage summary:

  • For more products per watt of energy an efficiency module should be used (except in rare cases when productivity modules are also used - then a speed module might be better).

Note that changing a machine's energy consumption directly affects how much pollution the machine generates. This is the case because the pollution production rate is directly linked to the machine's energy consumption, so this applies even when power is produced in a pollution-free way.

Types of modules

There are three types of modules in Factorio, each with 3 tiers of effect. Higher tiers have stronger effects but are more expensive. Note that the machine's properties (speed, energy consumption and pollution) cannot be reduced below 20% of the original value.

Speed module

Speed modules increase the speed and energy consumption of a machine.

Module Speed bonus Energy consumption
Speed module.png
+20% +50%
Speed module 2.png
+30% +60%
Speed module 3.png
+50% +70%

Advantages & Disadvantages:

  • Increases speed of machine.
  • If used with productivity modules, it can increase the efficiency of the machine in terms of items produced per watt (or items produced per pollution generated).
  • Increases energy use per cycle (exceptions exist).
    • Increased energy usage means increased pollution generation (pollution depends on power usage).

Productivity module

Productivity modules add a purple "productivity bar" when placed inside item-producing buildings and labs. If the productivity bar is already present through completed research, the modules will simply speed up the bar. Each time the machine finishes crafting the recipe it is set to, an amount is added to the bar equal to the percentages of the productivity modules inside the machine. When the bar reaches 100%, an extra set of products is immediately generated without consuming any resources.

Productivity modules can only be used in machines that are set to make intermediate products. These are all the ores mined by electric drills, the stone brick (and anything else smelted in a furnace) and some of the items listed in the intermediate products tab. Exceptions to the items listed in this tab are: the satellite, the recipes that fill/empty a barrel, nuclear fuel, and nuclear fuel reprocessing. Productivity modules cannot be placed in beacons either. When a recipe uses the same item as an input and output (e.g. coal liquefaction and the kovarex enrichment process) the productivity bonus only applies to the net product [1].

Module Productivity
Speed Pollution
Productivity module.png
+4% +40% -15% +5%
Productivity module 2.png
+6% +60% -15% +7%
Productivity module 3.png
+10% +80% -15% +10%

Advantages & Disadvantages:

  • Creates an additional free item occasionally.
  • Increases energy use per cycle.
  • Increases pollution generated.
  • Slows the machine.

Efficiency module


Module Energy consumption
Efficiency module.png
Efficiency module 2.png
Efficiency module 3.png

Advantages & Disadvantages:

  • Reduces energy use per cycle.
    • Decreased energy usage means decreased pollution generation (pollution depends on power usage).
  • Cannot lower energy usage below 20%.
  • If used with productivity modules, sometimes the efficiency gain is lower than what a speed module could achieve.

Usage tips


There is however synergy between productivity modules and speed modules, productivity modules reduce crafting speed which lowers the production rate of items and increases the energy consumed per item, the speed bonus from speed modules increases production rate of items and lowers the energy consumed per item - in fact when dealing with productivity modules, the reduction in energy consumption from the increased speed from speed modules can be greater than the increased energy consumption. For detailed calculations on the synergy between productivity modules and speed modules refer to this discussion as well as this warning.

Filling the device with speed modules is useful when a resource is infinite but the amount of resource pools is low. The best example would be oil deposits. Another good place to use speed modules would be for assembly machines which make products that take a long time to make, for example engine units. Using speed modules allows more compact setups, because one machine can provide materials to more consumers than normal. If used together with productivity modules, they can also increase efficiency (in terms of items produced per watt or per pollution generated) of a machine.


Filling devices with efficiency modules is recommended for electric furnaces as these use a lot of power. Note that making higher level efficiency modules are not worth it in terms of power saved vs materials used to build a solar panel setup with same power output so the only incentive is to further reduce pollution or space utilization. Modules are also able to control pollution, as pollution depends also on energy usage. So reducing a machine's energy usage by 40% with a efficiency module 2 will also reduce its pollution by 40%. Beware as this also works vice versa! Also note that if you're using productivity modules, a speed module can sometimes provide better efficiency gains due to the fact that the machine will now be producing much more items per second. Efficiency modules also generally don't work well in beacons.

Examples of usage

Electric furnaces are huge power hogs at 180 kW per furnace. 1 basic efficiency module reduces it by 54 kW (−30%) – almost a solar panel worth of power. Electric mining drills normally create 10 units of pollution, using 3 basic efficiency modules on them reduces their pollution production by 80% to 2 units per minute.

Using productivity module 3s in the rocket silo reduces the total resource cost for 1 rocket launch by almost 30%, saving 26k copper ore per rocket launch.

See also