Abstract Energy is a resource of strategic importance for cities, a fortiori global cities that rely on tremendous indirect energy embodied in interregional trades of service industries. The assessment of embodied energy in service industries is thus vital to the committed sustainable development of global cities and fundamental to tailor-made local policymaking. This paper applies Multi-Regional Input-Output analysis to the assessment of total embodied energy in service industries in six global cities, i.e., Beijing, Chongqing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tianjin. It is found that Hong Kong and Singapore have relatively lower energy use intensities compared with the four cities located in Mainland China. Service industries consume 17.02∼46.40 % of total embodied energy in the six cities. Coastal cities like Tianjin, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore have higher proportions of transportation consumption. The four Chinese mainland cities consume a larger proportion of coal than Hong Kong and Singapore. The method and the findings of this paper are expected to facilitate both the government and the industries in energy policymaking for a smarter and more sustainable urban economy.