Mac running out of space? Apple intelligence may be eating up to 30GB

Apple's obligatory on-device AI models running on the device are consuming much more memory than Apple officially reports, making many Mac and iPhone users frustrated and unable to free up memory.

As per reports, on macOS 27 Golden Gate, a multi-gigabyte AI model will be downloaded by default when a Mac connects to the internet. The company officially requires "up to 14GB" of memory for M3 and newer models and "up to 8GB" of memory for other models; however, users report much higher numbers. 

Users of iPhones have faced similar problems with iOS 27. Even if Apple Intelligence is turned off or it is not available on the phone (for example, in the EU), it consumes 9GB to 16GB of memory. A journalist found out that on his iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Intelligence consumed 11.59GB, although it was turned off.

One of the tricks is to switch Siri to an unsupported language, like UK English or Dutch, which apparently helped some users reduce their AI footprint to 126MB.

At the same time, turning off Apple Intelligence will not instantly free space, since the models are maintained as system assets by macOS. Deleting files manually from secured folders can compromise the OS.

Moreover, people have started receiving persistent notifications from Settings asking to subscribe to iCloud+ and other Apple products — notifications that cannot be closed without accepting the request.