3 Ways to Delete Apple Intelligence Storage on Your Mac

Recently, some users reported that the installation of Apple Intelligence occurred unexpectedly some time after they had installed the latest macOS. They claimed that there was no warning that the software was being installed or an option to prevent the installation.

It’s noted that the Apple Intelligence can take a large amount of disk space. If you have no use for this software, it’s essential to delete the Apple Intelligence on your Mac. In this post, we’ll focus on Apple Intelligence, exploring how to delete Apple Intelligence storage and completely delete Apple Intelligence with ease.

Will Apple Intelligence Take up a Lot of Storage?

YES, Apple Intelligence will consume up to 7 GB of SSD space on your Mac. Users who are running macOS Sequoia 15.3–15.4 indicated that it might take up 5–7 GB, while some users even discovered 9 GB or 12.5 GB after an automatic download.

To check how much storage Apple Intelligence is using on your Mac, you can:

1. Navigate to System Settings, General, and Storage.
2. Click on “macOS” and the “i” button.
3. Find Apple Intelligence Models and check the amount of SSD space.

Is Apple Intelligence Installed on Your Mac by Default?

Usually, Apple Intelligence is not installed on your Mac by default. The macOS only carries the code stubs, and the toggle is off at first. However, for macOS Sequoia 15.3 and later, Apple flips that toggle to “on” when you first run the new or updated Apple-Silicon Macs. Immediately, it triggers to download of Apple Intelligence, which takes up around 7 GB.

Does Turning off Apple Intelligence Free up Space?

YES, you can free up the storage by turning Apple Intelligence off does free up storage, only if you allow the macOS to clear the models of the download. You can disable Apple Intelligence in System Settings:

Open System Settings, click Apple Intelligence & Siri in the sidebar, then enable Apple Intelligence.

When you disable Apple Intelligence, macOS labels the 7 GB of AI model files as “safe to delete”. However, it may take hours before it actually erases them. If you want to immediately get the internal space back, you should optimize the storage cycle - you can navigate to About This Mac, Storage, and Recommendations.

How Do You Remove Apple Intelligence Storage on MacOS?

Whether you’re on a 256 GB MacBook Air or a working Mac, it’s essential to remove Apple Intelligence storage on your computer. In this part, we’ll offer 3 proven routes to delete the Apple Intelligence storage.

Toggle and Restart

As this is Apple’s built-in route, it’s the safest solution for most Mac users. You can mark Apple Intelligence’s AI models as “unused” by toggling Apple Intelligence off. Then, when you restart your computer, the background service, which manages system-level data like Siri voices or AI models, will detect the “unused” flag and delete it, turning flagged space into free disk space.

1. Tap the Apple menu and open System Settings.
2. Navigate to Apple Intelligence & Siri and toggle off the Apple Intelligence.
3. Restart your Mac.
4. Again, navigate to System Settings > General > Storage to check whether you have released the storage.
5. Click the “i” next to macOS, and the “Apple Intelligence Models” line should be 0 KB or disappear.
6. If there are still several GBs, wait for 24 to 48 hours. macOS may purge unused MobileAssets automatically when disk pressure rises.

Manual Delete

Before manually deleting Apple Intelligence storage on your Mac, you’ll see what data is stored on your device. However, it’s important to note that this solution may also get rid of some personalized features concerning Apple Intelligence. Additionally, take this measure only if you have a Time Machine or other backups. As this method is more complex and advanced, make sure you’re comfortable with entering the Safe mode and using Terminal first.

1. Disable Apple Intelligence by following the instructions in the “Toggle & Restart” solution.
2. Boot into safe mode.

• For Apple Silicon Mac:

Shut down > Hold power button > Pick disk → Hold Shift → “Continue in Safe Mode.”

• For Intel Mac:

Shut down > Press power and immediately hold Shift until you see the login screen.

3. Open Terminal and run:

   sudo rm -rf /System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

4. To clear related caches, run:

   • rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Siri*
   • rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntelligencePlatform*
   • rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.llm*
   • rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.apple.UniversalAccess/Intelligence

5. Normally, restart your Mac and check the storage again.

Factory Reset

If you want to completely delete Apple Intelligence, perform a factory reset. This action wipes the entire SSD and reinstalls macOS. By doing so, you can remove everything from AI models to cached vectors and background support files. When you set up the Mac again, you can decline the “Turn on Apple Intelligence” prompt, now allowing it to occupy the storage again.

1. Create a backup of your Mac.
2. Click Apple Menu and navigate to System Settings, General, Transfer or Reset, and Erase All Content and Settings.
3. When setting up your Mac, decline Apple Intelligence. Then the AI models will never be downloaded again.

Bonus Tip: How to Get More Storage Space on Your Mac?

There are times when the rainbow wheel spins a little longer, or a release-space warning suddenly pops up at the worst moment. Then you open Finder, determined to find out the reasons, but only to find a group of caches, user logs, duplicate downloads, language packs, and other junk files. It may take a few hours to locate and manually clean up these files, but there are still many files hiding somewhere in your system folders.

To free up more storage space on your Mac, you should use a professional Mac cleaner. Among popular toolkits in 2025, give BuhoCleaner a try! Free install the app on your computer and click Scan to find hidden caches, oversized videos, duplicate photos, and abandoned DMGs in minutes. Often, it can recover several GBs in a minute. Behind the scenes, BuhoCleaner also respects the security boundaries of macOS. Therefore, essential system files, user data, and signed applications remain untouched.

This is only half the story. BuhoCleaner is also equipped with a menu bar app, which can monitor macOS in real time. With this amazing monitor, you can learn CPU load, CPU temperature, fan speed, memory usage, free disk space, and network upload and download speeds in real time. In terms of this, you can free up internal space instantly with a single click.

Conclusion

Apple Intelligence’s AI models can take up to 7 GB of storage space on your Mac. If you have no interest in using Apple Intelligence on your Mac, you can delete Apple Intelligence to save storage. In this post, you’ll find 3 ways to delete Apple Intelligence storage or completely delete Apple Intelligence. If you seek to monitor and get more storage space on your Mac, give BuhoCleaner a try! This professional Mac cleaner can help you remove system junk, large or duplicate files, and unwanted apps in minutes.