Overview
- Reporters and users documented on Wednesday that Apple Intelligence models downloaded by default with iOS 27 and macOS 27 are occupying far more storage than Apple’s published figures indicate.
- Apple’s support documentation says Apple Intelligence may require up to 14GB on newer iPhones, iPads and Macs, up to 8GB on other compatible models, and up to 1.5GB on Apple Watch.
- Independent measurements found wide variation with one Lifehacker author seeing about 20.65GB on an iPhone 17 Pro and about 30GB on an M3 MacBook Pro while other devices showed roughly 9–16GB.
- Turning off Apple Intelligence or disabling Siri does not reliably free the space because the models remain as system assets and there is no user-facing way to remove or selectively delete them.
- Users with small SSDs and large media libraries may lose access to free space and are sharing temporary workarounds while reporters say an Apple software update is likely needed to address the discrepancy.