How-to
How to Turn Off Apple Intelligence and Free Up Gigabytes
Apple's latest AI features can eat up over 6 GB on iPhone and 17 GB on Mac. Here's how to disable them and reclaim storage.
CNET tested the new Apple Intelligence features that arrived with iOS 27 and MacOS 27 and found they chew up a noticeable amount of storage. On an iPhone, the AI tools occupy about 6.4 GB. On a MacBook Neo, they take roughly 17.9 GB. If you are not using Siri's revamped smarts or the writing and image tools, you can turn it all off and get that space back.
Check how much space Apple Intelligence uses
On an iPhone running iOS 27 or later, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage > iOS. Look for the Apple Intelligence entry to see the exact number.
On a Mac, click the Apple logo in the top-left corner, then go to System Settings > General > Storage and click the "i" next to MacOS. A pop-up shows the space Apple Intelligence is using.
Disabling Apple Intelligence on iPhone
If your iPhone is on iOS 27, go to Settings > Siri > Turn Off Siri and follow the on-screen prompts. After that, Apple Intelligence should vanish from the storage menu, freeing those gigabytes.
For iOS 26, head to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and flip the toggle next to Apple Intelligence. That alone should free up some space.
You can also block individual AI features by going to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions, turning on the restrictions, then tapping Intelligence & Siri. From there, tap Image Creation, Writing Tools and Intelligence Extensions and choose Don't Allow for each one. CNET says this can reclaim a few more gigabytes.
Disabling Apple Intelligence on Mac
The method depends on your MacOS version. On MacOS 26, click the Apple logo, go to System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri, and toggle off Apple Intelligence. That should free up several gigabytes.
MacOS 27 is trickier. CNET found the simplest workaround: change your Siri language to one that isn't fully supported yet, such as English (Irish). Go to System Settings > Siri and pick a language from a region where Apple Intelligence hasn't launched. This freed about 4 GB in CNET's test.
A more thorough method comes from PCMag (CNET's sister site), but CNET could not get it to work on MacOS 27.0.1. The approach involves going to System Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy, toggling off Content & Privacy, switching Siri to Siri Classic, then disabling individual capabilities. Then you go back to System Settings > Siri and choose Don't Allow Siri or Siri Classic. Finally, you turn off per-feature settings like Notification Summaries and Message Summaries.
You can try that route or just switch your Siri language. Either way, you can keep that dreaded "storage full" pop-up at bay a bit longer.
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