How to Remove Apple Intelligence Models on Mac in macOS 27

Some Mac owners running macOS 27 have watched Apple Intelligence balloon to 20GB or more in the Storage pane, well beyond what Apple's own documentation says it should need. If you're trying to figure out how to remove Apple Intelligence models on Mac and claw back some of that space, start by separating what's actually been measured from what's circulating on Reddit.

MacRumors measured 20.67GB on an M4 Pro Mac mini in its testing, and Ars Technica recorded 22.42GB on an M3 MacBook Air running a beta build. A Reddit user separately claimed 30.16GB on a Mac running the macOS 27 release candidate. MacObserver reports similar complaints piling up across forums, and Apple hasn't said whether the gap reflects the models themselves, leftover caches, or other system data getting lumped into the same category.

Apple's documentation lists a requirement of up to 14GB for M3-or-later Macs with 12GB or more of unified memory, or up to 8GB for other compatible Macs. AppleInsider ran its test Mac and found 27.59GB attributed to Apple Intelligence before making any changes at all, in a report published today.

This guide walks through checking what your Mac is actually reporting, why turning Apple Intelligence off probably won't get that space back, the safer built-in tools worth trying first, and the one documented Recovery Mode method for deleting the model files directly, including exactly what it proved and what it didn't.

Check what your Mac is actually reporting before doing anything

Go to System Settings, then General, then Storage, and click the info button next to macOS. Some testers see a distinct Apple Intelligence line item here showing how much space the feature has claimed.

Not every Mac shows that breakdown the same way. Tom's Guide points out that macOS doesn't always provide a clean "AI models" entry, so a large System Data category by itself doesn't confirm Apple Intelligence is the culprit.

Try safer built-in options before you remove Apple Intelligence files from Mac

These steps might free some space, but none of them prove Apple Intelligence is responsible for what you're seeing, and none guarantee an immediate, measurable gain. Start with Apple's own storage management tools in System Settings.

Next, open Disk Utility and check your Mac's volume for local APFS snapshots, which macOS keeps around for Time Machine recovery. These can occupy real space, but Apple already treats them as reclaimable when the system needs the room, so finding them isn't a reason to delete them on its own.

If you're not in an emergency, patience is the more conservative move. MacObserver's advice is to back up the Mac, note the current reading, and wait for Apple to publish guidance or ship a fix rather than touching system files. Tom's Guide agrees, arguing that a few gigabytes usually isn't worth the risk of breaking macOS.

This matters most on smaller drives. On a 256GB Mac, losing even 10GB works out to roughly 4% of total advertised capacity before macOS, apps, and personal files even factor in.

Why disabling Apple Intelligence may not free storage on your Mac

Turning the feature off sounds like the obvious way to free Apple Intelligence storage on your Mac, but reports conflict on whether that option even exists in macOS 27. MacRumors reports that Apple removed the disable toggle entirely and that model downloads can no longer be prevented.

Even where the toggle is present, flipping it off doesn't necessarily delete the model files already sitting on disk. macOS manages these as system assets, and AppleInsider's test found that disabling the feature didn't remove them.

Older advice floating around the internet doesn't apply here, either. OS X Daily's guidance claimed disabling Apple Intelligence recovers about 7GB, but that article predates macOS 27's architecture entirely, so it's not reliable evidence of what disabling the feature frees on current Macs. The current setup relies on local processing through Apple's AFM 3 Core and AFM 3 Core Advanced models. Keeping tasks on the Mac instead of a remote server is good for privacy, but it means the model files exist independently of whatever switch you flip in Settings.

How to delete Apple Intelligence models in macOS 27 via Recovery Mode

If disabling Apple Intelligence hasn't freed anything and the drive is genuinely tight, one documented method exists for deleting the GenerativeModels folder your Mac keeps for its on-device models. This comes from a single AppleInsider test, not a supported Apple procedure. AppleInsider didn't disable System Integrity Protection during its test, and there's no reason to turn off SIP to attempt this either.

Set expectations before running any commands. In AppleInsider's test, the target folder measured 23GB using du, the Apple Intelligence Storage pane reading dropped by 24.52GB, but actual available disk space rose by only about 14GB, from 337GB to 351GB. The categories the Storage pane reports don't map one-to-one onto real free space, so don't expect the number in Settings to match what df -h shows afterward.

When deleting the GenerativeModels folder can reclaim Mac storage from Apple Intelligence

This isn't routine maintenance, and it shouldn't be treated as one. Proceed only if all of the following are true:

• The Mac is critically low on storage, not just a few gigabytes tighter than expected.

• A current, verified backup exists before touching anything.

• The Storage pane shows an Apple Intelligence-specific figure, not just a large System Data category with no breakdown.

• There's acceptance that macOS may redownload the deleted models later, based on at least one beta tester's report.

If any of those don't hold, stick with the safer options above and wait rather than opening Recovery Mode.

Step 1: Back up the Mac before doing anything else, then boot into Recovery. This deletion cannot be undone if something goes wrong. Locate the mounted Data volume; AppleInsider's test Mac mounted its encrypted Data volume at /Volumes/Data. From Recovery's Terminal, list the candidate folders:

ls -ld /Volumes/Data/System/Library/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM*

Then change into the parent directory and confirm the path before touching anything:

cd '/Volumes/Data/System/Library/AssetsV2' && pwd

Terminal should print the directory you're working in. On AppleInsider's test Mac, that came back as /Volumes/Data/System/Library/AssetsV2. If your command prints a different path or throws an error, stop and check the volume name rather than proceeding to deletion.

Step 2: Delete only the folder named exactly com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels. AppleInsider's test Mac had a 23GB GenerativeModels folder, a 2.9GB Visual folder, and a 6.8MB Overrides folder inside that directory. Only the first one got deleted:

rm -rf ./com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

This command permanently removes files, and Apple doesn't document it as a supported storage-management step. Never run it with a wildcard, and never touch the adjacent Visual, Overrides, or downloadDir folders.

Step 3: Confirm results before rebooting. Check that the folder is actually gone:

ls -ld ./com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels

Then measure available space on the Data volume:

df -h /Volumes/Data

In AppleInsider's test, Terminal confirmed the folder no longer existed, and available space rose from 337GB to 351GB, a gain of roughly 14GB even though the deleted folder had measured 23GB. The Apple Intelligence figure in Storage fell from 27.59GB to 3.07GB, and the Mac restarted normally afterward.

That last part is easy to overlook: this isn't a permanent fix. One beta tester reported that macOS redownloaded the deleted models after turning off Low Data Mode, and AppleInsider is clear that one successful test doesn't prove the models stay gone through future updates. Treat this as a one-time, unsupported emergency measure, not a routine way to reclaim Mac storage from Apple Intelligence.

What to do now

No Apple documentation currently explains why real-world readings run so far past the published 8GB to 14GB estimate, and MacObserver notes Apple hasn't published a fix or identified a single cause as of this week. Unless low free space is actually stopping normal use, installing apps, saving files, or running backups, wait for a macOS 27 point release before touching system folders.

If storage is genuinely critical, back up the Mac, confirm the Apple Intelligence-specific figure in Storage settings rather than a vague System Data number, and only then consider the documented Recovery Mode workaround above. Run it once, verify the result with df -h, and don't count on it holding through the next update.