On October 5, 2026, a free open-source utility called RemoveMacAI showed up on GitHub with a blunt pitch: it will “turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and remove its downloaded models.” If you have been looking for a way to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage rather than just hide it, this tool actually deletes the models and stops macOS from fetching them again.
Why it matters: on a 256GB MacBook Air, the AI models can eat a real slice of your drive. The developer, Om Lahore, says the tool frees about 12GB, and every change can be undone later.
What you need to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac
This is a short Terminal job. Check your setup against the requirements first.
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Operating system | macOS 27 Golden Gate |
| Hardware | A Mac with Apple silicon (Apple Intelligence itself needs M1 or later) |
| Access | An admin account, so you can approve a configuration profile in System Settings |
| Optional | Homebrew, if you prefer installing command-line tools that way |
| Strongly advised | A fresh Time Machine backup |
How much Mac storage Apple Intelligence takes up
Before you remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage, it helps to know what you get back. Apple’s Apple Intelligence support page lists up to 14GB of on-device space for Macs with an M3 or newer chip and at least 12GB of unified memory. Every other supported Mac needs up to 8GB.
That space covers the foundation models plus separate models for Genmoji, image generation, Photos Clean Up, Spatial Photos and Xcode’s code completion. On a base MacBook Air already juggling photos and a few big apps, it is the difference between a happy drive and a “your disk is almost full” warning. For a rundown of which machines get these features at all, see our list of every Mac, iPhone and iPad that supports Apple Intelligence.
The official switch in System Settings (and its limits)
Apple’s own route is simpler and fully supported. Open System Settings, click Apple Intelligence & Siri, then click the toggle next to Apple Intelligence. That stops the features from running.
What it does not do is hand the space back. Apple does not document any button for deleting the downloaded models, so the gigabytes stay on the drive. If you only dislike the features, the toggle is the right answer and you can stop reading here. If you want to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage for good, keep going.
How to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac with RemoveMacAI
The project lives on GitHub under an MIT license. Here is the order we would follow.
- Back up first. Run Time Machine or whatever backup you trust. The tool is reversible, but it does change system settings.
- Read the installer before running it. The quick-install line pipes a script straight from the internet into your shell. Download
install.shfrom the repository, open it in a text editor and skim what it does. - Install the tool. Either paste the one-line curl installer from the project page into Terminal, or use Homebrew with
brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai. Per the developer, the installer verifies the download against a SHA-256 checksum and works out of a temp folder. - Preview the changes. Type
removemacai statusto see each feature and how much disk the models occupy, thenremovemacai off --dry-runto see what would happen without touching anything. - Run it for real. Type
removemacai. It shows the current state and asks “Turn Apple Intelligence off? [Y/N]”. Press Y. - Approve the profile. System Settings opens with a Device Management prompt. Click Install. The tool then deletes the models.
- Confirm the result. Run
removemacai statusagain and compare your free disk space with what you had before.
Want to keep one feature? The removemacai off --keep option leaves named features switched on. Run removemacai features first to get the exact names it accepts.
What stops working, and what keeps going
When you remove Apple Intelligence from Mac completely, a long list of things goes with it. According to the project page, these switch off:
- Siri, along with the “Hey Siri” wake phrase and its menu bar icon
- Genmoji, Image Playground, Writing Tools and the ChatGPT extension
- Notification summaries, plus summaries in Mail, Messages, Notes and Safari
- Inline text predictions and smart replies in Mail
- Predictive code completion in Xcode, Photos Clean Up and Spatial Photos
- Calendar’s natural-language editing and Visual Intelligence
- Any app built on Apple’s on-device models through the Foundation Models framework, plus the Use Model action in Shortcuts
Dictation survives. It is its own setting with its own speech models, and the tool leaves those alone. One quirk: a process named Siri keeps running, because the Spotlight window borrows that name in macOS 27. That is not a sign the cleanup failed.
How to undo it and get Apple Intelligence back
Changed your mind after you remove Apple Intelligence from Mac? Type removemacai revert. If you used the curl installer, the project page lists a matching one-line revert command. Homebrew users can then run brew uninstall removemacai to clear the tool itself.
Reverting deletes the profile, which puts your old settings back. macOS will then download the models again the next time a feature asks for them, so expect that storage to fill back up.
The risks of using an unofficial tool
To its credit, RemoveMacAI does not ask you to switch off System Integrity Protection, and it leaves the protected system folder alone. It works through Apple’s own restriction keys and asset service, then points any re-download attempt at a closed local port. The developer also says it sends no network requests and collects no data. For anyone set on doing this, that is a far tidier way to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage than deleting system files by hand.
Still, this is a third-party script making system-level changes Apple never designed for regular users. A future macOS update could change how profiles or model downloads behave and break it, and Apple could push back on the project entirely. Apps that lean on Apple’s models may also misbehave. If you remove Apple Intelligence from Mac machines you use for work, check with whoever manages them first, since the tool installs its own Device Management profile.
RemoveMacAI is Mac-only. Our older piece on saving space on iPhone by disabling Apple Intelligence covers what you can do there.
Frequently asked questions
Can you uninstall Apple Intelligence on a Mac?
Not with Apple’s own tools. The System Settings toggle turns the features off, but the models stay on disk unless you use a third-party tool such as RemoveMacAI.
Does removing Apple Intelligence free up storage on a Mac?
Yes. Apple lists up to 14GB for newer Macs and up to 8GB for others, and RemoveMacAI’s developer says the tool frees about 12GB.
Will a macOS update bring Apple Intelligence back?
The developer says no, because the configuration profile stays in place after updates. A future macOS release could still change how that works.
Does dictation still work without Apple Intelligence?
Yes. Dictation uses separate speech models that the tool does not delete, so it keeps working.
Should you strip Apple Intelligence off your Mac?
If you never touch Writing Tools or Siri and your 256GB drive is constantly full, it is a reasonable move, as long as you back up and read the script first. Everyone else should just use the toggle in System Settings and leave the models where they are. The best reason to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage is a drive that is out of room, not a grudge against a menu bar icon.
