Gigabytes for AI: Is Apple hiding Intelligence memory usage on the Mac?
Installing Apple's language models and image generators on a Mac, iPhone or iPad can take up a lot of space. Apple obviously wants to hide this.
Apple Intelligence on Mac, iPad and iPhone: rather unsightly with a narrow SSD.
(Image: Apple)
Apple has been trying to make its Apple Intelligence AI system appealing to users for some time now. While it was initially quite difficult to activate, the technology is now started automatically on supported systems and even reactivated when updates are installed. And it is also increasingly deeply embedded in the operating systems. But there are also reasons not to use Apple Intelligence: Be it data protection fears or the fact that little worthwhile can be found in the current range of functions. Another reason to decide against Apple Intelligence, which will be released in German in April: It eats up a lot of storage space. And this is exactly what Apple now seems to want to hide, according to users of the latest beta versions of macOS 15.4.
Information no longer available
As the software leak expert @aarop613 writes on X, macOS 15.4 Beta 3, available as of this week, no longer shows what Apple Intelligence is taking up individually in System Preferences under Storage. In previous macOS versions, there was a sub-item under macOS's total memory usage that made it possible to identify the Apple Intelligence share by clicking on the information icon.
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While in earlier betas of macOS 15.4 it looked as if this was a bug, Apple seems to want it that way: “I don't think this was a bug,” writes @aarop613. However, macOS 15.4 is not yet ready, Apple may still change its mind.
20 GB, but for what?
Apple was once proud of the fact that macOS takes up comparatively little SSD space, and had even aimed to reduce the amount of memory used from major version to major version. Apple Intelligence is now changing this. Turning on the AI system causes the operating system to load gigabyte-heavy models. Under macOS 15.3.1, for example, this amounted to almost 4.8 GB on a test Mac. Interestingly, these packages do not necessarily disappear immediately after switching off Apple Intelligence.
On the same computer, the total usage of macOS with and without Apple Intelligence initially remained at just under 20 GB, a value that usually fluctuates around 15 GB or less without the AI system. A restart may help to free up the space again. Turning it off is also – at least psychologically – difficult: Apple has a red warning dialog at the start of macOS 15.3 if you do this.
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