A new open-source tool is available that allows macOS 27 Golden Gate users to reclaim some much-needed disk space, but at what cost?
When you upgraded your Mac to macOS 27, you likely noted that your hard drive space has gotten noticeably smaller. That’s because Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 takes up roughly 10GB to 12GB of hard drive space. If you own a Mac with a smaller SSD, you might find things a bit too tight for comfort in the drive space department. This can be especially concerning to owners of Mac mini model with just 256GB of disk space.
Unlike many AI providers, Apple stores its Artificial Intelligence (AI) models that Apple stores on your Mac’s hard drive. While this keeps things more private, that privacy comes at the cost of disk space. While it is estimated that Apple Intelligence takes up to 10GB to 12GB of hard drive space, some users report it is using even more than that.
Unfortunately, you can’t just toggle a switch to disable AI and automatically reclaim that disk space. While you can turn off Siri AI, there is no way to fully disable Apple Intelligence. That’ where a new open source utility comes in. The tool, called “RemoveMacAI,” is gaining a lot of attention in the Mac world from users who would like to reclaim the large amounts of disk storage space gobbled up by Apple’s AI models.
Before I explain how the utility works, keep in mind that neither myself nor Mactrast are endorsing this tool. We are merely making you aware of its availability. The decision to use the tool is solely your own, and we are not responsible for any data loss or loss of functionality. And there WILL be a loss of functionality.
Developer Om Lahore’s tool disables Apple Intelligence in macOS 27, removes its downloaded AI models, and then prevents the files from being automatically downloaded again.
As pointed out by the developer, macOS 27 no longer offers a single toggle switch to disable Apple Intelligence. There are about a dozen settings to track down and change, with several of them hidden in multiple areas you wouldn’t really expect, such as under Screen Time. Even if you do manage to toggle off all of the various settings, Apple’s AI models remain on the Mac’s hard drive, continuing to take up several gigabytes of precious SSD space. RemoveMacAI gets accomplish this by using a configuration profile that switches off Apple’s asset management service and removes the models.
Lahore says RemoveMacAI take care of everything in a single pass, turning off Siri, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension and all the summaries, then it deletes the models and stops macOS from downloading them again. Dictation still works because it’s a separate setting. Again, it’s up to you the user to decide if you want to lose access to all of those features.
The system is then configured to block attempts to download the removed models by redirecting them to a closed local port, preventing them from automatically and immediately being restored. This is all performed without any manual deleting of files, and while keeping System Integrity Protection (SIP) enabled.
The project has attracted the attention of several thousand Mac users, with several of those users conducting an online discussion on Reddit and Hacker News about the tool and why it is needed. While the developer says it can recover 10 to 12 GB of drive space, some users report seeing even more space being reclaimed by running the tool.
Lahore cautions users that the configuration-profile restriction keys that the tool relies on were deprecated by Apple in macOS 26.4, meaning that while this all currently works in macOS 27.0.1, a future update could change all that.