If you thought disabling Apple Intelligence meant your Mac would also reclaim the gigabytes of AI models sitting on its SSD, think again. Apple quietly changed that with macOS 27, making Apple Intelligence effectively mandatory at the system level—even if you never use it.

Now, an independent developer has released an open-source utility called RemoveMacAI that promises to do what Apple no longer lets users do: completely remove the downloaded Apple Intelligence models, reclaim storage, and stop them from automatically returning.

For owners of 256GB Macs, that’s a pretty big deal.

Why this tool exists

Apple Intelligence has steadily become more integrated into macOS, but the changes introduced in macOS 27 Golden Gate have frustrated some Mac users.

Previous versions of macOS allowed users to disable Apple Intelligence entirely. That system-wide toggle has now disappeared. Turning off individual AI features no longer removes the downloaded on-device models, meaning the storage they occupy remains reserved even if you never use Siri’s AI features, Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, or ChatGPT integration.

Apple officially says Apple Intelligence requires up to 14GB of storage on newer Macs and up to 8GB on older supported models. In practice, however, some users have reported the Storage settings showing well over 20GB, with a few Macs exceeding 30GB allocated to Apple Intelligence.

That growing storage footprint sparked plenty of complaints—especially from owners of non-upgradeable Macs with 256GB SSDs.

What RemoveMacAI actually does

Rather than asking users to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) or manually delete protected system files, RemoveMacAI takes a different approach.

According to its developer, the tool:

• Disables Apple Intelligence on macOS 27
• Removes downloaded AI models
• Prevents the models from automatically downloading again
• Works without disabling SIP
• Uses a configuration profile instead of modifying protected system files directly

It also redirects future download attempts to a closed local port, effectively blocking macOS from immediately fetching the AI assets again.

The project is open source and has already attracted significant attention on GitHub, along with discussions across Reddit and Hacker News.

There’s a catch

Removing the models isn’t just deleting unused files—it also removes the AI capabilities that depend on them.

Users choosing this route will lose access to features including:

• Siri AI
• Writing Tools
• Genmoji
• Image Playground
• ChatGPT integration
• AI summaries
• Smart Reply
• Inline text predictions
• Photos Clean Up
• Spatial Photos
• Xcode predictive code completion

Traditional dictation, however, continues to function.

It may not work forever

There’s another important limitation.

The utility relies on several macOS configuration-profile restriction keys that Apple deprecated in macOS 26.4. Although they still function in macOS 27.0.1, Apple could remove support in a future update, potentially breaking the workaround entirely.

In other words, this isn’t an officially supported feature—it’s a clever workaround that depends on implementation details Apple could change at any time.

Why this matters

Apple has increasingly positioned Apple Intelligence as a core part of its platforms rather than an optional feature. As AI capabilities expand, so do the storage requirements needed to run models locally.

For many users with larger SSDs, dedicating 10–20GB—or even more—to on-device AI isn’t much of a concern. But on entry-level Macs that ship with 256GB of storage, every gigabyte counts, especially since Apple’s storage isn’t upgradeable after purchase.

That’s exactly why tools like RemoveMacAI are appearing. They’re less about rejecting AI altogether and more about giving users back a choice that Apple no longer offers.

Whether Apple eventually introduces an official way to remove unused AI models remains to be seen. Until then, this open-source project fills a gap for users who’d rather reclaim storage than keep features they never plan to use.