Mac users recover storage with new Apple Intelligence removal tool
A new open source tool is making waves in the Mac community by helping users reclaim valuable storage space taken up by Apple’s AI models. Called “RemoveMacAI,” the tool disables Apple Intelligence on macOS 27, deletes its downloaded templates and prevents them from being downloaded again.
In macOS 27, Apple removed the toggle to turn off Apple Intelligence wholesale, and simply turning off individual features doesn’t remove models from your Mac’s drive. As the developer explains, RemoveMacAI gets around this problem by using a configuration profile to disable Apple’s Asset Management service and remove templates.
It then configures the system so that attempts to download deleted models are redirected to a closed local port, preventing them from returning immediately. And it does all this without disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP) or manually deleting files from protected system locations, unlike some older tools.
The tool can free up around 10 GB to 12 GB of space depending on the models on your Mac. That said, some users are reporting instances where Apple Intelligence models took up significantly more space, which they have now reclaimed.
With the disappearance of Apple models, you lose all the AI features related to Siri, writing tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, ChatGPT integration, summaries, smart replies, inline predictions, photo cleanup, spatial photos, and Xcode predictive completion. Despite this, many users seem willing to make the sacrifice to free up space, especially on non-upgradeable Macs with 256GB of storage. The profile would persist across updates. And if you’re wondering, dictation still works.
The project has attracted hundreds of GitHub stars since its release last week, and there are many discussions on Reddit and Hacker News about the need for such a tool. Just know that Woozad does not endorse RemoveMacAI, and anyone who uses it does so at their own risk.
The developer mentioned a caveat, which is that some of the configuration profile restriction keys that the tool relies on were deprecated by Apple in macOS 26.4. Although they still run on macOS 27.0.1, a future version could always change that. Something to keep in mind.
