Apple Intelligence is now eating up more iPhone storage. Here’s how to turn it off

If your iPhone or iPad is running low on free storage, you may want to think twice about activating Apple Intelligence. When the first features were made available in iOS 18.1, Apple said that the Apple Intelligence features needed at least 4 GB of space. Now with iOS 18.2this requirement is there jump to 7GB. what’s going on

Since much of the processing for features such as text summaries, Image Playground, Image stickwriting instruments and Genmoji happened on the device, iOS needs to store AI libraries locally and uses some storage space for caches and other temporary files. This makes things tighter if you’ve already hit the edges of your device’s storage.

See also: How to get your iCloud storage back.

It’s also possible that you just don’t care, which would put you in the majority. New SellCell survey shows that 73% of Apple users think AI adds little or no value to the phone experience, while CNET found that 25% of smartphone owners don’t care at all.

If you don’t like Apple Intelligence, or if you’d rather wait until the technology matures a bit more, it’s easy to turn it off entirely or selectively disable some of the features.

I’m not AI crank — I appreciate features like notification summaries and Cleaning tool in the Photos app. Still, Apple Intelligence is also a work in progress, an evolving set of features that Apple is heavily touting as it gradually develops them. I wouldn’t judge you if you want to not be distracted or feel like you’re doing Apple’s tests for them (that’s developers and public betas are for).

Remember that Apple Intelligence only works on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro or M-series Macs and iPads (plus the latest iPad mini). And if you already are updated to iOS 18.2you should add yourself to the queue to access the new features.

Here’s what you need to know about disabling it.

Watch this: Does Apple think we’re stupid? Apple Intelligence Ads Say Yes.

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How to Turn Off Apple Intelligence Completely (iPhone, iPad, and Mac)

Open up Settings (iPhone or iPad) or System settings (Mac) and select Apple Intelligence & Siri. Then turn off Apple Intelligence option. Confirm your selection in the dialog that appears by tapping Turn off Apple Intelligence.

Here’s what you lose:

(Curiously, the Clean Up tool in Photos sticks around even when Apple Intelligence is turned off, perhaps because the first time you use it, the app pulls resources for it.)

How to turn off individual Apple Intelligence features

Maybe you find some Apple Intelligence features useful, while others are annoying (or just loud fun). You can turn off certain features in the settings for the apps they apply to.

For example, to disable text summaries in message notifications, go to Settings > Apps > Messaging and turn off Summarizing messages option.

Some functions are not so application specific. Writing tools that use Apple Intelligence to check or rewrite text appear as an option when you select text, regardless of the application. To turn this off, you need to disable Apple Intelligence system-wide.

Also note that almost every app includes an Apple Intelligence & Siri option in Settings, with a Learn from this app option (on by default). This only applies to whether Apple Intelligence and Siri can observe how you use them to make suggestions; this does not affect specific Apple Intelligence features.

How to see the amount of storage that Apple Intelligence is using

If you are concerned about the storage requirements of Apple Intelligence, you can find out how much the system is using by going to Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad) Storage > iOS (or iPadOS).

Unfortunately, from my testing, it doesn’t appear that turning off Apple Intelligence restores this storage: After doing so and restarting my devices, Apple Intelligence the item and amount are unchanged.

For more information on iOS 18.2, see how the Mail app in iOS 18.2 sorts messages into categories and if you haven’t upgraded yet, make a good backup first.