Apple's Mac User Guide for macOS Tahoe 26 has a one-line step called "Turn off Apple Intelligence": open System Settings, click Apple Intelligence & Siri, then click the button next to Apple Intelligence. The macOS 27 guide has no such step. It lists only per-feature switches, and none of them removes the models. Apple says those models take up to 14 GB, and some users report 20-30 GB. Before you turn off Apple Intelligence on a Mac running macOS 27, decide which kind of "off" you need: the features switched off, the models deleted from disk, or a policy pushed to a fleet of Macs. This guide covers all three and helps you pick one.
Quick answer: how to turn off Apple Intelligence on a Mac in macOS 27
- To stop the features only: switch them off one by one in System Settings, Mail and Messages. This is Apple's supported route. Apple does not document that it frees any disk space.
- To stop the features and get the disk space back: use RemoveMacAI (version 0.2.4 at the time of writing), an open-source, third-party tool. SIP stays on, and you can undo it by removing one configuration profile. It needs an Apple silicon Mac and officially supports macOS 27. On 27.0.1 you need version 0.2.3 or later.
- For managed Macs: push restrictions from your MDM. Supervised Macs should get the newer declarative settings. No MDM key deletes the models.
- Not recommended: turning SIP off in Recovery and deleting the model folders by hand.
Which method fits you
| Settings toggles | RemoveMacAI | MDM profile | SIP-off deletion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turns features off | Yes, one at a time | Yes, all by default, or all except the ones you --keep | Yes, for the features that have a key | Only because the models are gone |
| Frees disk space | Not documented | Yes, once macOS purges the files | No | Yes |
| Blocks re-download | No | Yes (download URL pointed at a closed local port) | No | No |
| SIP stays on | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Supported by Apple | Yes | No (uses a private Apple framework) | Yes (documented keys) | No |
| Undo | Flip the switch back | Remove the profile | Remove the profile or declaration | No clean undo |
| Best for | Most people | Personal Macs that are short on space | IT teams using Jamf, Intune and similar | Nobody |
If you use some features and only want space back, the table points you to RemoveMacAI with --keep. If you are an admin, read the MDM section first: the keys most guides list are deprecated.
Apple Intelligence storage on Mac: how to check it
Go to System Settings > General > Storage, then click the (i) next to macOS. Apple Intelligence has its own line there. Apple's requirements page (published 2026-09-14) gives two tiers:
- Up to 14 GB on Macs with M3 or later and at least 12 GB of unified memory. Both conditions apply, so an M3 alone is not enough.
- Up to 8 GB on other supported Macs, which means M1 or later, plus the MacBook Neo (A18 Pro).
Measurements reported since release are higher than Apple's figures. These are reports, not Apple numbers. MacRumors measured 20.67 GB on an M4 Pro Mac mini, and Reddit users reported 24.35 GB on an M3 Pro MacBook Pro and 30.16 GB on a Release Candidate install. One RemoveMacAI contributor saw 26 GB listed under Apple Intelligence on 27.0.1. After removal, his used data volume dropped from 345 GiB to 318 GiB.
The Storage figure also lags behind reality. The RemoveMacAI README explains that the asset service lets go of the models at once, while macOS purges the files later, and the Storage pane goes on counting them in the meantime. The video makes the same point at 3:10. Apple documents no way to remove Apple Intelligence from Mac storage.
Method 1: per-feature toggles in System Settings
This is the only way Apple documents to turn off Apple Intelligence in macOS 27, in its guide to turning off and restricting Apple Intelligence features.
System Settings > Siri > Turn Off Siri (confirm: Turn Off Siri)
System Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications > off
Messages > Settings > Summarize Messages > off
Mail > Settings > Viewing > Summarize Message Previews > off
Mail > Settings > Composing > Personalize Smart Replies > off
System Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > SiriUntested: I had no macOS machine. Verified against Apple's macOS 27 Mac User Guide pages linked in this section.
How to turn off Apple Intelligence for Mail and Messages on Mac
Mail has two separate switches. Summarize Message Previews is under Viewing, and Personalize Smart Replies is under Composing. In Messages, turn off Summarize Messages. If you only want Siri's old behaviour back, turn Siri off, click Turn On Siri, and choose Use Siri Classic.
The Screen Time route is useful on a child's Mac or any shared Mac. Under Content & Privacy Restrictions > Siri, set Allowed Siri Version to Don't Allow Siri, Siri AI (Beta) or Siri Classic. You can also set individual capabilities such as "Broad World Knowledge" and "Writing Assistance" to Blocked.
Watch: Apple Intelligence Is Using 10 GB! Should You Be Worried? by Let Mike Help
This video is good on the "is it worth worrying about" question. It shows where to check usage (1:33), explains why disabling features doesn't immediately free space and why Apple manages the models on its own schedule (3:10-3:38), and puts 7-15 GB in context next to photos and video (4:28). Two corrections for macOS 27, which shipped after the video was recorded in August. First, the toggle path at 2:29-2:45 matches macOS 26: on 27 there is no master switch, and you turn Siri off from System Settings > Siri. Second, at 3:50 the video says there is no supported way to remove the models. That is still true of Apple's own methods, but SIP-on tools now do it (Method 2).
Video by Let Mike Help, uploaded 2026-08-24.
Method 2: RemoveMacAI, to delete Apple Intelligence models on a Mac
RemoveMacAI (MIT licence) turns the features off, removes the models through Apple's own asset service and blocks them from downloading again. It builds on pared by 4evy, which first showed how to remove the models without disabling SIP. RemoveMacAI's third-party notices say its asset-service interface, model catalog and download block follow that work.
Version note: everything here is pinned to release 0.2.4 (tag v0.2.4, 2026-10-05), checked against main at commit 726dbee. The README on main already describes some behaviour that is not in 0.2.4 yet. It runs only on Apple silicon. It is officially supported on macOS 27 (tested on 27.0), and 27.0.1 needs 0.2.3 or later. The binary refuses to run below macOS 26.
Check the installer before you pipe it into bash
The README's one-liner downloads a script and runs it through a pipe. If you're unsure how shell pipes work, this means bash runs whatever curl receives. Here is what install.sh does:
- Exits unless it is running on macOS (
Darwin) onarm64. - Downloads
removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gzand its.sha256file from the latest release into a temporary directory. - Compares the two with
shasum -a 256. If they differ, it prints "The download does not match its checksum, so it was not run." and exits. - Extracts the archive, runs the binary, and deletes the temporary directory when it finishes.
There is a catch. The checksum comes from the same release as the tarball, so it catches a corrupted download but not a compromised release. GitHub's build provenance attestation is the stronger check, and so is Homebrew's pinned sha256. Note also that the script honours a REMOVEMACAI_URL environment variable that overrides where it downloads from. Make sure it isn't set. More generally, here is how to vet an open-source project before you run it.
curl -fsSLO https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/releases/latest/download/removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
curl -fsSLO https://github.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/releases/latest/download/removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz.sha256
shasum -a 256 -c removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz.sha256 # macOS
gh attestation verify removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz -R omlahore/RemoveMacAI
gh attestation verify removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz -R omlahore/RemoveMacAI \
--signer-workflow omlahore/RemoveMacAI/.github/workflows/release.ymlTested on Windows 11, Git Bash 5.2 and gh 2.97.0 (2026-10-06). On Windows I used sha256sum in place of shasum, which is untested here. The hash matched: 72c3b2a24f031ca61c11de55126d1afc2a000f51969d09a9fbed936b6026c025. Both gh attestation verify commands exited 0 for v0.2.4. The JSON output showed SLSA provenance built from refs/tags/v0.2.4 at commit e64d4fa by the repo's release.yml on a GitHub-hosted runner. When output isn't going to a terminal, gh prints nothing on success, so add --format json or check $?. Releases before 0.2.3 have no attestation. On v0.2.0 the command failed with:
Error: HTTP 404: Not Found (https://api.github.com/repos/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/attestations/sha256:faca37e0…)As a sanity check, running bash install.sh in Git Bash on Windows printed RemoveMacAI is for macOS., exited with status 1 and downloaded nothing. Those release checks are the only parts of this post I actually ran. Everything below that runs on macOS is untested.
Install, dry-run, then run
# read it first
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | less
# one-line run (nothing installed; runs from a temp dir)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash
# or Homebrew (pinned sha256 in the formula)
brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai
removemacai status
removemacai features
removemacai off --dry-run
removemacai off --keep writing-tools,mail
removemacai # overview, asks [y/N], then installs profile + removes models
removemacai --versionUntested: macOS only. Verified against the RemoveMacAI README and Sources/removemacai/main.swift (v0.2.4).
I'd use the Homebrew tap. The formula pins v0.2.4 by sha256, installs the prebuilt binary and runs removemacai selftest as its test. Run off --dry-run first. It writes the profile it would install to $TMPDIR/RemoveMacAI.mobileconfig, lists the model sets it would delete, and changes nothing.
--keep takes comma-separated ids from removemacai features: siri, chatgpt, writing-tools, genmoji, image-playground, mail, notification-summaries, messages-summaries, safari-summaries, notes-summaries, inline-predictions, spatial-photos, photos-clean-up, xcode-completion. A model set is removed only if every feature that needs it is being turned off. In scripts, add --yes. Without a terminal it stops with "run it in a terminal, or add --yes".
RemoveMacAI: how it works
- A configuration profile (
io.github.omlahore.removemacai, system scope) is saved to~/Downloadsand opened. You approve it in System Settings, and the tool waits up to 10 minutes for you to do so. The profile sets 10 Apple restriction keys to false, includingallowWritingTools,allowGenmojiandallowExternalIntelligenceIntegrations. For features that have no restriction key, it forces preferences instead: Mail's automatic summaries, Messages and notification summaries, inline predictions and Spatial Photos. - Model removal loads Apple's private
UnifiedAssetFrameworkand asks thecom.apple.siri.uaf.subscription.serviceto runResetAssetSets, one set at a time. There are five sets: foundation models, visual (image and Genmoji), Spatial Photos, Clean Up and Xcode's code model. If a class or selector is missing, it fails closed rather than guessing. - The download block points each removed set's download server at
https://127.0.0.1:9/removemacai-blocked/. Port 9 is the loopback discard port, and nothing normally listens on it. - SIP stays on. The tool never writes under
/System. My scan of the 0.2.4 binary found no URLs other than the two127.0.0.1:9ones.
The trade-off is that the tool depends on a private API and on deprecated restriction keys. The maintainer reports that macOS 27.0 still honours those keys. A later macOS update could stop honouring them, and that is where the tool would break.
Method 3: disable Apple Intelligence on macOS with Jamf, Intune or another MDM
Most admin guides still list the com.apple.applicationaccess keys (allowWritingTools, allowGenmoji, allowImagePlayground and others). Apple's Restrictions reference marks every one of them deprecated in macOS 26.4+. Their replacements are declarative configurations that apply only to supervised Macs:
com.apple.configuration.intelligence.settings(IntelligenceSettings) covers Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence (macOS 27+) and per-app settings for Mail, Safari, Notes and Calendar.com.apple.configuration.siri.settingsusesAllowSiriAI(macOS 27+).com.apple.configuration.external-intelligence.settingscontrols ChatGPT.
{
"Type": "com.apple.configuration.intelligence.settings",
"Identifier": "com.example.intelligence.off",
"ServerToken": "1",
"Payload": {
"AllowWritingTools": false,
"AllowGenmoji": false,
"AllowImagePlayground": false,
"AllowVisualIntelligence": false,
"Apps": {
"Mail": { "AllowSummary": false, "AllowSmartReplies": false },
"Safari": { "AllowSummary": false },
"Notes": { "AllowTranscriptionSummary": false },
"Calendar": { "AllowNaturalLanguageEditing": false }
}
}
}Tested only as a JSON syntax check (Python 3.12.10). Delivering it through an MDM is untested. Jamf and Intune build declarations from their UI, so treat this as a description of the keys rather than a file to upload. According to Jamf, Jamf Pro handles this through Blueprints (declarative management) or configuration profiles. For Intune, I couldn't verify the details. Intune's Settings Catalog exposes Apple's declarative and Restrictions settings, so check whether IntelligenceSettings is listed for your tenant.
For unsupervised Macs, or a profile you install yourself, only the deprecated keys are available. This script generates a minimal profile:
# mkprofile.py - minimal com.apple.applicationaccess profile
import plistlib, uuid
keys = ["allowWritingTools","allowGenmoji","allowImagePlayground","allowMailSummary",
"allowMailSmartReplies","allowSafariSummary","allowNotesTranscriptionSummary",
"allowExternalIntelligenceIntegrations","allowExternalIntelligenceIntegrationsSignIn"]
restr = {"PayloadType":"com.apple.applicationaccess","PayloadVersion":1,
"PayloadIdentifier":"com.example.ai-restrictions.restrictions",
"PayloadUUID":str(uuid.uuid4()).upper(),"PayloadDisplayName":"Apple Intelligence restrictions"}
restr.update({k: False for k in keys})
profile = {"PayloadType":"Configuration","PayloadVersion":1,
"PayloadIdentifier":"com.example.ai-restrictions","PayloadUUID":str(uuid.uuid4()).upper(),
"PayloadDisplayName":"Apple Intelligence restrictions","PayloadScope":"System",
"PayloadContent":[restr]}
open("ai-restrictions.mobileconfig","wb").write(plistlib.dumps(profile))Tested on Python 3.12.10 (Windows, 2026-10-06). It writes a valid XML plist with the 9 keys set to false. Installing it on a Mac and running plutil -lint are untested. Two gotchas. First, allowMailSummary only blocks summaries the user asks for. Apple says it "doesn't affect automatic summary generation", which is why RemoveMacAI also forces the Mail preference. Second, neither MDM route deletes the models.
Why not delete the model folders with SIP off
The models live under /System/Library/AssetsV2/, which System Integrity Protection guards. Some guides tell you to boot into Recovery, turn SIP off and delete those folders. I'm not repeating the steps, for these reasons:
- Apple describes turning off SIP as a temporary step for developers. It warns that leaving SIP off "leaves your computer vulnerable to malicious code."
- Deleting the folders bypasses the asset service's own bookkeeping, and nothing stops macOS from downloading the models again. Apple's Foundation Models documentation says models "are downloaded automatically based on factors like network status, battery level, and system load."
- One public script for this, tejyash/delete-apple-intelligence-macos, targets macOS 26.0.1 and hasn't been updated since October 2025.
RemoveMacAI and pared exist precisely so you don't have to do this.
What stops working, especially for developers
| Feature | After RemoveMacAI (default) |
|---|---|
| Foundation Models framework apps | SystemLanguageModel reports unavailable. Apps must handle this. |
| Xcode predictive code completion | Its CodeLM model set is removed. Keep it with --keep xcode-completion. |
| Shortcuts "Use Model", On-Device | No local model. Whether the Cloud options still work is unverified. |
| Visual Intelligence, Calendar natural-language editing | Stop because their models are gone. A self-installed profile can't switch them off directly. |
| Dictation | Still works in 0.2.4, because its speech models aren't touched. |
If you ship an app that uses Foundation Models, test all the unavailable cases. Some of your users will have removed the models. I haven't verified which reason a Mac returns after RemoveMacAI, so handle all of them:
import FoundationModels
switch SystemLanguageModel.default.availability {
case .available: print("available")
case .unavailable(.appleIntelligenceNotEnabled): print("Apple Intelligence off")
case .unavailable(.modelNotReady): print("model not on disk / downloading")
case .unavailable(.deviceNotEligible): print("device not eligible")
case .unavailable(let other): print("unavailable: \(other)")
}Untested: needs macOS 26+ and Xcode on Apple silicon. Verified against Apple's SystemLanguageModel docs.
How to revert each method
- Settings: turn the switches back on.
- MDM: remove the profile or declaration from the Mac's assignments.
- RemoveMacAI: remove the "RemoveMacAI" profile. Your own settings come back, and macOS downloads the models again when you turn a feature back on.
removemacai revert
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash -s revert
sudo profiles remove -identifier io.github.omlahore.removemacai # printed by revert as the terminal alternative
brew uninstall removemacaiUntested: macOS only. Verified against the README, the install.sh header and Commands.swift.revert (alias on) opens System Settings > Profiles for you.
Should I turn off Apple Intelligence on my Mac? A checklist
- Keep it if you use Writing Tools, Siri AI or Xcode completion, or if you're building on Foundation Models. As the video argues at 4:28, 7-15 GB may be less than your photo library.
- Turn off individual features if a summary or smart reply annoys you, or if you want ChatGPT blocked. The video points out (7:20) that Siri asks before it contacts ChatGPT by default.
- Remove the models if your disk is nearly full, you don't use the features, and you're comfortable relying on a third-party tool that uses a private API.
- Use MDM if the Mac belongs to an organisation. Don't run personal tools on managed machines.
- Leave SIP alone whatever you decide.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Storage still shows Apple Intelligence after removal | macOS deletes released files on its own schedule | Wait. Since 0.2.1 the tool no longer claims the space is freed straight away. |
| A process named Siri is running after Siri was turned off | According to the RemoveMacAI README, Spotlight's window on macOS 27 shows up under the process name Siri (not confirmed in Apple docs) | Expected if you use Spotlight search on Mac |
off removed nothing on 27.0.1 | Before 0.2.3, the tool read installed sizes as 0 | Upgrade to 0.2.3 or later |
…SpatialPhotosRelive no longer matches this version of RemoveMacAI; nothing removed | Asset-type mismatch (seen on 26.5) | 0.2.4 skips the mismatched set and removes the others |
off exits with status 1 | In 0.2.4 this happens only if you don't approve the profile within 10 minutes ("The profile is not installed yet…"). The model step always prints "Done." | Approve it in System Settings and run again. The README on main says a later release will also exit 1 when removal is incomplete, so check this against the version you install. |
Siri is still off after --keep siri | --keep only stops the profile locking Siri. It doesn't turn Siri back on. | Turn Siri on again in System Settings |
gh attestation verify returns HTTP 404 | The release is older than 0.2.3 | Use 0.2.4 or later |
FAQ
Can you turn off Apple Intelligence completely in macOS 27?
Not with one switch. The macOS 27 guide lists only per-feature settings plus Screen Time restrictions. The single Apple Intelligence button appears only in the macOS Tahoe 26 guide.
Does turning it off free up the storage?
Apple documents no way to reclaim the space. Turning features off leaves the models on disk. Even after a tool releases them, Storage keeps counting them until macOS purges the files.
How much space does Apple Intelligence use on a Mac?
Apple says up to 14 GB on M3-or-later Macs with at least 12 GB of unified memory, and up to 8 GB on other supported Macs. Users have reported 20-30 GB on macOS 27.
How do I disable Apple Intelligence with Jamf or Intune?
On supervised Macs, use the IntelligenceSettings, SiriSettings and ExternalIntelligenceSettings declarations. On other Macs, use the Restrictions keys. They are deprecated in 26.4+ but, according to the RemoveMacAI maintainer, still honoured on 27.0. Neither route deletes the models.
Is RemoveMacAI safe?
SIP stays on, the profile can be removed, the binary contains no outbound URLs, and v0.2.4 passes GitHub attestation verification. The risk is that it depends on a private Apple API and deprecated keys, so a macOS update could break it. Run --dry-run first.
Last updated: 2026-10-06; RemoveMacAI 0.2.4 release verification tested on Windows 11 (Git Bash 5.2, gh 2.97.0), profile script on Python 3.12.10; macOS steps untested, verified against Apple docs for macOS 27.0/27.0.1 and RemoveMacAI source at 726dbee.