A user on Reddit claims they freed up more than 21GB of storage space on their iPhone by disabling Apple Intelligence — the primary AI feature in the latest versions of iOS. And yes, some Android phones (notably Pixels and other devices that download Gemini Nano via AICore) can also save several gigabytes with this hack too.
Here’s how to save storage on your phone
Just another reason I’ll be taking AI off my phone.
In the same way that Apple Intelligence makes use of background models and assets stored locally on iOS devices, modern Android phones — particularly Google Pixels and Samsung Galaxies —k eep huge on-device AI packages—such as AICore and the local Gemini Nano language models — directly on your internal storage. Over time, these local model files, cached data, and feature updates can take up several gigabytes of space.
The person says that they have saved 21GB of internal storage by turning off Apple Intelligence. They were using the iOS 18 (27 beta), which is a developer preview version of the forthcoming operating system. The iOS 18 betas include considerably larger local AI models than those in the current versions. For users of iOS 17.5.1 (26.6.1), the latest public version, the amount of space that can be freed up is said to be smaller, about 7GB, with exact sizes varying by iOS version and device, and may change as Apple updates the feature.
The reason turning off Apple Intelligence appears to affect the storage space shown in the Photos app is that Apple Intelligence performs image processing directly on your device to enable features such as better search, image recognition, and suggested photo memories. If these AI features are enabled, additional temporary data and indexes are generated and stored to analyze the Photos library more quickly. Turning off Apple Intelligence can remove local AI indexes and cached data that were created for Photos (so the Photos app’s reported space may drop). But results vary: some users see a lasting reclaim, others see temporary changes or compensating shifts into ‘System’ storage as iOS rebalances caches or re-downloads assets later.
Another user in the post said: “A similar thing happened to me. I am running out of storage space, so I turned off Apple Intelligence. I saw an immediate drop of about 23 GB, from the Photos app (I did not check the iOS page). I went and updated all the apps I had put off due to the lack of storage. Once all the apps were updated (~30 min), I went back to check, and the Photos app was back to its original capacity. I’m not fully sure if any space actually freed up from disabling the AI.”
This is likely because Apple Intelligence goes through your pictures to work out which ones are which, and who’s who. When you switch off Intelligence, it removes the data it has collected on the faces of your loved ones and everything you’ve ever snapped with your camera.
If you want to check whether local AI features are eating up your storage and reclaim that space, here’s how you can do it on both iOS and Android devices:
For iPhone (iOS 18 beta):
- On your iPhone, open the Settings app.
- Go down and select Privacy & Security.
- Click on Apple Intelligence.
- Tap Turn Off Apple Intelligence.
You might need to restart your device for the changes to take effect and free up storage.
Note that Apple might alter these steps as iOS 18 progresses; for the moment, disabling the feature can reduce the storage used by the local AI models and data.
For Android
- Open the Settings app on your phone.
- Tap Apps (or Apps & Notifications, then select See all apps).
- Find AICore (on Pixel or stock Android devices) or the equivalent on-device AI system services.
- Tap Storage & cache and then select Clear Storage or Clear Data.
- Return to the previous screen and tap Disable so the app no longer runs or downloads those local assets.
Just remember: if AICore is disabled or these local AI features are removed, various functions that depend on on-device processing won’t work anymore. Features like offline smart replies, some of the summaries offered by Pixel Studio or the recorder, or the advanced on-device generative tools will cease to exist. But the trade-off, it does seem to free up several gigabytes of valuable space on your internal drive.