Apple Intelligence will eat up 4GB of storage on your iPhone

With October right around the corner, Apple is gearing up for the big launch of Apple Intelligence. We already know that it requires a healthy 8GB of RAM to run, but now we’ve learned that it also needs a bit of storage as well.

According to a support document, “Introducing Apple Intelligence on iPhone,” any iPhone running Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 or later will need 4GB of storage dedicated to the feature. That effectively lowers entry-level storage from 128GB to 124GB for the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, and 16 Pro, and 256GB to 252GB on the iPhone 16 Pro Max. 

A footnote on the page indicates that “Storage requirements for on-device Apple Intelligence models will increase as more features roll out.” Presumably, that means unannounced features that would arrive in iOS 19 and later, but it could mean that the iOS 18 features coming next year, including the next-gen Siri, could require more.  

It’s not clear what the 4GB of space is needed for or why a similar document for the iPad doesn’t list the same requirement. The Mac isn’t mentioned either other than to say an M1 processor and later is required.

Apple Intelligence will roll out in stages beginning with iOS 18.1 next month. The first round of features will deliver Writing Tools including text and notification summaries, “a more capable and conversational Siri,” and better Photos search. This will be followed by image creation features including Genmoji and the Image Playground, as well as context-aware Siri, and ChatGPT integration.

Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor, Macworld