The macOS 27 Golden Gate update can eat a large chunk of a Mac’s drive. Apple Intelligence has been measured at up to 30GB on some Macs, which hurts most on a 256GB model.
Apple’s own storage guide explains where to look and what is safe to remove. The steps below follow it and add the macOS 27 details that matter right now.
Check What Is Using Your Storage First
A baseline number makes it obvious whether a cleanup worked.
- Open the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
- Click General in the sidebar, then click Storage.
- Give your Mac a moment to calculate the categories, then note how much is free.
- Click the info button beside macOS, or More Info beside any other category, to see what is inside it.
System Data can look inflated for the first few hours or days after the update, because Spotlight rebuilds its index and iCloud resyncs. Restart the Mac and check again after a couple of days before deleting anything. A large System Data number also does not mean Apple Intelligence is responsible, since the Storage screen does not list the models as a separate item.
Six Safe Ways to Get Storage Back
- Empty the Trash, because files stay on the drive until it is emptied
- Delete the leftover Install macOS Golden Gate app from the Applications folder if it is still there
- Remove large files and apps you no longer use from the Documents and Applications categories
- Clear old iPhone and iPad backups and finished downloads
- Turn on the storage recommendations in the same Storage screen, such as Store in iCloud and Optimize Storage, if they are listed
- Restart in safe mode, which clears some system caches that get created again as needed
Safe mode only frees a small amount, and the caches come back over time. It helps most when a Mac is too full to finish an update or a download.
What to Do About the Apple Intelligence Models
Apple lists up to 14GB of on-device storage for Macs with an M3 chip or later and at least 12GB of unified memory, and up to 8GB for other compatible Macs. Apple’s Mac guide lets you turn off Siri AI, switch back to Siri Classic and disable Apple Intelligence summaries and suggestions in Messages, Mail, Notifications, Phone and Journal. None of those controls is documented as freeing the model files.
Do not delete Apple Intelligence files from system folders, and skip the Terminal commands that circulate online. The system manages those assets itself, and removing them by hand can cause problems. Turning features off may also take hours or a day before the Storage screen changes.
A Mac with soldered storage such as the M6 Mac mini cannot be upgraded later, so the 512GB configuration is the safer buy for anyone planning to keep Apple Intelligence on. Other post-update issues are covered in our common macOS 27 problems guide.
The Trash, old installers and forgotten backups are the quick wins, and they can free a few gigabytes in minutes. The Apple Intelligence models are the part you cannot do much about, so I would plan around them by leaving 30GB of headroom on any Mac that has a small drive.
