Developer Om Lahore has released RemoveMacAI, an open-source tool that disables Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and deletes the AI models already downloaded to the Mac. It does more than switch features off: it also prevents the models from being downloaded again, so the storage they occupy can be reclaimed. According to the developer, macOS 27 no longer has a single switch that disables Apple Intelligence all at once, and turning off individual features leaves the models themselves on disk. Some models are shared by several features, however, so how much space can be recovered depends on which features you keep.
The first version was released on September 29, and v0.2.4 followed on October 5. The tool targets Apple silicon Macs running macOS 27. The developer has confirmed that it works on 27.0 and advises using v0.2.3 or later on 27.0.1. macOS 26 and earlier are not supported.
From disabling features to deleting models and blocking re-downloads
RemoveMacAI creates a "configuration profile" that the user approves in System Settings. This is a file for applying managed settings to a Mac. In the profile generation code, which is publicly available, it combines restriction keys for Apple Intelligence with a mechanism that enforces settings values for individual apps. Features that have a dedicated restriction key are disabled with that key, and the rest are disabled by specifying a settings value.
Models are deleted through a separate mechanism. The deletion code loads Apple's private framework, UnifiedAssetFramework, and asks the asset management service to delete model sets. Rather than removing files directly, it goes through the operating system's own management service. The developer says System Integrity Protection (SIP) stays enabled and that files under /System are not modified directly.
If a deleted model were simply downloaded again, there would be little point in freeing the space. So for each model slated for deletion, the configuration profile redirects the download location to a local port that does not accept connections from the Mac itself. The destination specified in the public code is https://127.0.0.1:9/removemacai-blocked/. Making that connection fail prevents the model from being fetched again. The redirect is applied model by model; it does not block all of the Mac's network traffic.
In other words, RemoveMacAI combines three operations: disabling features through settings, deleting models through the asset management service, and preventing each model from being re-downloaded. It runs these together and then guides the user to the configuration profile approval screen. The project also states that it builds on "pared," a tool by 4evy that had earlier investigated the asset management service, model sets and several settings keys.
Keeping some features also keeps the shared models
The --keep option lets you exclude specified features from being disabled. Which features you keep, however, changes which models can be deleted. In the feature list and deletion logic in the public code, each feature is mapped to the models it needs, and a model is marked for deletion only if every feature that uses it is being turned off.
Keeping Writing Tools also keeps the foundation model. Keeping Genmoji or Image Playground keeps the image generation model in addition to the foundation model.
| Feature kept | Model excluded from deletion | What it means for reclaiming space |
|---|---|---|
| Writing Tools, Siri, Mail summaries, etc. | Apple Intelligence foundation model | Even if other features that use the same foundation model are turned off, this model stays |
| Genmoji, Image Playground | Foundation model and image generation model | You cannot keep only the image generation model |
| Spatial photos | Spatial photo model | A model set separate from the foundation model stays |
| Clean Up in Photos | Clean Up model | A model set dedicated to the Photos feature stays |
| Xcode predictive code completion | Code completion model | If you need it for development, you can exclude just this model from deletion |
| External AI extensions such as ChatGPT | No local model is assigned to this feature | Keeping only this extension does not keep the foundation model |
This table summarizes the mapping between features and models in RemoveMacAI's Catalog.swift, as checked on October 6, 2026. If even one of the features that use a given model is kept with --keep, that model is also excluded from deletion. It is not the result of measuring storage on actual hardware, so it does not show how many gigabytes each feature's removal would recover. Also, --keep only excludes a feature from being disabled; it does not automatically turn on features that are already off.
The impact extends widely across Apple's standard features. By default, Siri is also disabled, including voice activation with "Hey Siri" and the menu bar icon. Proofreading, summarization and image generation also stop. According to the developer, dictation keeps working because it uses a separate setting and speech model. It is easy to misjudge the real scope of the impact if you think of this as a tool that wipes out everything AI-related.
Apple's foundation model can also be used by third-party apps. Apple's Foundation Models developer documentation explains how apps call the on-device model, and asks developers to provide fallback behavior for when the model is unavailable. RemoveMacAI likewise says that apps using the Foundation Models framework, and Shortcuts actions that call the on-device model, will be affected. The apps themselves will not necessarily stop working, but the shared model their AI features depend on becomes unavailable.
About 12GB is a rough guide, and space may not return right away
According to the developer's explanation on Reddit, Apple Intelligence-related models occupied about 12GB on their own setup. That is not the amount every Mac can recover. What gets deleted depends on which models are downloaded and which features you keep, so you should first check the breakdown of models on your own machine.
The storage display was also corrected after release. According to the changelog, v0.2.1 changed wording that could be misread as saying free space had returned immediately after deletion. Even after the asset management service releases a model, the OS decides when macOS actually deletes the files. As a result, the Storage screen in System Settings may keep showing Apple Intelligence space for a while.
v0.2.3 fixed a problem on some Macs, including on 27.0.1, where the service reported the size of installed models as zero and the models were consequently not deleted. The tool now prioritizes the list held by the asset management service over per-model status displays when checking sizes. "Size shown as zero," "deletion requested" and "free space actually increased" are each different states.
The tool includes removemacai status, which checks the current state and model sizes, and removemacai off --dry-run, which shows what would be done without making changes. Items whose size cannot be retrieved are shown as unknown and are not treated as zero. In the deletion implementation, if deletion fails or cannot be confirmed as complete, the tool says so and leaves the configuration profile in place. That means it is possible for features to be disabled while model deletion is not complete.
Deprecated keys, a private API and compatibility after OS updates
Apple has already deprecated some of the management keys RemoveMacAI uses. In Apple's published management specification, keys such as allowAssistant, which controls Siri, and allowWritingTools, for Writing Tools, are noted as deprecated from macOS 26.4. The keys controlling Genmoji and Image Playground are the same, and Apple directs users to move to the new declarative device management settings.
However, Apple's newer approach cannot simply be swapped in for a tool aimed at personal Macs. The official Apple Intelligence management settings apply to macOS 26.4 and later, and require the device to be supervised as well as enrolled in the designated device management. The conditions differ from those of a configuration profile that the user approves locally.
Deprecation does not mean a key stops working immediately. Still, the developer's explanation that the configuration profile itself persists after OS updates does not guarantee the settings will keep working the same way in future versions of macOS. The private framework used for model deletion is also different from a public API that Apple guarantees compatibility for with third parties. Being able to use it without disabling SIP is a separate matter from whether it will keep working in future operating systems.
To restore the original state, run removemacai revert to open the settings screen, then remove the configuration profile yourself. This reactivates the original settings, and macOS will download the models again when you use a feature that needs them. Removing the configuration profile does not restore all the deleted models at once.
It is also worth separating what the install-time checks can verify. The distribution script checks the SHA-256 checksum of the downloaded binary. In the release workflow, artifacts built from a tag are given an attestation that lets users verify their origin. A checksum confirms that the distributed file has not been altered, while build attestation confirms where an artifact was produced. Neither guarantees that the code itself is free of problems.
What RemoveMacAI highlights is that users may want to choose not only whether to use on-device AI, but also whether to keep its models in storage. Users need to understand which models stay when they keep a given feature, and app developers need to provide fallback behavior for when shared models are unavailable. If the OS itself let users check each model's size, the features in use and how to restore models after deletion in one place, it would become easier to weigh the AI features they need against free space in concrete terms.