Apple has quietly increased the amount of storage required for its Apple Intelligence AI service. With the iOS 18.2 update, the system now requires 7GB of free space on every device – iPhone, iPad, or Mac. This is almost double the 4 GB previously required with the release of iOS 18.1.
What you should know
The increased requirements are due to the addition of new features in iOS 18.2, such as Genmoji, ChatGPT integration in Siri, Image Playground, advanced image processing capabilities, and improved Compose with ChatGPT functionality. All of these features work primarily locally, which explains the significant amount of memory occupied. Disabling individual features to reduce storage space requirements is not possible. Using Apple Intelligence on three devices simultaneously will require 21 GB of free space. Analysts predict further growth in storage requirements.
Expected Siri updates in iOS 18.4 could raise the bar to 10 GB per device in the coming months. In this regard, experts recommend that users pay attention to models with increased built-in storage when buying a new iPhone, iPad or Mac.