As the features set of Apple Intelligence continued to increase with successive updates, there was always a concern that the base storage requirement would also witness a bump. Sadly, we have to be the bearer of bad news because the company has now stated that you must have 7GB of free space on each Apple device. Previously, we reported that Apple Intelligence’s storage requirements were limited to 4GB, but now, if you want to experience generative AI features, there is a possibility that you purposely skip the base version as your daily driver next time you want to make a purchase.
Bumping up the storage requirements for Apple Intelligence makes sense, as some of the company’s AI models will be running completely on-device
The first Apple Intelligence features were previously scheduled to launch with iOS 18 but were delayed and made their way to iOS 18.1. At the time, Apple had published various requirements if you wanted to begin using Apple Intelligence, which was 4GB of free internal memory. While the amount was not ‘over the top,’ we always contemplated that if the company were to continue increasing the number of features, would it raise those storage requirements? According to the information spotted by 9to5Mac, our hunch was right.
To run Apple Intelligence, you now need almost double the previous amount of storage on each device. The reasoning for upping that number is simple: Apple wants to maintain strict privacy measures for its users, which is why increasing the base storage requirement ensures that compatible devices can run these AI models on-device, and that requires some free space. In the new iOS 18.2 update, features such as Image Playground, Genmoji, ChatGPT support, Image Wand, and others have been added.
With the eventual release of iOS 18.3, which is scheduled to happen this week, if we go by the launch of the previous iOS 17.3 update, those storage requirements could go up once again. If they do, our readers will be the first to be informed about this change, so stay tuned for more updates.