Turn off Apple Intelligence on macOS 27 and remove its downloaded models.
macOS 27 no longer has a single switch for Apple Intelligence, and its models stay on disk after the features are turned off. RemoveMacAI turns the features off, removes the models and prevents macOS from downloading them again. All changes can be reverted.
Demo video
Install
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash
The script downloads the latest release, verifies its SHA-256 checksum and runs it from a temporary directory. Nothing is installed.
Every release is built from its tag by GitHub Actions and carries a build provenance attestation. To check that a download came from this repository's source:
gh attestation verify removemacai-darwin-arm64.tar.gz -R omlahore/RemoveMacAI
With Homebrew:
brew install omlahore/tap/removemacai
removemacai
RemoveMacAI shows the current state and asks for confirmation. It then opens System Settings to install its configuration profile, which macOS requires the user to approve, and removes the models.
Usage
| Command |
Description |
removemacai |
Show the current state, then turn Apple Intelligence off |
removemacai status |
Show each feature and the size of the models on disk |
removemacai off --keep <features> |
Leave the listed features on |
removemacai off --dry-run |
Show the changes without applying them |
removemacai revert |
Undo all changes |
removemacai features |
List the feature names accepted by --keep |
To revert with the one-line installer:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/omlahore/RemoveMacAI/main/install.sh | bash -s revert
What it changes
Features turned off: Siri (including "Hey Siri" and the menu bar icon), Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, the ChatGPT extension, summaries in Mail, Messages, Safari, Notes and notifications, Mail smart replies, inline text predictions, Spatial Photos, Photos Clean Up and Xcode predictive code completion.
Models removed: the Apple Intelligence foundation models and the models for image generation and Genmoji, Spatial Photos, Photos Clean Up and Xcode code completion.
How it works
- A configuration profile applies Apple's restriction keys for Apple Intelligence and forces the settings that have no restriction key.
- Models are removed through Apple's asset service. System Integrity Protection stays enabled and no files under
/System are modified directly.
- The profile redirects the download of each removed model to a closed local port, so macOS does not download it again.
- Removing the profile restores the previous settings. macOS downloads the models again when a feature needs them.
RemoveMacAI makes no network requests and collects no data.
FAQ
Does dictation still work? Yes. Dictation is a separate setting, and its speech models are not removed.
Do macOS updates undo the changes? No. The profile, including the download block, persists across updates.
Storage settings still lists Apple Intelligence after the models were deleted. Apple's asset service releases the models right away, but macOS deletes the files on its own schedule. Until then, System Settings > General > Storage keeps counting them under Apple Intelligence.
Why is a process named Siri still running? In macOS 27 the Spotlight window runs as a process named Siri. Some system services also stay loaded; they are protected by System Integrity Protection.
What stops working? The features listed above, apps that use Apple's on-device models (the Foundation Models framework and the Use Model action in Shortcuts), Visual Intelligence and natural-language editing in Calendar.
Requirements
Apple silicon.
| macOS |
Status |
| 27 |
Supported, tested on 27.0. On 27.0.1, use 0.2.3 or later. |
| 26 and earlier |
Not supported |
Uninstall
Run removemacai revert, then brew uninstall removemacai if it was installed with Homebrew.
Acknowledgements
RemoveMacAI is built on pared, a complete working tool by 4evy that first mapped the asset service, the model sets and several of the settings keys. Its license is in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
License
MIT
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