This is how much iPhone storage Apple Intelligence will require

Apple Intelligence is releasing soon as part of iOS 18.1. When it does, you may need to free up some additional storage on your iPhone. Here are the storage requirements for Apple Intelligence at launch, and why they’ll grow over time.

4GB storage requirement for iPhone 16 and more

According to an Apple-published document included in the latest iOS 18.1 beta, Apple Intelligence will have a specific storage requirement when it debuts.

Here’s what the document states, as found in a section labeled ‘Supported Devices’:

Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, all iPhone 16 models, and iPad and Mac models with M1 and later. iPhone devices need 4GB of storage*.

Now we know that 4GB will be the storage required to install and use Apple Intelligence features. This is on top of the storage required to install the iOS 18.1 update itself.

Interestingly, only iPhones are mentioned as having the 4GB storage requirement.

Perhaps there’s a different requirement for iPads and Macs. Or, maybe there’s some other reason Apple has chosen not to share that information.

You may have noticed the asterisk at the end of the quote. That’s because 4GB is just a starting place for the initial set of AI features.

More storage required for future Apple Intelligence features

The footnote at the end of Apple’s documentation notes: “Storage requirements for on-device Apple Intelligence models will increase as more features roll out.”

It’s unclear exactly how much additional storage may be required by further AI models. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the starting requirement double over time, getting up to 8GB over the year ahead.

If you’re someone who tends to keep your iPhone storage pretty full, though, it may be time to start identifying cuts you can make to free up space. Or, if you’re in the market for a new iPhone 16 or 16 Pro, maybe avoid the 128GB options this year.

Are you concerned about the storage requirements for Apple Intelligence? Let us know in the comments.

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