Apple’s new Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27 require considerably more storage on some newer iPhones, with the requirement climbing from 8GB to as much as 14GB. The higher figure applies to models that run Apple’s more advanced AI models directly on the device.
According to Apple’s support document, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air require up to 14GB of available storage for the complete Apple Intelligence experience. Other supported iPhones continue to require up to 8GB, so their storage requirement remains unchanged after updating to iOS 27.
The additional storage supports more demanding on-device features, including improved dictation accuracy and Siri AI voice customization for expressivity and speaking pace. These capabilities use Apple’s more powerful local AI model, which explains the larger storage footprint on supported hardware.
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iOS 27 pushes Apple Intelligence storage requirements higher
Apple lists the new storage requirements alongside the broader system requirements for its next generation of Apple Intelligence:
“Up to 14 GB of storage on device for iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, iPhone Air, iPad models with M4 and later and at least 12GB of unified memory, Mac models with M3 and later and at least 12GB of unified memory, and Apple Vision Pro (M5)
Up to 8 GB of storage for other Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro models
Up to 1.5GB of storage is required on Apple Watch”
The change means storage capacity now affects the complete Apple Intelligence experience differently across supported iPhones. Users with newer hardware need to keep several additional gigabytes available if they want access to every supported iOS 27 AI feature.
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