Turn off Apple Intelligence in macOS 27
Siri
- You will need to enable Screen Time to block Siri. Go to System Settings > Screen Time > Contents & Privacy.
- Turn off the Contents & Privacy switch at the top of the screen.
- Click Siri.
- Change Siri to Siri Classic.
- Go through the list of Capabilities and turn each one off.
Notifications
- Go to System Settings > Notifications.
- Turn off the Summarize notifications.
Messages
- Launch Messages.
- Go to Settings > General.
- Turn off Summarize Messages.
- Launch Mail.
- Go to Settings > Viewing.
- Turn off Summarize Message Previews.
- Go to Settings > Composing.
- Turn off Personalize Smart Replies.
- Go to the View menu and make sure Show Mail Categories is not checked
Journal
- Launch Journal.
- Go to Settings > General.
- Turn off Get Writing Prompts.
See: Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac - Apple Support
Finder & other apps
- In Finder, go to Finder > Settings
- Uncheck Suggest file names
Thanks to itsmeaf for the tip!
Siri & other apps
- Go to System Settings > Siri.
- Click on App Access.
- Click on each app and…
- Turn off Learn from this application.
- Turn off Show Siri Suggestions in application, if shown.
- Repeat for each app in the list, there should be at least 70 of them.
See: Customize Siri on Mac - Apple Support
Note: In System Settings > Privacy & Security, there is an Apple Intelligence Report. I recommend keeping this setting turned on so that you can verify that Apple Intelligence is truly not functioning.
Also review Analytics & Improvements and Apple Advertising to ensure you know what information is being sent back to Apple and other companies.
Sep 15, 2026 9:23 PM
Excellent write-up. Clearly written and easy to follow. Thank you very much!
Sep 15, 2026 9:23 PM
Sep 17, 2026 6:26 PM
Excellent!
This works similarly in iPadOS 27. I believe though that I had to setup a language mismatch for Siri that forced the OS to fully remove all the gobbled up space that Apple Intelligence uses. For the Siri Language, I had to change it to a language that Siri does not support. In my case, I switched it from "English (United States)" to "English (Australia)" but kept the Voice at "American". It was (seemingly) only then that the OS cleared out the storage...not immediately but I'm unsure how long it actually took.
Now looking at my storage space, the OS has given me back the ~6-7 GB that it was holding ransom...iPadOS now takes up ~14.13 GB instead of the previously used ~21 GB and Apple Intelligence is mentioned nowhere as it was combined with the "Total Size" of the iPadOS.
I'm still running macOS Sequoia 15.8 so I can't try your procedure on my Mac.
Do the instructions listed above for macOS also clear out the AI junk from macOS? If it doesn't, maybe give the language mismatch trick a try so see if it does.
Thanks, etresoft
Sep 17, 2026 6:26 PM
Sep 20, 2026 1:52 PM
Using an MDM payload might help here, too:
Per the linked Apple documentation, the following settings are all available on 26.4 and later, on Mac and macOS, on iPad and iPadOS, and on iPhone and iOS.
Have a look at using Apple Configurator app to access this. (I’ll be checking that myself during the week.)
Big downside: requires supervision. Apple is really making this difficult to disable.
Sep 20, 2026 1:52 PM
Sep 20, 2026 5:35 PM
Thanks @MrHoffman as well. Great info.
I have verified that Apple Intelligence has truly stayed off (ALL assets removed) of all three of the iPadOS devices I've disabled it on. I'm unsure if this is due to the disabling of the above similar settings, the Siri voice change to an unsupported locale or both combined.
Now that it's off, I don't feel like experimenting with it and re-enabling it.
Sep 20, 2026 5:35 PM