Why do I have an available storage discrepancy?

Ignore the very misleading "Available" storage value shown every where in macOS.

The only important storage value is the actual Free space value which is only shown in the System Profiler and Disk Utility.

Unfortunately while "Available" and "Free" appear to be synonyms, they in fact have completely different meanings within macOS, although under certain circumstances they can have the same value.

Free space is storage that can be used immediately. This is the most important storage value with macOS.

Available space is storage that may or may not be immediately usable (or some portion of it). It may contain Purgeable storage that may be released at some unknown time in the future.

Free space = Available space - Purgeable space

Available space = Free space + Purgeable space

Maybe Disk utility detects all space is available (not including all the files that are waiting in line to be really deleted) but settings detects all space that SHOULD be available (including the waiting files) and is available

"Why do I have an available storage discrepancy?: On a 1TB M2 MacBook Air, the Finder shows that 700 GBs are available, while Disk Utility shows that 400 GBs are available."

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Storage Discrepancy:

Where do you see this storage in Finder? It's not part of the finder GUI when you open it up. I see no difference...

1. Go to: Finder menu
2. Click: File menu
3. Select: New Finder Window
4. Go to: View menu
5. Click: Show Sidebar
6. Right-Click: on the drive
7. Select: Get Info

"Here's what I see in the Finder.: Get Info has a different calculation than either Disk Utility or the Finder."

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Thank you for the screenshot.

Folder Size:

It appears you are looking at the size of one folder (466.76GB), and not the entire Hard Drive.