Local AI models fill your Mac’s disk: where they are and how to clean them

A single local model weighs from a few gigabytes to several tens of gigabytes. They pile up silently in hidden folders. Remove the ones you don’t use; they can be downloaded again.

Why they get so big

A language model is a large file of numbers. Even compressed (“quantized”) versions often weigh several gigabytes, and larger models can weigh tens of gigabytes. Try a few models and your disk fills quickly, usually without you noticing, because the folders are hidden.

Ollama

Models live in ~/.ollama/models. List and remove them with Ollama itself:

ollama list
ollama rm model-name

Use the exact name shown by ollama list.

Hugging Face

Libraries that download models (transformers, diffusers…) cache them in ~/.cache/huggingface/hub. The official tool shows what takes space:

huggingface-cli scan-cache
huggingface-cli delete-cache

The second one opens an interactive screen where you pick what to remove. Recent versions of the library are moving to a shorter hf command: if huggingface-cli isn’t found, run hf --help.

LM Studio

Downloaded models are stored in a models folder inside your home, ~/.lmstudio/models in recent versions (older ones used ~/.cache/lm-studio/models). You can also delete them from LM Studio’s “My Models” screen.

Other places

• PyTorch: ~/.cache/torch.
• Whisper and other speech models: often in ~/.cache/whisper.
• pip: pip cache purge clears downloaded packages.
• Image-generation tools (ComfyUI, Stable Diffusion interfaces) keep checkpoints inside their own models folder.

Is it safe to delete them?

Yes, with one cost: you will download the model again if you need it, which takes time and bandwidth. Keep the one or two you use every week and remove the rest. If you fine-tuned a model yourself, make a backup first: that one cannot be downloaded back.

Undig’s Developer mode lists local AI models from these tools with their real size and tells you how to get them back. As always, removal goes through the Trash with a Journal. More tips in the developer cleanup guide.