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Free Up Disk Space From AI Tools on Mac: The Complete Checklist

Last updated: 2026-10-01

To free up disk space from AI tools on Mac, measure first, then remove what you no longer use, starting with the biggest folders. Local models, container images and package caches can add up, and most of them sit in hidden folders. This checklist covers the tools AiKiller has detection rules for, plus Docker Desktop and two general caches. Every manual step below works without any paid software.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of AiKiller (Yogi Software Works), a paid Mac app that can do part of this cleanup. The manual steps below work without it.

Step 0: Back up and quit the tools

Run a Time Machine backup or copy anything you want to keep. Quit the apps and stop running servers first, so no files are in use. Deletion with rm is permanent.

Step 1: Audit what you have

This read-only block prints the size of each location that exists and lists matching apps in /Applications. Nothing is printed for items you do not have:

for p in ~/.ollama ~/.cache/huggingface ~/.cache/lm-studio ~/.lmstudio ~/.cache/vllm \
  ~/.claude ~/.claude.json ~/.config/claude-code \
  "$HOME/Library/Application Support/com.openai.chat" \
  "$HOME/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker"; do
  [ -e "$p" ] && du -sh "$p"
done
ls /Applications | grep -i -E 'ollama|chatgpt|claude|docker|lm.studio'

Except for the Docker line, the paths come from AiKiller's detection rules, which are also what the guides for Ollama and ChatGPT and Claude Code use. The Docker path is the one shown in Docker's documentation. If you want to understand where the rest of your disk went, see Why is System Data so big on my Mac?.

Step 2: Go through the checklist, biggest first

Ollama models

Models are under ~/.ollama/models by default (see the Ollama FAQ; OLLAMA_MODELS can change it). Remove models you do not use with Ollama's own commands, per the CLI reference:

ollama ls
ollama rm <model>

More on how the folder is organized is in Where Ollama Stores Models on Mac, and How to Delete Them. Removing the whole ~/.ollama folder also removes your custom models and Ollama's public key file. The full procedure is in How to remove Ollama from Mac.

Hugging Face cache

The default is ~/.cache/huggingface/hub (see the cache documentation). List and remove repositories with the hf tool; --dry-run previews the result, and hf cache prune removes unreferenced revisions and leftover incomplete downloads:

hf cache ls
hf cache rm model/<org>/<name> --dry-run
hf cache prune

Do not remove the whole ~/.cache/huggingface folder unless you also intend to lose a stored login token, which the documentation places at ~/.cache/huggingface/token by default. More in the LM Studio and Hugging Face guide.

LM Studio models

LM Studio's documentation shows models under ~/.lmstudio/models, and AiKiller also checks ~/.cache/lm-studio/models. List them with lms ls if you have the command-line tool, or see the LM Studio and Hugging Face guide for file-level steps. LM Studio's own folder can also take space even when no models are downloaded; see What else lives in ~/.lmstudio.

vLLM cache

~/.cache/vllm is the vLLM location in AiKiller's detection rules. We did not find it in official documentation, so check what is inside before you remove it.

Docker Desktop disk image

Docker Desktop keeps containers and images in one large disk image file. Per Docker's documentation, you can find its location and size in Settings → Resources → Advanced, and many tools report the maximum size rather than the space actually used. To see the actual size, Docker documents:

cd ~/Library/Containers/com.docker.docker/Data/vms/0/data
ls -klsh Docker.raw

Docker's documentation also lists what to do if the file is too big: delete unnecessary containers and images, reduce the maximum size, or move it with the Settings option (do not move it in Finder). To see where the space goes, and to remove stopped containers, unused networks, dangling images and build cache:

docker system df -v
docker system prune

Read the prompt before confirming. Volumes can hold data you want, and Docker states that reducing the maximum size deletes the current disk image, so all containers and images are lost. How to read the file's real size and what each option removes is covered in Docker.raw Is Eating My Mac: How to Shrink It.

Claude Code and ChatGPT leftovers

~/.claude, ~/.config/claude-code and ~/.claude.json belong to the Claude Code command-line tool, and ~/Library/Application Support/com.openai.chat belongs to the ChatGPT desktop app. Some of these locations may hold sign-in data or settings, so look inside and back up what you need first. The steps are in How to remove ChatGPT and Claude Code leftovers from Mac.

Python and Homebrew caches

Python environments for AI work and Homebrew installs also leave caches. These commands show the cache locations and sizes first; the last command in each block removes data, so run it only after reading the output of the others:

pip3 cache info
pip3 cache purge

brew --cache
brew cleanup -n
brew cleanup

brew cleanup -n only reports what it would remove. Removed cache items may need to be downloaded again the next time you use these tools.

Step 3: Measure again

Re-run the Step 1 block and compare. If the space is still missing, the System Data guide shows how to find the biggest folders in your home folder.

What this checklist does not cover

Other local AI apps (for example Jan, GPT4All or Open WebUI) and other container tools are not covered because we did not document their locations; check each tool's own documentation. Launch agents, login items and log files are not covered either. Locations and command names vary by version and install method, and we have not tested every combination.

Related guides

• All guides
• Why Is System Data So Big on My Mac? Local AI Models Are the Usual Suspect
• LM Studio and Hugging Face Cache: Find and Delete Models on Mac
• Where Ollama Stores Models on Mac, and How to Delete Them
• Docker.raw Is Eating My Mac: How to Shrink It