Is there enough space for the macOS update?

Enter what your Mac shows in System Settings › General › Storage. You get a clear answer and what to free up if needed.

Runs in your browser. No data is sent anywhere.

Your Mac
What do you want to install?
In System Settings › General › Storage, or Finder › Get Info on your disk (“Available”).

Where to find space quickly

  • Empty the Trash (Finder › Empty Trash) — files there still use space.
  • Remove downloads of files already in iCloud Drive: right-click › Remove Download.
  • Delete old iPhone backups and installers in System Settings › General › Storage.
  • Developers: Xcode DerivedData, old simulators and Docker images are often tens of GB.

How this estimate works

Apple doesn’t publish a free-space figure for macOS 27 or 26. For macOS Monterey it asked for about 26 GB, or up to 44 GB when upgrading from much older versions. Downloads are only part of it: the installer needs working space to unpack and prepare the update, often several times the download size. So we plan for about 20 GB for an update and 40 GB or more for a major upgrade. These are rules of thumb, not Apple figures; the installer tells you the exact amount it needs.

Read the full guide: how much space a macOS update needs