(Credit: Lily Yeh; Andriy Onufriyenko / Moment via Getty Images; Google)
Google Chrome offers plenty of AI features, but some of them could quietly eat up your device storage. As spotted by The Privacy Guy, the browser automatically downloads a 4GB model to support on-device AI features, and it may stay on your PC unless the features are turned off.
The AI model in question is Gemini Nano, a lighter version of Google’s Gemini model that runs on your computer to support features such as writing assistance, web page summaries, scam detection, and tab organization.
If you opt in to these features, Chrome will download a file named “weights.bin” in the OptGuideOnDeviceModel folder without notifying you. According to The Privacy Guy, the file gets downloaded when you run Chrome 147. I wasn’t able to find the file on my Mac running the same version, but 9to5Google spotted it on a Windows machine.
You can delete the file manually, but it will resurface if you leave on-device AI features enabled in Chrome. To disable them and free up some internal storage, go to Chrome Settings, select System from the left pane, and turn off On-device AI.
(Credit: Google/Jibin Joseph)Google first announced Gemini Nano for Chrome in 2024, but added an option to disable the on-device features it supports just a few months ago. In a statement to 9to5Google, the company noted that Chrome may delete the “weights.bin” file automatically if it detects low storage on your machine.
“While this requires some local space on the desktop to run, the model will automatically uninstall if the device is low on resources,” Google said. “In February, we began rolling out the ability for users to easily turn off and remove the model directly in Chrome settings. Once disabled the model will no longer download or update.”