Image generation models on a Mac are 2 to 25 GB each, and apps keep their own copies

Local image generation on Apple silicon works well. It also needs models, and those are large. Try three apps and you may have the same model downloaded three times.

Typical model sizes

Where each app keeps them

du -sh ~/.diffusionbee 2>/dev/null                                   # DiffusionBee
du -sh ~/Library/Containers/com.liuliu.draw-things 2>/dev/null       # Draw Things
find ~ -maxdepth 3 -type d -name models -path '*ComfyUI*' -exec du -sh {} + 2>/dev/null   # ComfyUI
du -sh ~/.cache/huggingface 2>/dev/null                              # Python tools

Find every model file

find ~ \( -iname '*.safetensors' -o -iname '*.ckpt' \) -size +500M -exec du -h {} + 2>/dev/null | sort -h

Identical file names in different folders are usually duplicates.

Keeping it under control

• Delete models you tried once. They can be downloaded again.
• Use one app, or point several at one folder. ComfyUI's extra_model_paths.yaml can read models from another folder instead of copying them.
• Keep large model collections on an external SSD. Loading is slower, generating is the same.

Language models are covered in local LLM models and other AI caches in machine learning caches.

Related: Pinokio taking up space on Mac.