The ongoing march of AI features continues, whether you like it or not, and the latest update to Google Chrome probably installed several gigabytes of native AI models on your computer.
As pointed out in one post The Privacy Guy and as has been widely reported on the web, Google Chrome now “quietly” installs 4GB worth of AI models – Gemini Nano – on your machine without telling you directly.
The change happened recently and it eats up the extra memory on your computer without any warning. Google performs the change in the background, although it depends on whether you have certain Gemini enabled in Chrome. This includes AI-powered features in the background, such as Help Me Write, as well as on-device fraud detection. Google launched the last one in May 2025so this local storage is probably not special new to change
Google was the first to announce Gemini Nano will come to Chrome in 2024.
4GB of memory can be found in “OptGuideOnDeviceModel” in the “weights.bin” file.
Active a developer page, Google explains Chrome downloads Gemini Nano based on “user hardware” and Gemini Nano updates are automatically managed in the background.
Importantly, Google says that Gemini Nano is the first thing to do if Chrome detects that the user is running out of memory:
Chrome actively manages disk space to ensure the user doesn’t run out. If the free disk space of the device falls below a certain limit, the Gemini Nano model is automatically deleted.
The Verge notes that you can manually delete the file, but Chrome will download it again unless you turn off “on-device AI” in Settings > System. We were unable to access this setting on a MacBook running Chrome v147.
Ironically, Google Docs AI in Chrome tells developers that “it’s a best practice to warn the user about the time required to complete these downloads.”
Google has not directly commented on recent criticism of Chrome’s memory usage for native AI.
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