In macOS Sequoia you can turn off AI-enabled searches.
Search and Spotlight use Apple Intelligence in macOS Sequoia to suggest results to user queries. Here’s how to turn it off.
With the release of macOS Sequoia 15.3 and iOS 18, Apple added a number of new Apple Intelligence features to both operating systems.
In macOS, Apple Intelligence can now interact with both Search and Siri, as well as with ChatGPT (which gets installed as an extension if you enable it).
For various reasons, you might not want to use Apple Intelligence in your searches and requests to Siri.
Apple Intelligence is now integrated in search
Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t yet provide a separate toggle switch for turning off Apple Intelligence’s integration with desktop searches, but it should. If you turn Apple Intelligence on in System Settings, it’s also turned on in searches.
Apple Intelligence is also integrated into Siri searches, but only if you turn it on in System Settings->Apple Intelligence & Siri->Siri. If you turn this setting off, it turns Siri off but leaves the rest of Apple Intelligence on.
Apple Intelligence and Siri in Spotlight
Apple Intelligence is also now integrated into Spotlight if Apple Intelligence is turned on in System Settings. Apple should also provide a toggle switch for turning off Apple Intelligence in Spotlight searches, but it doesn’t.
If you turn off Apple Intelligence in general, in order to avoid it working in Spotlight searches, you lose all the other Apple Intelligence features as well.
However, what you can do is turn off AI-driven Siri suggestions in Spotlight. This feature works by also including Siri suggestions in any Spotlight searches you do if Siri is enabled.
To do so, go to System Settings->Spotlight->Siri Suggestions and disable the checkbox:
Uncheck the Siri Suggestions checkbox to disable them in Spotlight.
There’s also a switch to turn off sending your searches to Apple if you wish.
This is all a bit confusing but the Spotlight/Siri interaction can be summarized as:
- Turn everything off – plain Spotlight searches as usual.
- Apple Intelligence and Siri on, but Siri Suggestions off – Siri works with Apple Intelligence, but doesn’t make suggestions in Spotlight.
- Apple Intelligence off, but Siri on – Siri works but other Apple Intelligence features don’t.
- Apple Intelligence on, but Siri off – Siri doesn’t work, but other Apple Intelligence features do.
- Apple Intelligence off, Siri on and Siri Suggestions on – Siri works with Spotlight but other AI features don’t.
Note that it is possible to leave the Siri setting (and Siri Suggestions) on while Apple Intelligence is turned off.
Apple doesn’t make it clear exactly how Apple Intelligence works at a technical level with Siri, but since the Siri settings are now in the Apple Intelligence & Siri settings pane, both are integrated at the system level.
If you already have Siri turned off, but then turn off Apple Intelligence you will get this warning:
Turning off Apple Intelligence also removes it from Siri.
It implies that turning off Apple Intelligence makes Siri behave as it did before Apple Intelligence existed.
Apple needs to clarify all this behavior a bit better. It would also be nice if the settings apps provided a few more switches to turn specific aspects of Apple Intelligence and search on and off independently of each other.
Also see our other articles on how to unplug from Apple Intelligence on iOS and macOS and how to stop macOS Sequoia sharing your Safari and Spotlight searches with Apple.
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