Disable Google AI in Chrome

Google Chrome users who have noticed unusual disk activity or unexplained drops in available storage should look for a folder called “OptGuideOnDeviceModel” inside their Chrome directory. It holds roughly 4GB of weights for Google’s Gemini Nano LLM, downloaded by the browser without user consent.

Type “chrome://flags” into the address bar, then find “Enables optimization guide on device.” Set it to disabled.

Location of the “OptGuideOnDeviceModel” folder on Linux (Chrome/Edge)

BrowserProfile directory (default)Full path to the on‑device model folder
Google Chrome~/.config/google-chrome/Default/~/.config/google-chrome/Default/OptGuideOnDeviceModel/
Google Chrome (other profiles)~/.config/google-chrome/Profile <number>/ (e.g., Profile 1, Profile 2)~/.config/google-chrome/Profile <number>/OptGuideOnDeviceModel/
Microsoft Edge (Linux)~/.config/microsoft-edge/Default/~/.config/microsoft-edge/Default/OptGuideOnDeviceModel/
Microsoft Edge (other profiles)~/.config/microsoft-edge/Profile <number>/~/.config/microsoft-edge/Profile <number>/OptGuideOnDeviceModel/

What’s inside?

  • weights.bin (the model weights, ~3‑4 GB)
  • metadata.json (model version / licensing info)

How to disable / remove it

  1. Open the browser → chrome://flags (or edge://flags).
  2. Search for “Optimization Guide” or “On‑Device Model”.
  3. Disable the flags:
    • #optimization-guide-on-device-model
    • #on-device-model-background-download
  4. Restart the browser.
  5. Delete the folder if you want to free space; the browser will recreate it only if the flags are re‑enabled.

Why it may still appear

  • If you use Chromium‑based browsers (Brave, Vivaldi, etc.), the path follows the same pattern under ~/.config/<browser‑name>/….
  • After a browser update, the flags can be reset to Default and the folder may be regenerated automatically.

If you want to ensure the folder never returns, keep the above flags disabled and add the following line to your ~/.bashrc (or equivalent shell init file) to block the background download process:

bashexport CHROME_DISABLE_OPTIMIZATION_GUIDE=1

(Only needed for Chrome; Edge respects the flag alone.)

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