The MacBook Air gets a surprise upgrade to 16GB of RAM

Before this, it was a $200 upsell to get a MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM. Now, that’s no longer the case, bringing Apple’s cheapest laptop more in line with its competitors. Apple made a similar move in 2016 when it made 8GB the minimum for the 13-inch MacBook Air and discontinued the 4GB 11-inch version months later.

The most likely reason for all that extra RAM? It’s Apple Intelligence — AI models tend to need a lot of RAM to function well. While 8GB seems to be fine for the iPhone, 16GB is the new table stakes for machines running the much more open macOS.