iPhone Storage Capacity: The Settings Screen That Shows It
Your iPhone storage capacity sits in Settings, under General, then About. The same screen shows how much of that space is still free.
Apple’s iPhone User Guide names the two taps in its own words: “Tap General, then tap About.” It introduces what the screen holds with “The items you can view include:” and one item on that list is “Capacity and available storage space”.
The path, one step at a time
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Tap General.
- Tap About.
- Read the line for capacity and available storage space.
Settings, then General, then About is the screen Apple’s own guide points at for this figure, and it is the one this article sends you to.
What else sits on the About screen
Apple’s list for that screen also includes “Number of songs, videos, photos, and apps” and the “iOS software version”.
One screen carries the capacity, the available storage space, and a count of the songs, videos, photos and apps.
Why the figure reads lower than the number on the box
Apple answers this on a separate page: “The storage capacity stated on your device’s packaging or specifications might differ from the capacity reported by its operating system or apps.”
On how the makers count, Apple’s page says: “Manufacturers of storage devices measure storage capacity using the decimal system (base 10).”
Apple’s page says: “That’s why you might see statements such as this on the product packaging or specifications of your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or other products:” The same page then prints: “1GB = 1 billion bytes, and 1TB = 1 trillion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.”
Apple’s page says of “Actual formatted capacity” that it “means that the storage device’s formatting uses some of this storage space.” The same page adds: “Additional storage space is used by factors such as the device’s operating system.”
No figure sits beside either one. Searched on October 12, 2026, the word percent returns zero on that page, and this article gives no number for the gap either.
Base 10 and base 2, and where Apple’s page stops
Apple compares the two counting systems directly: “Storage capacity measured using the decimal system is slightly larger than storage capacity measured using the binary system (base 2).”
It prints the binary figures too: “When storage capacity is measured using the binary system, 1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes, and 1TB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes.”
Then it names which systems report that way: “Some apps and operating systems, such as iOS 10 and earlier and OS X Leopard and earlier, report storage capacity using the binary system.”
The only version marker on that page is “iOS 10 and earlier and OS X Leopard and earlier”. Searched on October 12, 2026, the strings iOS 11 through iOS 18, iOS 26, iOS 27 and iPadOS each return zero there.
What a current iPhone reports sits outside the scope of that page.
If the free figure is smaller than you expected
Four pages on this site cover specific places iPhone storage goes: why an iPhone backup grows so large, what website data is doing on your iPhone, how to work through a photo library of thousands, and what iCloud storage actually holds for your apps.
Questions readers ask
Where does Apple say to look for iPhone storage capacity?
Settings, then General, then About. Apple’s list for that screen carries the total and the free figure in one item: “Capacity and available storage space”.
Why does a 128GB iPhone show less than 128GB?
Apple says the figure on the packaging “might differ from the capacity reported by its operating system or apps”. Its measurement page gives the formatting, which “uses some of this storage space”, and then: “Additional storage space is used by factors such as the device’s operating system.” That page puts no figure on how much either one takes.
Will the iPhone Storage screen show the same number?
The words iPhone Storage return zero on both pages cited below, searched on October 12, 2026. Apple’s guide names About as the screen carrying “Capacity and available storage space”, and this article routes you there. What the iPhone Storage screen displays is outside what these pages state.
Can I add storage to an iPhone later?
Neither Apple page used here covers adding storage to an iPhone, so this article does not answer it. The pages cited below cover where the capacity figure lives and how capacity is measured.