Shipra Sanganeria
Published on: August 18, 2025
Key Findings
- On average, an App Store app weighs 359 MB, compared to 176 MB on APK Mirror making the average iOS app around twice the size of its Android counterpart.
- After installation and regular use, Android apps grow by an average of 722 MB, while iOS apps grow by an average of 474 MB.
- The main reason why iOS apps are larger than their Android counterparts is that Apple includes more assets within the base app package itself, while Android apps can separate their components into smaller, on-demand modules.
- Installing Sensor Tower’s top 50 apps on an iOS device would take up roughly 17.5 GB of storage space, while doing the same on Android uses roughly 6.4 GB of storage.
Introduction
Despite the steady increases in advertised device storage, many smartphone users continue to experience limitations in available storage space. This paradox raises an important question: Are modern applications becoming too large for all but the most advanced devices to handle efficiently?
To explore this issue, we at SafetyDetectives conducted a comprehensive analysis of the top 50 most-downloaded applications on the iOS App Store, comparing their storage footprints with their Android counterparts, both before and after installation. You can see our findings below.
Who’s Heavier at Initial Download: iOS vs. Android (by the Numbers)
Our research showed that iOS apps are consistently larger than their Android equivalent — every one of the 50 analyzed apps had a larger size on iOS than on Android, without exception. To put this into perspective, the median size of the 50 studied apps on the App Store is around 359 MB, while on APK Mirror it’s 176 MB. This means that the average iOS app is about twice the size of its Android counterpart.
In the table below, you can see a comparison of the 50 apps we studied, showing their sizes on the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, along with the difference in size (in MB) between the two platforms.
As you can see from the table above, the difference in size between iOS apps and their Android counterpart varies significantly depending on the app, ranging from only 5 MB for WhatsApp Messenger to a staggering 710 MB for CapCut.
However, Google Gemini has the largest proportional difference of all the apps, taking up 119.2 MB on the App Store and only 2.87 MB on APK Mirror, making it roughly 40 times larger on iOS. Other apps with significant size differences include Gmail, which is 669.1 MB on iOS compared to 158.62 MB on Android, Uber, with a size of 575.9 MB on iOS and 139.85 MB on Android, and Google Maps, measuring 341.8 MB on iOS versus 95.02 MB on Android.
Canva also shows a notable disparity, from 141.6 MB on the App Store compared to just 16.15 MB on APK Mirror, making it nearly 9 times larger on iOS.
While still larger on iOS, the WhatsApp Messenger app has the smallest difference in size compared to Android, from 114 MB on the App Store to 109 MB on the Play Store, making it only 5 MB larger on iOS.
The majority of the apps analyzed, 43 out of 50, offer in-app purchases (IAPs). Apps with IAPs generally have larger sizes on both iOS and Android compared to apps without IAP. The size difference between iOS and Android versions also tends to be larger for apps with IAP, often exceeding 200 MB.
Which Categories Are the Worst Offenders?
The plurality of the apps analyzed fall under the Social Networking category, totaling 7 titles. This is followed closely by Games, Productivity, and Shopping, each with 6 apps. The Photo & Video category includes 5 apps, while Entertainment accounts for 4. Beyond these leading categories, a smaller selection of apps is distributed across various niche areas such as Travel, Business, Lifestyle, and Utility.
The average size gap between iOS and Android apps reveals a distinct pattern across categories. Travel apps exhibit the largest size variance, with iOS versions being on average 330 MB larger than their Android counterparts, with titles including Uber, Airbnb, and Expedia.
That is followed closely by Photo & Video and Navigation apps, which show average differences of 303 MB and 247 MB respectively. Within the Photo & Video category, CapCut stands out with the largest size gap of 710 MB, while in the Navigation category, the only app listed (Google Maps) exhibits a size difference of 247 MB.
While it has the largest number of titles, the Social Networking category also has the smallest size disparity, averaging 103 MB, with apps such as Threads, WhatsApp Messenger, and Discord, all having a size gap below 100 MB. That is followed closely by the Shopping category, with an average size gap of 127 MB, which includes more lightweight apps such as Capital One, Shop, and SHEIN.
What Happens After Install? Growth in the Background
While iOS apps are clearly much larger than their Android equivalents, perhaps the more important question is how much storage space these apps take up on the device once users start using them.
To find out, we performed a field test with two participants, one regular iOS user with an iPhone 14 Pro, and one Android user with a Samsung Galaxy A55. Of the 50 studies apps, each participant found 21 apps that had been previously installed on their phone and used at least once. For each of the 21 apps, they recorded the installed size of the apps in question.
The results indicate that actual usage on Android devices leads to a substantial increase in app size. On average, once installed, Android apps occupy about 784 MB more space than the size reported on APK Mirror.
The chart below illustrates the difference between each app’s initial download size and its installed size after typical usage.
In 20 of the 21 Android apps analyzed, there is a dramatic increase in size after regular use compared to the initial download size from APK Mirror, contributed by data accumulation, cache, user data, and additional downloaded content.
Media-heavy services that involve streaming, video editing, or social interaction tend to have the largest increases, as evident by apps like Netflix, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and CapCut.
For instance, Netflix recorded the most substantial post-install size growth, from 52.09 MB on APK Mirror to 4.1 GB once installed and used. That is followed by SHEIN, which took up 2.4 GB of storage space after regular use, a substantial growth from a download size of only 61.11 MB. TikTok, Instagram, and CapCut follow suit, adding 1.8 GB, 1.6 GB, and 900 MB to their initial download size, respectively.
Even apps with the smallest initial download sizes — such as ChatGPT (37.06 MB) and Airbnb (60.45 MB) — experienced substantial growth after use, reaching 253 MB and 213 MB, respectively.
Unlike most of the other streaming services on this list, Max had a much more modest increase, expanding from 61.98 MB to 161 MB. Notably, Google Meet experienced the least change in size, growing by just 30 MB after installation.
The results from the same test on the iOS apps were much more varied. The majority of the apps showed a noticeable increase in size after regular use, but not as dramatic as with their Android counterparts. However, note that this could be attributed to iOS apps being much larger at download to begin with.
After installation and regular use, the 21 iOS apps studied grew by an average of 474 MB compared to their download size.
Instagram experienced the most dramatic size increase on iOS, growing from 428 MB to 4 GB — an almost 9.4-fold expansion. Following that, CapCut nearly quadrupled in size, expanding from 1 GB to 3.8 GB, while TikTok roughly tripled its size, increasing from 558.6 MB to 1.7 GB. Max also saw significant growth, rising from just 203 MB at download to over 1 GB after installation and use.
The remaining iOS apps showed much more modest growth, increasing their size by only a few megabytes beyond the original download. Some examples include WhatsApp (114.4 MB to 244 MB), Telegram (170 MB to 290.4 MB), and Airbnb (281.8 MB to 332.5 MB).
Finally, 5 apps — including McDonald’s, ChatGPT, Canva, Amazon Shopping, and Uber — experienced slight decreases in size after use, which could indicate efficient data management or less reliance on local storage.
Research Methodology
For the purpose of this research, we used Sensor Tower’s top 50 most popular apps from the 15th to the 21st of May 2025. For the iOS apps, we used information from the iOS App Store, logging each app’s name, category, and size.
In terms of data gathering, this App Store proved to be very data-rich and user-friendly; a clearly standardized download size and installed package size was readily available for each app, making data collection straightforward and error-free.
Obtaining the same information from the Play Store proved much more challenging, with several apps lacking download size, installation package size data, and other relevant metrics.
In addition, Google Play uses the Android App Bundle (AAB) format, which allows the Play Store to generate and deliver optimized split APKs customized for each user’s device configuration. This means users download only the code and resources that are relevant to their specific device, causing app sizes to vary from one device to another.
To maintain consistency and avoid variability in app size data, we chose to use APKMirror, a well-known online repository for downloading original Android application package files (APKs). Unlike the Play Store, APKMirror provides full, universal APK files that are not tailored to individual devices, ensuring that the app size remains consistent regardless of the device used for downloading.
After we concluded this part of the research, we then calculated the absolute difference between the figures reported by both the App Store and APK Mirror and compared the two datasets. Finally, we carried out a small real-world validation, collecting storage data from two everyday smartphones, one iOS and one Android handset.
After confirming with their owners that several of the listed apps were installed on their devices, we asked them to record the storage consumed by each app. These real-world values allowed us to assess the accuracy of the store figures and to enrich the analysis with practical usage data.
Why iOS Apps Are Bigger
One of the main reasons iOS apps tend to be larger than their Android counterparts is that Apple includes more assets within the base app package itself. iOS apps typically come bundled with a wide set of resources, including multiple language localizations, fonts, and resolution-specific image packs, directly within the base app.
This approach ensures that the app is fully equipped to support a range of devices and user preferences right from the start, without requiring additional downloads after installation.
While Apple does include app thinning to optimize for device types, it does not strip out unused localizations, meaning users often receive all supported languages bundled in the app, which can significantly increase the app’s installed size.
In contrast, Android has a more modular approach to app delivery. Through mechanisms like split APKs (Android package kits) and Play Asset Delivery, Android apps can separate their components into smaller, on-demand modules. This means users download only the parts of an app relevant to their device and usage, such as specific language packs, reducing the initial app size significantly.
Android also supports dynamic feature modules that allow parts of an app to be downloaded as needed, further optimizing storage. Unlike Android’s dynamic delivery model, iOS apps generally deliver most of their content upfront, leading to larger “all-in-one” installs. While this approach can increase the app’s installed size, it often results in faster launch times and a more consistent user experience without waiting for additional downloads.
The Real-World Impact
So, what are the implications of iOS apps taking up considerably more storage space than their Android equivalents? To put our research into perspective, installing all top 50 apps on an iOS device would take up roughly 17.5 GB of storage space. On a 64 GB device, that means sacrificing about 27% of its total storage capacity before taking a single photo or video.
On the other hand, installing the top 50 apps on an Android phone would mean giving up roughly 6.4 GB of storage space, less than half of what iOS apps demand. This smaller footprint gives Android users more flexibility to store additional media, documents, and apps without worrying as much about running out of space.
As shown by our research, the apps’ download size represents only a small fraction of the total storage they ultimately consume. Once installed and used regularly, apps accumulate additional data such as cached files, user-generated content, and offline resources, causing their size to grow significantly.
Adding to that, a significant portion of an iPhone’s advertised storage — anywhere from 8% to 15%, and in some cases even more — is reserved for the operating system and essential system files.
When you factor in high-resolution media such as 4K photos and videos, storage demands increase dramatically. For example, recording 4K video at 60 frames per second can consume roughly 400 MB per minute, meaning just a few minutes of footage can quickly use several gigabytes of space.
Taking all of this into consideration, here are a few tips on how to free up iPhone storage:
- Review and Delete Unused Apps: Regularly check which apps you rarely use and uninstall them.
- Enable “Offload Unused Apps”: This iOS feature automatically removes apps you don’t use frequently while keeping their data intact, so you can reinstall without losing any information.
- Manage Photos and Videos: Use iCloud Photos with “Optimize iPhone Storage” enabled to store full-resolution photos and videos in the cloud while keeping smaller versions on your device.
- Clear Cache and Temporary Files: Some apps accumulate cache and temporary data over time. Clearing these through app settings or reinstalling the app can reclaim storage.
- Manage System Storage: Occasionally, backing up your iPhone and performing a restore can help clear out system data that builds up over time.
By following these steps, you can better manage your iPhone’s storage, ensuring smoother performance and more room for the apps and media you truly want to keep.
Conclusion
The results of our research are conclusive: iOS apps consume significantly more storage than their Android counterparts. Across the top 50 most-downloaded applications, the data shows a clear and measurable trend — apps on the iPhone take up significantly more space, often due to bundled assets, platform-specific design choices, and stricter packaging requirements.
While both ecosystems continue to evolve in functionality and performance, this disparity in storage usage remains a key consideration for users managing limited space.
