10 Best iPhone Storage Cleaner Apps in 2026 (Including Completely Free)

Want to clean your phone storage? Don’t want to do it manually but don’t know what app to use? Or maybe you’ve already tried one, and it didn’t work for you? If you don’t want to spend hours scanning the App Store for an app that actually delivers, look no further. We’ve done the work for you and narrowed it down to the 10 best iPhone storage cleaner apps you can download in 2026!

Quick Summary

First, here’s a quick recap of the 10 iPhone storage cleaner apps that made our list.

We ended up with a pretty wide mix here. If you’re looking for a free iPhone cleaner without subscription, there are a couple of solid choices. If you don’t mind paying for a subscription to get more features, there are options for that too.

*these iPhone  cleaning apps’ rankings are relevant as of this article’s latest update.

In the ranking below, we’ve tried to look back not only at the popularity of the specific apps. We also took into consideration other factors such as app performance, personal experience, and user reviews to make sure that the selected tools are the most effective ones on the market.

10 Best Cleaning Apps for iPhone

Here’s a look at our top picks for the best clean up app for iPhone. We ordered them based on how well they performed in real use. Higher on the list means we liked it more overall, but none of these are bad. If it’s here, it earned its spot.

1. Clever Cleaner

Clever Cleaner: AI CleanUp App impressed us enough to put it at the top of our list. It’s completely free, with no ads and no locked features, and it holds its own against many paid cleaners. Its duplicate/similar photo detection is among the best we’ve tested. On top of that, you get smart storage savers like video compression and Live Photo conversion. The app feels fast and responsive, with a layout that’s easy to follow (everything is clearly labeled and color-coded). Most importantly, it always shows exactly what will be removed and how much space you’ll get back.

Clever Cleaner tends to get high marks from reviewers. Since we first featured it in this article, it has even generated a discussion thread reviewing it in our own community forum, and it pops up regularly in YouTube videos, for example:

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate/similar image detection (advanced AI scanning)
• Live Photo compression (converts Live Photos into still images)
• Video compression
• Swipe-based mode (swipe right to keep, left to delete)
• Unnecessary screenshot sleanup
• Batch deletion
• Heaviest files tab (displays the largest files on your iPhone)
• No paywalls (full functionality without hidden charges)

Personal Experience: Clever Cleaner works exactly as promised. Its AI-powered algorithms are sharp and accurate. When scanning for similar photos, it automatically picks the “Best Shot” to keep, so you don’t have to sort through dozens of nearly identical images. The Smart Cleanup feature makes the process even faster, you can clean up your entire photo library with one tap. Live Photo “compression” works flawlessly, though we would call it a “converter”—it turns Live Photos into still images by removing the short clips that accompany them; it leaves behind a normal high-quality photo with no loss in resolution.

The Heaviest tab is another great feature. It lets you quickly pinpoint the files taking up the most space (usually videos) and either delete them or shrink them down using the Compression tool. You can choose between Optimal, Medium, or Max compression, depending on how aggressive you want to be.

There’s also a Swipe mode, which a lot of people prefer when they want to review files one by one (you pick a month, and the app lines everything up for you: swipe right to keep, left to delete).

App Store User Opinion: Clever Cleaner is one of the highest-rated apps in this category right now. Most people praise how accurately it picks the best photo, how fast cleanup feels, and how much space it frees without forcing you to watch ads or pushing you into a paywall.

As stated on its official Clever Cleaner Storage Cleanup app’s page, it will stay free for anyone who downloads it now and keeps it on their phone. From how it’s stated we think the developer may introduce Pro features in the future, but even then, the current version should stay free for early adopters. That’s a rare move in a market full of apps that start free but hit you with a paywall later.

System Requirements: iOS 16.0 or later

Price: Completely free (no subscriptions or in-app purchases)

2. Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner

Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner is an iPhone app with an impressive almost 598K user ratings on the App Store. Like most cleaners in this category, it focuses mainly on cleaning up the photos and videos in an iPhone’s gallery. The app can easily detect and remove duplicates in the gallery, merge duplicate contacts, and clean your mailbox.

It also comes with a few fun extra features that allow you to create custom widgets for your iPhone and set charging animations that will make your device lock screen stand out.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate file detection (photo, video, contacts)
• Mailbox cleaner
• File sorting
• Contact merge suggestions
• Custom widgets for the Home Screen
• Charging animations for the Lock Screen

Personal Experience: In everyday use, Cleanup feels capable and fast. Scans complete quickly, even on large photo libraries, and the app does a good job surfacing obvious clutter right away (duplicates, similar shots, and oversized videos). The video compression tool stood out during testing. It consistently reduced file sizes without visible quality drops, which made it easy to reclaim space without second-guessing the results.

We also liked how much control the app gives you. Nothing gets deleted automatically, previews load fast, and the swipe-based review mode makes sorting feel more deliberate.

App Store User Opinion: Most of the users’ reviews claim that CleanUp is a valuable tool for decluttering their iPhone storage and organizing the gallery. However, some claim that the subscription model is a bit expensive. Also, some users have pointed out that the app needs some improvements in accuracy when scanning for duplicates.

System Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later

Price:

• Free 3-day trial
• Weekly subscription ($11.99)
• Lifetime ($49.99)

3. Boost Cleaner – Clean Up Smart

Boost Cleaner – Clean Up Smart comes next on our list. This iPhone storage cleaner keeps things simple. It lets you find and remove similar photos, videos, and screenshots, merge contacts, and even tidy up old or unused calendar entries that tend to get overlooked.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Similar photo, video, and screenshot detection
• Duplicate contact merging
• Calendar cleanup
• Storage overview with cleanup suggestions
• Video compression

Personal Experience: Boost Cleaner was easy to use, and finding the right tools didn’t take any effort. While duplicate detection wasn’t perfectly accurate and missed some similar items, it made up for that by scanning beyond photos. It also checks videos and screenshots, which helped free up space in areas other cleaners often ignore.

Overall, Boost Cleaner did a good job in clearing out some storage space on the iPhone.

App Store User Opinion: It was difficult to locate many positive user reviews. Many users claim to have experienced technical issues and expressed concerns about subscription management. But in general, the app users are satisfied with the performance.

System Requirements: iOS 14.0 or later

Price:

• Free 3-day trial
• Weekly subscription ($5.99)
• Monthly subscription ($12.99)
• Yearly premium subscription ($39.99)

4. CleanMy®Phone: Cleanup Storage

CleanMy®Phone: Cleanup Storage evolved out of Gemini Photos: Gallery Cleaner, a gallery management tool that helped iPhone users organize their photos and videos. Now, it’s a fully-fledged storage cleaning app. This tool will scan the library and remove duplicates, old screenshots, photos of text, blurry pictures, etc. Moreover, the app monitors your new files to make sure that the photos and videos don’t pile up again and cause your iPhone to run out of space.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate and similar photo detection
• Clutter cleanup
• Blurry photo and low-quality image detection
• Photo Radar that monitors new photos over time
• Smart gallery organization
• Detects large videos
• Clean, modern interface with clear previews

Personal Experience: After our testing, we can say without doubt that CleanMy®Phone is a good tool for decluttering photos on your iPhone. It quickly scanned our library with almost 20K photos and removed most of the clutter. While it isn’t the most feature-packed app on our list, what it does, it does well. It’s also one of the nicest-looking cleaners we tested, with smooth animations and a bright visual style that makes cleanup feel less tedious.

App Store User Opinion: CleanMy®Phone: Storage Cleaner is a highly spoken-of tool for decluttering photos on iPhone. Users find it easy to manage the Library on their phones with this tool and love its efficiency. However, some were disappointed with the one-time purchase cost.

System Requirements: iOS 17.0 or later

Price:

• Free 3-day trial
• Monthly subscription ($9.99)
• Annual subscription ($44.99)
• Lifetime (99.99)

5. Easy Cleaner.

If you’re looking for a free iPhone cleaning application, Easy Cleaner. would be a great choice. This app isn’t designed for cleaning up your photo library, though. It targets your contacts (scanning for duplicates and merging them). It can also detect when your contacts have missing information, such as email addresses, names, and more. Admittedly, you won’t be freeing up lots of space on your iPhone, but you’ll be able to keep your list of contacts tidy and clean.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate contact detection
• Contact merge and bulk deletion
• Identification of incomplete contact entries

Personal Experience: This tool was easy to use and was capable of successfully detecting and removing duplicate contacts. If your main goal is getting your contact list under control, this is the app to use. It’s the best free iPhone cleaner app we’ve tested specifically for contact cleanup, with no distractions and no push to upgrade. Just keep expectations in check – this is all it does, and it does nothing beyond contacts.

App Store User Opinion: The Easy Cleaner app has high ratings due to its straightforwardness and capabilities. Most users are satisfied with the contact duplicate detection and removal results. However, some users have experienced issues with the deleting of the Notes section when merging duplicate contacts.

System Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later

Price: free

6. Slidebox: Photo Cleaner App

Slidebox is an iPhone photo Cleaner & album organizer application. It can help you sort your photos into different albums and delete the ones you no longer need. However, unlike many previous app on this list, it leans more toward hands-on organization rather than automatic scanning or AI-driven cleanup.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Manual photo sorting into albums
• Swipe-based photo deletion
• Undo option for recent actions
• Distraction-free interface

Personal Experience: If you only need to tidy up the Photos app on your iPhone, Slidebox is a good option. We liked how you can easily delete unwanted photos from the application and the organizational capabilities of the tool. Also, it’s nice that you can quickly undo an action if you change your mind about deleting a photo.

App Store User Opinion: Overall, users find Slidebox simple yet brilliant for photo organization on iPhones. They pointed out how easy it was to navigate the tool, and most of the users were happy with the results. Some suggested that to make this app better, it’s a good idea to add a video sorting feature.

System Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later

Price:

• Free trial version
• Unlimited access ($22.99)

7. AI Cleaner: Clean Up Storage

AI Cleaner: Clean Up Storage, like many cleaners, uses AI to identify wasted space such as similar photos and blurry images, and it makes sure you notice that by putting AI right in the name. But duplicate file cleanup isn’t the only thing it does.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• AI duplicate photo & video remover
• Contact cleanup
• Email cleaner
• Event remover (deletes old calendar events cluttering the schedule)
• Secret Space (protects sensitive files by storing them in a private, secure folder)
• Photo & video compression

Personal Experience: The app is very pleasant to use—it’s quick, no fuss, and delivers results fast. The app’s layout is simple and easy to navigate. Its AI detection could be more accurate though, as it sometimes misidentifies similar photos or contacts that shouldn’t be merged. But considering everything it offers—duplicate removal, contact cleanup, event deletion, and file compression—it’s one of the most feature-packed storage cleaners available. The contact merger worked well in most cases, though we double-checked before approving changes. The photo compression tool was another highlight, it can free up a lot space without noticeable quality loss.

App Store User Opinion: AI Cleaner has received over 170,300 ratings with an average score of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Users appreciate its fast cleanup features, with many highlighting the duplicate photo and contact merging as major time-savers. However, many users found the subscription model expensive, and a few mentioned occasional issues with AI misidentifying files, points we also noticed.

System Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later

Price: 

• Free download with limited features
• Monthly subscription ($11.99)
• Annual subscription ($49.99)

8. Phone Cleaner・AI Clean Storage

Next on our list is Phone Cleaner: Clean Storage. This app keeps things simple right from the start with one big Clean button. Tap it, and the app scans your library and suggests what can be removed: duplicate images, similar photos, similar videos, screenshots, all the usual. On top of that, it throws in a few extra tools that aren’t strictly about storage.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate and similar photo detection (including live)
• Similar video detection and cleanup
• Screenshot cleanup
• Video compression
• Duplicate and incomplete contact cleanup
• Contact backup before cleanup
• Private photo gallery for sensitive files
• Home screen photo widgets

Personal Experience: The tool did a quick job of locating the duplicate photos on the iPhone; though accuracy was hit or miss when it came to “Best Photo” selection (we often disagreed with which image it chose to keep). Exact duplicates weren’t an issue, and video compression worked well. Some extras, like AI photo enhancement, felt tacked on and didn’t add much value in our experience. Maybe not the best iPhone cleaner app on our list, but it’s still a solid option overall.

App Store User Opinion: Most of the users claim that they had no difficulties navigating the Phone cleaner app and were able to easily remove duplicate photos. However, a few had some challenges when dealing with a large photo library.

System Requirements: iOS 14 or later

Price:

• Free 3-day trial
• Weekly subscription ($7.99)
• Annual subscription ($34.99)
• Lifetime purchase ($49.99)

9. Cleaner Kit – Clean Up Storage

Cleaner Kit is another iPhone storage cleaner application that’s quite popular on the App Store, and it’s easy to see why. True to its name, it feels more like a toolkit than a single-purpose cleaner.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Duplicate and similar photo and video detection
• Swipe-based photo review
• Automatic cleanup
• Video compression
• Email inbox cleaner with sender-based grouping
• Contact cleanup and duplicate merging
• Calendar cleanup
• Secure storage for sensitive files
• Extra tools like charging animations, widgets

Personal Experience: In real use, Cleaner Kit is one of the more capable “all-in-one” cleaners we tested. Once the scan finishes, the results are genuinely useful. It grouped photos and videos intelligently, handled similar videos better than most competitors, and the automatic cleanup worked without us having to babysit every step. The Best Photo selection was also more reliable than average.

The main downside we noticed was scan speed (it’s slow, especially on large libraries) but the payoff comes after that wait. When the results finally load, there’s a lot to work with, and the app actually delivers meaningful space savings.

App Store User Opinion: This application has received mixed reviews from users. Some are saying that this tool has been highly effective in cleaning up duplicate files on an iPhone and are happy with its usability and features. At the same time, others claim that the tool hasn’t always given exceptional results in detecting specific types of photos and have experienced some glitches.

System Requirements: iOS 15.0 or later

Price:

• Free 3-day trial
• Weekly subscription ($6.99)
• Annual subscription ($29.99)

10. Simple Cleaner – Clean Storage

Simple Cleaner is a free cleaning app for iPhone that, despite its name, offers more than just basic cleanup. Though not by much. It’s not a full “kit” app packed with extras, but it covers enough ground to handle what 99% of people actually need.

Download link: App Store page

Notable features:

• Similar photo and video detection
• Photo and video organization by location
• Useless photo and video cleanup
• Manual photo and video sorting options
• Duplicate contact merging
• Secret Space for private photos and videos

Personal Experience: Simple Cleaner felt straightforward and easy to work with. It scanned the photo library quickly, highlighted duplicates and similar files clearly, and didn’t overwhelm us with extra tools. It lacks deeper features found in larger “kit” apps, but that simplicity works in its favor. That said, if you plan to stick with the free version and never upgrade, be prepared to see a lot of ads. A lot.

App Store User Opinion: Users have mixed feelings about the Simple Cleaner application. Some claim the app to be incredibly useful and are happy with how the app cleaned out unneeded photos and freed up space on their iPhones. However, some have noted that the tool didn’t properly find the duplicates.

System Requirements: iOS 12.0 or later

Price:

• Free version with ads
• Weekly subscription ($3.99)
• Annual subscription ($39.99)

What Went Into Our iPhone Storage Cleaner Ratings

At the start of this article, we promised to explain how we scored these apps and why they made the list. Here it is.

We tested far more apps than the ones you see ranked here. Some were dropped after just 10 minutes due to poor cleanup accuracy, many others went through full testing but still didn’t make the cut because stronger options performed better. The ten apps you see above are the finalists, the ones that actually made it through our filtering.

We spent at least a week or a full trial period with each one, cleaning the same test iPhone 13 loaded with a large photo library. Thousands of photos. Long 4K videos. Screenshots, screen recordings, duplicates, half-blurry shots. The kind of phone most people actually have after a year or two of use.

• 🧩 The first thing we looked at was feature usefulness, not feature count. Some apps advertise a long checklist but only two or three tools actually help free up space. We cared about things that move the needle: duplicate and similar photo detection, large video handling, compression tools that don’t destroy quality. Extras were fine, but only if they worked and didn’t get in the way.
• 🎯 Next came accuracy and effectiveness. When an app highlights photos to delete, we checked the previews closely. Are unrelated images grouped together? Does the “Best Photo” choice make sense? Do you clearly see what stays and what goes? Apps that felt vague, rushed decisions, hid details lost points fast. If we had to squint at a screen and guess what would be deleted, that was a problem.
• 🧭 Ease of use mattered more than we expected. You feel it right away. Some apps load instantly and label everything clearly, with clean sectionsаа and readable numbers. Many apps bury important tools behind menus or scatter features across. We paid attention to small things: how fast previews load, whether buttons are where you expect them, and whether the app shows exactly how much space you’ll free before you commit.
• 💸 Then there’s value for money (including how fair the free version is). We don’t mind paid apps. We do mind apps that bombard you with ads or upgrade screens. Several popular cleaners didn’t make the cut for this reason alone. If an app felt hostile in the first five minutes, it was out. A good free tier doesn’t have to be unlimited, but it should be usable without turning cleanup into an ad-watching exercise.
• 🛠️ Finally, we looked at overall behavior. We watched how each app handled large libraries and long scans. Crashes, freezes, visual glitches, or unexpected restarts all counted against it. We also noted aggressive (repeated) upgrade prompts and notifications that kept appearing after cleanup was finished. If an app felt unstable or disruptive in normal use, it lost points, regardless of how strong its feature.

All of these points were scored on a 1-5 scale. Features, effectiveness, ease of use, behavior, and value were each rated separately, then averaged out. That final average is the Our Rating number you see in the summary table.

The order of apps in this ranking comes straight from that math. Higher average score, higher position.

Do iPhone Cleaning Apps Really Work?

Indeed, iPhone cleaning apps can help free up your storage space and organize your device. They can identify and remove storage junk, including duplicates, rarely used apps, and incomplete contacts. However, they also come with several limitations, including:

• Limited access to deeper files: iOS disallows most apps, including cleaner apps, to access your phone’s system files. They’re only capable of cleaning what the operating system allows or those within their sandboxes. This may leave behind hidden junk files or unused data.
• Manual cleaning: To save battery and provide smooth operation, your iPhone limits background processes. This restricts any cleaner app you download from always running in the background and regularly cleaning up your storage. You might need to do the cleanup process by manually accessing the app.
• App effectiveness: Not all apps are created equal. Some are more reliable and effective than others. The difference mostly comes down to the quality of the app’s algorithms. Some apps scan storage quickly because they use optimized scanning methods, while others take longer or struggle with large files. The way an app finds duplicate or similar photos depends on how well its AI models are trained—better training means better accuracy. Even when an app automatically picks the “best” photo to keep, it may not always match your choice. It usually ranks images based on resolution, focus, or file size, but it won’t know which one has the best lighting, composition, or sentimental value. That’s why it’s important to read reviews, compare features, and test the app for yourself.

Conclusion

Now let’s wrap it up. Clever Cleaner is hands-down the best cleanup app for iPhone we’ve tested. No paywalls, no ads, no tricks—it just does what it promises. It quickly finds duplicate photos, even near-identical ones, clears unnecessary screenshots, and has solid Live Photo and video compression tools. Its recognition algorithms are almost as good as the best paid apps on the market. That’s impressive for a completely free app—and a rare find in a category where most either lock key features behind a paywall or bombard you with ads.

If you want a storage cleaner that actually works without charging you, this is it.

For those willing to pay, Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner delivers one of the most complete cleaning experiences. The interface is clean, the detection is accurate, and the smart cleanup feature makes space management super easy. The only big drawback is the subscription model, but for some it might be worth it.

Another premium app that impressed us was CleanMy®Phone: Cleanup Storage. Coming from MacPaw, we expected a well-designed, smart storage tool—and it delivered. If you store a lot of photos and videos, this is one of the best tools available.

We also liked Slidebox: Photo Cleaner App, even though it’s not a traditional storage cleaner, people who prefer full control over their gallery might appreciate it, this app makes organization quick and intuitive.

One thing became clear while testing these apps—most storage cleaners on the App Store aren’t actually free. Many claim to be, but they often hit you with a paywall or lock basic features behind a subscription. The only real free options we tested were Clever Cleaner and Easy Cleaner, but Easy Cleaner is focused mainly on contacts, so it’s not a true all-in-one storage cleaner. We also came across other popular free apps, like Remo Duplicate Photos Remover, but they didn’t make our shortlist. Aside from being free, they don’t offer anything worth mentioning—no advanced algorithms, no standout features, no real advantage over the competition.

So, it all depends on what exactly you need. If you don’t want to spend any money and want to clean up as much storage as possible, go with Clever Cleaner. If your main goal is organizing and cleaning up your contacts, then Easy Cleaner is the best choice. If you don’t mind spending a few dollars on an app, then CleanMy®Phone: Cleanup Storage or Cleanup: Phone Storage Cleaner are all solid picks.

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