WhatsApp storage full on iPhone?
Clear the media, chat by chat.

How much space WhatsApp and Messages use

Open Settings › General › iPhone Storage. Messages and WhatsApp each have a line in the list, biggest apps first. Almost all of it is photos, videos and files sent in chats, not the text.

How to clear WhatsApp storage on iPhone

1. Open WhatsApp and open Settings: tap your profile picture, or the Settings tab on older versions.
2. Tap Chats › Chat backup, then Manage your storage. The space WhatsApp uses on your iPhone is shown at the top.
3. Tap Review and delete media, then select a chat or channel.
4. Tap the sort icon and choose Largest, so the biggest items come first.
5. Tap Select and choose items, or tap Select all.
6. Tap the trash can and confirm with Delete items. If the selection includes copies of the same item, choose Delete items and any copies when it is offered: the space is only freed once every copy is gone.

Storage and data › Manage storage also shows how much space WhatsApp uses. There is a shortcut from any chat too: open it, tap the chat name, then tap Manage storage. WhatsApp lists that chat's media from largest to smallest.

Clear one WhatsApp chat's media

1. On the Chats tab, touch and hold the chat.
2. Tap Clear chat, then select Clear all media.
3. Tick or untick Videos and GIFs, Photos, Stickers, Documents and Audio.
4. Tap Clear media.

How to free up iMessage storage

1. Open Messages and open a conversation.
2. Tap the contact or group at the top of the conversation.
3. On iOS 26 or later, tap a category such as Photos. On iOS 18, scroll to Photos and tap See All.
4. On iOS 26 or later, tap Edit, then Select. On iOS 18, tap Select.
5. Tap each attachment you want to remove, tap Delete and confirm.

Settings › General › iPhone Storage › Messages shows how much space messages and their attachments use. If iOS offers a recommendation there, tap it to review the attachments you can delete.

Stop old messages piling up

1. Open Settings › Apps › Messages.
2. Scroll down and tap Keep Messages, below Message History.
3. Choose 1 Year or 30 Days instead of Forever.

Deleted messages wait in Recently Deleted for up to 30 days. To remove them now, tap the Filters button at the top of the conversation list, then Recently Deleted; on iOS 18, tap Edit, then Show Recently Deleted.

Copies left in your Photos library

WhatsApp notes that deleted items might still be saved on your device. Photos and videos that were saved to your Photos library stay there, often next to the same picture you received twice.

No cleaner app can reach inside WhatsApp or Messages: iOS keeps each app's files private. The steps above are the only way to clear what they store.