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Stable Diffusion WebUI: models, LoRAs and outputs

Updated 2026-10-28 · 6 min read

AUTOMATIC1111's WebUI keeps everything inside its own folder: checkpoints, LoRAs, embeddings and generated images. Here are the paths, how to keep models on another drive without breaking the Mac launch flags, and what is safe to remove.

The location

Stable Diffusion WebUI has no system folder of its own. Everything lives inside the stable-diffusion-webui folder you cloned:

stable-diffusion-webui/models/Stable-diffusion/     (checkpoints)
stable-diffusion-webui/models/Lora/                 (LoRA files)
stable-diffusion-webui/outputs/txt2img-images/      (generated images)

Where is that folder? The project's Apple Silicon install guide tells you to run git clone https://github.com/AUTOMATIC1111/stable-diffusion-webui in Terminal, and a new Terminal window starts in your home folder, so the usual result is:

~/stable-diffusion-webui

Check with ls -d ~/stable-diffusion-webui. If you ran webui.sh on its own instead, its source clones into a stable-diffusion-webui folder next to the script, wherever you saved it (for example ~/Downloads). This post describes AUTOMATIC1111's WebUI. Forge, a fork, ships a similar models folder, but compare it with your own copy rather than assuming every path matches.

Open it

In Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder (⇧⌘G), paste the path and press Return. From Terminal:

open ~/stable-diffusion-webui/models

The folder itself is visible in Finder; only items such as .git are hidden. Press ⇧⌘. in a Finder window to show them.

The model folders

From the repository's source, the default folders are:

Folder	What goes in it
models/Stable-diffusion	Checkpoints (.safetensors or .ckpt)
models/VAE	VAE files
models/Lora	LoRA networks (.safetensors, .pt, .ckpt)
models/hypernetworks	Hypernetworks
embeddings	Textual inversion embeddings, in the main folder, not under models
models/ESRGAN, models/RealESRGAN, models/BSRGAN, models/DAT	Upscaler models
models/GFPGAN, models/Codeformer	Face restoration models
extensions	Extensions you install from the UI

A fresh clone contains only five folders under models. Stable-diffusion, VAE and deepbooru hold a placeholder text file that says what goes there. VAE-approx and karlo ship with small files the WebUI itself uses (model.pt and a stats file), so leave those two alone. The Lora folder is not in the clone at all: the built-in Lora extension creates it when the WebUI lists its networks, according to its source. If a folder you expect is missing, start the WebUI once, or create it in Finder with exactly that name.

To add a checkpoint, move the file into models/Stable-diffusion, then click the refresh button beside the Stable Diffusion checkpoint menu at the top of the page, or restart the WebUI.

Where the images go

Generated images are saved under outputs:

Folder	What it holds
outputs/txt2img-images	Text to image results
outputs/img2img-images	Image to image results
outputs/extras-images	Results from the Extras tab
outputs/txt2img-grids, outputs/img2img-grids	Grid images
outputs/init-images	Copies of images you sent into img2img
log/images	Images saved with the Save button

Those are the source defaults. Images also go into a subfolder per day by default (the [date] pattern, which gives names like 2025-01-31). Every one of these folders is a setting under Settings > Paths for saving, so yours may differ. The settings themselves are in config.json in the main folder; read it in a text editor if you need to check a path.

Keep models on another drive

Checkpoints are large and add up quickly. Two ways to keep them elsewhere:

1. Launch arguments. The WebUI accepts --ckpt-dir for checkpoints, --vae-dir for VAEs, --lora-dir for LoRAs and --models-dir as the base for all model folders.
2. A symbolic link. Quit the WebUI, back the folder up, move it to the drive, then create a link at the old path.

There is a Mac-specific trap with the first route. On macOS, webui.sh first loads webui-macos-env.sh, which sets COMMANDLINE_ARGS to the flags a Mac needs (--skip-torch-cuda-test --upcast-sampling --no-half-vae --use-cpu interrogate), and then loads webui-user.sh. If you uncomment the COMMANDLINE_ARGS line in webui-user.sh and type only your own flag, you replace those Mac defaults. Keep them by adding to the variable instead:

export COMMANDLINE_ARGS="$COMMANDLINE_ARGS --ckpt-dir /Volumes/YourDrive/SD/checkpoints"

Or pass the flag for one run only: ./webui.sh --ckpt-dir "/Volumes/YourDrive/SD/checkpoints". Either way, the drive must be connected when you launch.

Backing up and moving to a new Mac

Back up what you cannot download again: your own checkpoints and LoRAs, embeddings, config.json, ui-config.json, styles.csv (saved prompt styles, if you made any) and outputs. The venv folder and the code can be rebuilt by installing again, and the project's own troubleshooting advice is to delete venv when the WebUI will not start, so it does not need backing up. On the new Mac, clone and run the WebUI once, quit it, then copy your files into the same folders. Do not copy a Python environment between Macs.

Space and what is safe to remove

Quit the WebUI first. Checkpoints and LoRAs you no longer use can go to the Trash in Finder; they come back only if you still have the download or its source page. Images in outputs exist nowhere else, so check before deleting. Deleting venv is safe in the sense that the next launch rebuilds it, but it downloads PyTorch and the other packages again, which takes a while. To see what is large, run:

du -sh ~/stable-diffusion-webui/* | sort -h

Why model files are hard to find

The clone usually sits in an ordinary folder, so Spotlight can show a checkpoint if you remember its exact file name. The trouble is that names are chosen by whoever trained the model, and a clone made from inside Downloads or Documents, or a second copy for Forge, is easy to forget about.

Finding a checkpoint next time

Type part of the checkpoint or LoRA name into Everywhere, or .safetensors, and every copy appears with its folder, including duplicates left in Downloads or a second clone. ⌘↵ reveals one in Finder. Clones inside Documents, Downloads or on an external drive are covered once Everywhere has Full Disk Access, and it matches file names only, not the metadata inside a model.

Common questions

Where do I put Stable Diffusion checkpoints on a Mac?

In models/Stable-diffusion inside your stable-diffusion-webui folder, usually ~/stable-diffusion-webui. Click the refresh button beside the checkpoint menu, or restart the WebUI.

Where do LoRA files go in Stable Diffusion WebUI?

In models/Lora inside the WebUI folder. The built-in Lora extension creates that folder when the WebUI starts, so start it once if the folder is missing.

Where does Stable Diffusion WebUI save images?

In outputs/txt2img-images and outputs/img2img-images inside the WebUI folder, in a subfolder per day by default. Images saved with the Save button go to log/images.

Can I store the models on an external drive?

Yes. Use --ckpt-dir, --lora-dir, --vae-dir or --models-dir, and on a Mac add them to the existing value (export COMMANDLINE_ARGS="$COMMANDLINE_ARGS --ckpt-dir ...") so the Mac defaults stay. Keep the drive connected when you launch.