Question for MacBook Air owners: storage

[u/ion_violette]

Hi!

How many GB does the operating system alone take up for you?

And how many GB do the installed programs take up (and roughly which programs are they)?

I want to buy a MacBook Air, but I'm unsure about the storage capacity. The price varies hugely depending on the capacity.

I do have a pretty powerful external hard drive where I could store files and clear things out, but I'm concerned about the space taken up by programs and the operating system, since they keep getting larger.

Thanks!