Why does Mac OS Monterey require so much space in my Macbook Air 2015?

I have the Macbook Air 2015. I had enough space to install it. After 3 hours of trying to install it, it now tells me I need an additional 28.44GB of space on my laptop. Do the updates just constantly take up space until there is nothing left? I really don't understand. Doing this update halfway has already taken away 8GB. I have attached an image of the message.