Shortwave
Shortwave is an AI email assistant and native client where Claude 4.6 agents manage triage, drafting, scheduling, and search in your inbox.
If your inbox is a full-time job, Shortwave earns its seat price. The Claude 4.6 upgrade (Feb 2026) means Standard on Business now runs Sonnet 4.6 instead of Haiku 4.5, and Max runs Opus 4.6 with adaptive thinking — 50 AI filters and 150-thread search context are genuinely rare. The $30/seat/mo Business plan is the real entry point; $45/seat/mo Premier is where unlimited AI search history, 10 filters, and 2x context tokens start. Light email users paying full freight will feel overcharged, and anyone who needs on-prem or wants to fully disable AI processing should look elsewhere.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 77/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/shortwave
- Solo professionals and teams drowning in 100+ emails a day who want AI to triage, draft, and search for them
- Sales and customer success teams using read statuses, link tracking, and recent opens to time follow-ups
- Small to mid-size teams running shared inboxes with private comments and assignable todos
- Power users who want configurable AI filters (up to 50 on Max) and large search context windows
- Casual email users who check their inbox a few times a week and won't use the AI features
- Organizations that require on-premise or self-hosted email deployment
- Teams that want traditional folder-based email organization rather than AI-driven bundles and splits
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Skip Shortwave if your inbox volume is low enough that you check it a few times a week — the $30-$120/seat/mo AI features won't earn their keep, and you'd be paying full freight for capability you won't use.
Going past the roughly 150-300 Standard intelligence AI requests per day on Business means you hit the quota wall — Premier doubles it and Max gives 6x, so heavy users end up paying $45 or $120 per seat per month rather
Shortwave's seat pricing is steep for an email client: $30/seat/mo Business, $45/seat/mo Premier, $120/seat/mo Max. That fits teams where the AI genuinely replaces a separate AI assistant subscription and a search tool. Solo users and small teams on tighter budgets should compare against Superhuman and plain Gmail before committing to Premier or Max.
In short
Shortwave — Shortwave is an AI email assistant and native client where Claude 4.6 agents manage triage, drafting, scheduling, and search in your inbox. Best for Solo professionals and teams drowning in 100+ emails a day who want AI to triage, draft, and search for them, Sales and customer success teams using read statuses, link tracking, and recent opens to time follow-ups, Small to mid-size teams running shared inboxes with private comments and assignable todos. Free to start; paid plans from $30/user/mo.
What's new in Shortwave
Checked 3 days agoAcross the latest 4 updates: 3 feature updates and 1 changelog entry.
Upgraded to Claude Sonnet & Opus 4.6
Standard tier moved to Claude Sonnet 4.6 with reasoning, Advanced to Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking, and Expert to Opus 4.6 with adaptive thinking. Basic stays on Haiku 4.5.
Fully automate your email with Tasklet
Shortwave now integrates with sister product Tasklet so drafts appear directly in Shortwave. Triggers can draft replies, add team comments, organize threads into todos, and connect to 3,000+ apps.
AI web browsing, model upgrades, and Gemini 2.5 Flash summaries
AI web browsing is now enabled by default on paid plans. Gemini 2.5 Flash handles faster summaries, and AI quotas are simplified with Basic and Standard+ tracked separately.
Integrate the AI with all your apps
The Shortwave AI connects to Notion, HubSpot, GitHub, Asana, Linear, Zapier, and any MCP-compatible tool. AI Memories, new AI Filter actions, and hour-level date range search were added.
What people actually say about Shortwave — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
65 mentions across 3 sources (Hacker News, App Store, Lemmy) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 3 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +AI writing and scheduling features are best-in-class according to users.
- +One-click inbox organization saves hours of manual triage.
- +Real-time team collaboration with shared threads and comments.
- +Custom AI filters with plain English commands are powerful.
- +Smart autocomplete learns your writing style and history.
- −Backend crashes and sync issues are frequent and unresolved.
- −iPad app is buggy, lacks keyboard shortcuts, and uses single pane.
- −Missing basic email formatting: bold, italic, lists, hyperlinks.
- −Free tier limits search to last 90 days of email.
- −Only works with Gmail; no support for other providers.
- • Paid plans have AI usage caps that may be reduced without notice.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Shortwave? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- One-click AI inbox organization (identifies important emails and todos, sweeps the rest)
- Custom AI filters written in plain English — label, star, archive, delete, mark important (3/10/50 by tier)
- AI writing that learns your voice, tone, and facts from sent emails
- Predictive AI autocomplete with real links and facts from your history
- AI-powered search across your team's email history and attachments
- Instant AI summaries at the top of every email
- AI-powered snooze with contextual suggestions
- AI voice commands — tap the microphone or press cmd + .
- Calendar integration: check availability, create events, write scheduling emails from the AI Assistant
- Attachment analysis for PDF, text, and code files
- AI web browsing on paid plans (enabled by default)
- AI memory for custom instructions and preferences
- Saved prompts for one-click AI commands
- Real-time team collaboration with shared threads and private comments
- Assignable todos with team-wide done status
About Shortwave
Shortwave is an AI-native email client built by ex-Googlers that plugs Claude language models directly into your Gmail inbox. Instead of typing search operators, you describe what you're looking for. Instead of writing a reply from scratch, you hit one key for an inline suggestion or type a prompt. Instead of manually labeling, you write AI filters in plain English that run automatically. The agent can check your calendar availability, create events, and draft scheduling emails inside the thread. It remembers facts and preferences you ask it to. Instant summaries sit at the top of every email; predictive autocomplete suggests completions using real links and facts from your past messages. Search runs across your team's full email history and attachments, returning answers rather than keyword matches.
Behind the Verdict
Shortwave's design bet is that the AI should do the work, not just suggest it. That shows up in three places that matter on day one. First, one-click Organize inbox: it identifies important emails and todos, sweeps the rest away. Second, AI filters written in plain English — you get 3 on Business, 10 on Premier, 50 on Max, and they can label, star, archive, delete, or mark important on incoming mail automatically. Third, AI-powered search that runs against your team's email history and attachments, with a context depth of 50 threads on Business, 100 on Premier, 150 on Max, and token limits that triple at the top tier. The Claude 4.6 upgrade is the biggest quality jump in the current release: Standard tier (Business) moved from Haiku 4.5 to Sonnet 4.6 with reasoning, Advanced (Premier) uses Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking, and Expert (Max) uses Opus 4.6 with adaptive thinking. Basic stays on Haiku 4.5 for fast lightweight requests, and Gemini 2.5 Flash handles summaries. Team features aren't an afterthought. Shared threads update in real time, private comments let you discuss an email without pasting screenshots into Slack, todos give each thread a clear owner with a team-wide done status, and shared labels create an AI-searchable archive the whole team can query. Enterprise-grade security meets CASA Tier 2 compliance. The Tasklet integration (Jan 2026) matters more than the earlier Gmail-API approach: Tasklet-triggered drafts now appear directly inside Shortwave, and triggers can also add team comments, organize threads into todos, and reach 3,000+ apps. For power users this turns the inbox into a workflow hub. Where it doesn't fit: casual email users who check in a few times a week won't use the AI enough to justify $30-$120/seat/mo. Anyone who wants traditional folder-based organization rather than bundles and splits will fight the design. And if you need on-prem deployment or to fully disable AI processing for compliance, Shortwave isn't that product. Against Gmail and Superhuman, Shortwave leans farthest into AI doing the work for you — worth it if your inbox volume justifies the seat price, overpriced if it doesn't.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Shortwave actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Inbound leads arrive overnight. AI filters auto-label them and push to a 'Leads' split. Morning triage uses one-click Organize to surface action items as todos; AI autocomplete drafts follow-ups using the rep's past replies. Read statuses and link tracking show which prospects opened the email.
Outcome: Inbox zero by mid-morning; follow-ups timed off real open data rather than guesswork.
Shared threads on customer escalations are visible to the whole team with private comments. AI search runs across the team's email history and attachments to reconstruct what was promised. AI web browsing pulls in current info relevant to the thread. Todos assign each escalation a clear owner.
Outcome: Escalations get resolved with full context instead of screenshot-pasted Slack threads.
Tasklet triggers draft replies the moment specific emails arrive — drafts appear directly inside Shortwave, not in Gmail. Triggers also add team comments and connect to 3,000+ apps. 50 AI filters run continuously, and AI search reaches 150 threads with 3x context tokens.
Outcome: Most inbound email is handled or pre-drafted before the user opens the app.
Use Cases
- Automatically organize your inbox by identifying important emails and archiving noise with one click.
- Create custom AI filters to label, star, archive, or delete emails based on plain English rules.
- Use AI voice commands to triage, draft, and search hands-free.
- Search and analyze your entire team's email history and attachments for answers.
- Collaborate on shared threads with real-time comments, task assignments, and read statuses.
- Draft contextual replies in one click with inline AI suggestions.
- Automate 24/7 workflows with Tasklet: trigger auto-drafts, team comments, and connections to 3,000+ apps.
- Set delivery schedules to batch email arrivals and reduce interruptions.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-09-28
Limitations
- AI usage is quota-gated per plan.
- The Business plan allows roughly 150-300 Standard intelligence requests per day, and quota varies with request complexity and the intelligence level selected — Premier offers 2x more usage and Max 6x more.
- Maximum threads per AI search vary by tier (50 on Business, 100 on Premier, 150 on Max), and search context tokens increase up to 3x on Max.
- Intelligence levels are tier-locked: Basic uses Claude Haiku 4.5, Standard uses Claude Sonnet 4.6, Advanced uses Claude Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking, and Expert uses Claude Opus 4.6 with adaptive thinking.
- Shortwave runs on Gmail accounts — unified inbox via forwarding is documented, but it is not a native multi-provider client.
as of 2026-10-04
Verification history
We have re-verified Shortwave 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Shortwave tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0/mo
Ideal for
Gmail users who want to try an AI-native client before paying — core email client on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows with basic organization and limited AI.
What this tier adds
Free entry point: core email client with Gmail support, AI search and Organize with AI enabled, and limited AI capabilities.
Business
$30/seat/mo
Ideal for
Solo professionals or small teams running high-volume Gmail inboxes who want the AI to triage, draft, and search — the real entry point for paid AI features.
What this tier adds
Adds Standard intelligence (Claude Sonnet 4.6), 5 years of AI search history, max 50 threads per AI search, 3 AI filters, AI integrations and web browsing, AI autocomplete, summaries, and attachment analysis, with roughly 150-300 Standard AI requests per day.
Premier
$45/seat/mo
Ideal for
Teams whose AI search needs to reach back further than 5 years and who want more filters and deeper context for complex workflows.
What this tier adds
Adds Advanced intelligence (Claude Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking), 2x more AI usage, unlimited AI search history, max 100 threads per AI search, 10 AI filters, and 2x search context tokens.
Max
$120/seat/mo
Ideal for
Power users and teams running the largest search contexts and filter counts — the tier for the most complex AI analysis and the highest usage ceilings.
What this tier adds
Adds Expert intelligence (Claude Opus 4.6 with adaptive thinking), 6x more AI usage, max 150 threads per AI search, 50 AI filters, and 3x search context tokens.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Shortwave's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Shortwave's seat pricing is steep for an email client: $30/seat/mo Business, $45/seat/mo Premier, $120/seat/mo Max. That fits teams where the AI genuinely replaces a separate AI assistant subscription and a search tool. Solo users and small teams on tighter budgets should compare against Superhuman and plain Gmail before committing to Premier or Max.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Shortwave — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Free trial starts in minutes — sign in with a Gmail account, get started without a credit card. Solo users reach first value in under an hour once AI filters and Organize inbox are configured. Teams adding shared labels, snippets, and Tasklet triggers should budget a half-day for setup and a week for the team to settle into the Shortwave Method.
Switching to or from Shortwave
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Gmail: Shortwave runs on your Gmail account directly; import full history is documented in the migrations guide.
- →From Superhuman: A dedicated migration guide exists in Shortwave docs.
- →From Spark: A dedicated migration guide exists in Shortwave docs.
- →From other providers: Unified inbox via forwarding is documented for non-Gmail accounts.
- ↗To Gmail: Shortwave runs on Gmail, so mail remains in your Gmail account; use Download EML file to export threads if needed.
- ↗To Superhuman: Export key threads as EML, then re-import into the target client and reconfigure AI filters and Splits manually.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Shortwave”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Shortwave” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Shortwave.
Tools that pair well with Shortwave
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Shortwave, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Shortwave AI Assistant
Shortwave is an AI email assistant for Gmail that triages, drafts, schedules, and searches your inbox with Claude 4.6 models.
Missive + AI
Missive + AI folds GPT-powered summarize, translate, and reply drafting into a shared team inbox for email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat.
Canary Mail
Canary Mail is an AI email client with an on-device Copilot, PGP encryption, and a unified inbox for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Shortwave vs Poke Interaction Co
If you want an AI assistant that lives inside your messaging apps to handle email, calendar, and tasks without switching apps, Poke is the clear choice—especially for health enthusiasts (Oura) and travelers (TripIt). But if your primary pain point is email overload and you need a full-featured AI email client with team collaboration, Shortwave is more powerful and purpose-built. Shortwave's Claude 4.6 models give it an edge in AI quality, while Poke’s messaging-native approach offers unmatched convenience for personal use.
Shortwave vs Gem
These aren't competitors. Gem is a recruiting platform — you buy it to source candidates, rank and fraud-check applications, schedule interviews, and either layer AI on Greenhouse/Workday/Lever/iCIMS or replace them entirely. Shortwave is an AI email client for people drowning in their inbox; its newer Tasklet integration automates routine email work and its AI runs on the Claude 4.6 family across paid tiers. If you have a hiring problem, evaluate Gem against your ATS stack, not against an email tool. If you have an inbox problem, Shortwave is the relevant comparison — against other AI email clients. Only a recruiting team that also wants AI email help would touch both, and then they're two separate purchases.
Shortwave vs Guesty
These tools serve completely different needs. Guesty is a dedicated vacation rental management OS with AI agents for messaging, bank reconciliation (2026), and multi-channel sync. Shortwave is an AI-first email client using Claude 4.6 to automate triage, writing, and scheduling. Choose Guesty if you run rental properties; choose Shortwave if email overload is your problem. Neither is a substitute for the other.
Alternatives to Shortwave
View all
Shortwave AI Assistant
Shortwave is an AI email assistant for Gmail that triages, drafts, schedules, and searches your inbox with Claude 4.6 models.
Missive + AI
Missive + AI folds GPT-powered summarize, translate, and reply drafting into a shared team inbox for email, SMS, WhatsApp, and chat.
Canary Mail
Canary Mail is an AI email client with an on-device Copilot, PGP encryption, and a unified inbox for Mac, iOS, Windows, and Android.
Frequently Asked Questions
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