Shortwave
AI email assistant that automates your inbox with Claude 4.6
Shortwave is the most deeply AI-integrated email client we've seen—Claude 4.6 powers triage, writing, search, and automation across the board. The steep per-seat pricing (starting at $30/mo) and AI-first approach mean it's for power users and teams, not casual emailers. If you live in email and want AI to manage it, this is the one to beat. For lighter needs, Gmail or Apple Mail are simpler and cheaper.
Verified 4d ago · liveness 77/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/shortwave
- Busy professionals managing high-volume email
- Sales and customer success teams
- Small to medium teams collaborating on shared inboxes
- Power users willing to pay for deep AI integration
- Users who prefer a simple, free email client without AI dependency
- Organizations requiring on-premise or self-hosted email solutions
- Users who want traditional folder-based organization over AI-driven bundling and splits
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Skip Shortwave if you're looking for a free or low-cost email client, if you prefer traditional folder-based organization, or if you need on-premise/self-hosted email.
AI usage is quota-limited (150-300 requests/day on Business); hitting the daily limit means you either wait or upgrade to Premier or Max.
Shortwave's pricing fits teams and power users who live in email and value deep AI integration. Compared to Superhuman ($30/mo) and Missive (from $14/mo), Shortwave is premium but offers more AI capabilities. For budget-conscious individuals, Gmail is free, but lacks Shortwave's AI depth.
In short
Shortwave — AI email assistant that automates your inbox with Claude 4.6. Best for Busy professionals managing high-volume email, Sales and customer success teams, Small to medium teams collaborating on shared inboxes. Free to start; paid plans from $30/mo.
What's new in Shortwave
Checked 4 days agoAcross the latest 4 updates: 3 feature updates and 1 launch.
Upgraded to Claude Sonnet & Opus 4.6
Shortwave upgraded its AI models: Standard tier now uses Claude Sonnet 4.6, Advanced uses Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking, and Expert uses Opus 4.6.
Fully Automate Your Email with Shortwave + Tasklet
Announced direct Tasklet integration, allowing automated drafts, todos, and comments within Shortwave.
Introducing Tasklet: Automate your business with AI Agents
Announced Tasklet, an AI automation engine that works with Shortwave to run email tasks automatically.
Enhanced AI performance & collaboration
Improves AI Assistant context, search efficiency, desktop window memory, and fixes Android and desktop issues.
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.
- +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: August 2026
How we score →Key Features
- AI inbox triage with one-click organization
- Custom AI filters in plain English
- AI writing that learns your voice
- Predictive AI autocomplete with real links and facts
- AI search over team's email history and attachments
- Instant AI summaries for every email
- AI-powered snooze with smart suggestions
- Calendar integration (check availability, create events)
- Real-time team collaboration (shared threads, comments, todos)
- Bundles for bulk triage of promotions and newsletters
- Splits to divide inbox into tabs
- Delivery schedules to batch email arrivals
- Read statuses, link tracking, recent opens feed
- AI web browsing (paid plans)
- Tasklet integration for 24/7 workflow automation
About Shortwave
Shortwave is an AI-native email client that embeds the latest Claude 4.6 models directly into your inbox, letting you automate triage, drafting, search, and scheduling with plain-English prompts. Built by a team of ex-Googlers, it's designed for busy professionals and teams who want to reclaim hours each day from email busywork. It goes beyond typical smart inboxes by offering AI-powered features like one-click inbox organization, custom AI filters, and personalized writing that learns your voice from sent messages. Core capabilities include AI inbox triage that identifies important emails and todos instantly, custom AI filters you write in plain English to label, star, archive, or delete automatically, and AI search that analyzes your entire team's email history and attachments. The AI Assistant also handles calendar tasks, checks availability, and drafts scheduling emails. Predictive autocomplete suggests sentence completions with real links and facts pulled from your history, while instant AI summaries provide a smart tl;dr for every email. For deeper automation, Shortwave integrates with Tasklet to connect to 3,000+ apps via MCP. Shortwave shines for team collaboration: shared threads update in real time, private comments keep discussions in the inbox, and assignable todos ensure clear ownership. A shared, AI-searchable archive lets the whole team search across all emails. Delivery schedules batch email arrivals, bundles group promotions for bulk triage, and splits divide your inbox into custom tabs. Read statuses, link tracking, and a recent opens feed provide context for follow-ups. The client is available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows, with CASA Tier 2 compliance for enterprise security. In early 2026, Shortwave upgraded its AI models: Standard tier now uses Claude Sonnet 4.6, Advanced uses Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking, and Expert uses Claude Opus 4.6. It also integrated with Tasklet for full email automation.
Behind the Verdict
Shortwave stands out for embedding AI into every corner of the inbox, not bolting it on. The AI Assistant can draft, summarize, search, and even execute multi-step actions like organizing and scheduling. The recent upgrade to Claude 4.6 (Sonnet for Standard, Opus for Expert) keeps it at the frontier. Its collaboration features are strong: shared threads, private comments, and assignable todos make it a team inbox, not just a personal one. The Tasklet integration adds automation beyond email, connecting to 3,000+ apps via MCP. However, this depth comes at a price: plans start at $30/seat/mo, and AI usage is quota-limited (150-300 requests/day on Business, with 2x or 6x more on higher tiers). Also, AI models are primarily optimized for English, so non-English speakers may find it less effective. If you're a high-volume email user or a team needing to collaborate on shared inboxes, Shortwave can save real hours. If you're on a budget or prefer a simple client, look elsewhere.
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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.
You receive 200 emails daily and need to prioritize leads.
Outcome: Use AI inbox triage to flag important messages, create custom AI filters to auto-label prospects, and rely on AI summaries to quickly grasp each thread. Follow-up reminders and read statuses help you close deals faster.
Your team shares a support inbox and needs to collaborate on responses.
Outcome: Use shared threads with private comments and assignable todos to delegate tasks. The team-wide AI search helps you find past answers, and snippets let you share templates for common replies.
You spend hours writing emails and managing your calendar.
Outcome: Use the AI to draft emails in your voice, check availability, and schedule meetings. Voice commands let you triage hands-free, and delivery schedules batch emails to reduce interruptions.
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.
- Set delivery schedules to batch email arrivals and reduce interruptions.
- Automate workflows with Tasklet: auto-draft replies, add team comments, and connect to 3,000+ apps.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-08-20
Limitations
- AI usage is quota-gated per plan, with the Business plan allowing roughly 150-300 Standard intelligence AI requests per day, and higher tiers offering 2x or 6x more usage.
- Maximum threads per AI search vary by tier (50/100/150), and context token limits increase up to 3x in Max.
- AI web browsing is enabled by default on paid plans.
- The service integrates with the sister product Tasklet for automation, which is a separate offering.
as of 2026-08-19
Verification history
We have re-verified Shortwave 6 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
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
Individuals trying Shortwave with basic AI features and limited history; good for testing.
What this tier adds
Free entry point with standard search history, 3 AI filters, AI autocomplete & summaries.
Business
$30/seat/mo
Ideal for
Professionals and small teams needing solid AI assistance with standard intelligence and 5-year search history.
What this tier adds
Adds 5-year AI search, more AI usage, AI integrations, read statuses, and attachment analysis.
Premier
$45/seat/mo
Ideal for
Power users and teams tackling complex workflows needing advanced intelligence and 2x more AI usage.
What this tier adds
Adds advanced intelligence (Sonnet 4.6 adaptive), 2x more AI usage, unlimited search history, 10 filters, 2x context tokens.
Max
$120/seat/mo
Ideal for
Heavy users needing the most powerful AI (Opus 4.6), 6x more AI usage, and 50 filters.
What this tier adds
Adds expert intelligence, 6x more AI usage, 150 threads per search, 50 filters, 3x 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 pricing fits teams and power users who live in email and value deep AI integration. Compared to Superhuman ($30/mo) and Missive (from $14/mo), Shortwave is premium but offers more AI capabilities. For budget-conscious individuals, Gmail is free, but lacks Shortwave's AI depth.
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.
Most users can set up Shortwave in under 15 minutes: sign up with Gmail or Outlook, and the AI starts learning your style. Customizing filters and splits may take an extra hour. Teams can invite members and set up shared labels quickly. The 14-day free trial gives you full access to test.
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: Import full history and use the built-in migration guide.
- →From Spark: Use the migration guide to move your data.
- →From Superhuman: Use the migration guide to switch.
- ↗To Gmail: You can export your data; Shortwave syncs with Gmail, so your emails remain in Gmail.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
Official links
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
AI-first email assistant that triages, drafts, and searches your inbox using Claude 4.6 models.
Missive + AI
AI-powered collaborative team inbox that unifies email, SMS, and social channels into one shared view.
Spike
AI-powered email app that turns your inbox into a chat-like collaboration hub
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
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 allShortwave AI Assistant
AI-first email assistant that triages, drafts, and searches your inbox using Claude 4.6 models.
Missive + AI
AI-powered collaborative team inbox that unifies email, SMS, and social channels into one shared view.
Frequently Asked Questions
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