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Shortwave
AI-first Gmail client for individuals and teams, with summaries, search, filters, and drafting features aimed at clearing a high-volume inbox.
Individuals and small teams living in Gmail who want AI summaries, search, and drafting inside a dedicated client.
Support or ops teams that mainly need a shared company inbox with assignees and internal comments across many mailboxes.
Co-founded by Andrew Lee.
Verdict
Shortwave is a fair fit when Gmail itself feels slow and you want AI triage without rebuilding your team on a shared-inbox ops tool. Published Business through Max seats are clear but climb quickly. Practitioners like summaries and bundles; teams that need shared assignments and comments across a company mailbox may still prefer Missive.
Score Breakdown
How Shortwave scores in the categories that matter to its buyers.
Pricing
Shortwave publishes Business, Premier, and Max seat plans on shortwave.com/pricing. Figures below are USD list signals as of September 2026; confirm annual vs monthly billing and AI usage quotas before budgeting.
| Plan / SKU | Meter | Price (USD) | What stands out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | per seat / month | $30 | Standard intelligence; AI filters and search |
| Premier | per seat / month | $45 | Advanced intelligence; 2x AI usage |
| Max | per seat / month | $120 | Expert intelligence; 6x AI usage |
| Trial | days | 14 | Free trial path on site |
The Field at a Glance
How Shortwave compares with other AI email assistants vendors we reviewed, by Overall Score and relative typical engagement cost.
Shortwave scores 6.9 in AI email assistants, under Superhuman (8.2) and Missive (7.9) and ahead of SaneBox (6.6). Relative cost is higher on published AI seat tiers versus triage subscriptions.
Compared with …
- Shortwave vs Missive 7.9/6.9
- Shortwave vs SaneBox 6.9/6.6
Use-case matrix
| Use case | Fit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AI Gmail triage and search | Strong | Core Shortwave motion. |
| AI drafting and summaries | Strong | Product emphasis. |
| Published individual seat pricing | Strong | Clear tier cards. |
| Shared team inbox ops | Mixed | Missive sharper. |
| Outlook-first enterprises | Weak | Gmail-centric. |
| AI code review | Poor | Wrong subcategory. |
Who it’s for
Good fit
- Gmail power users drowning in threads
- Small teams that want AI filters
- Buyers comparing AI email clients
Poor fit
- Ops teams that need shared assignees first
- Outlook-only enterprises
- Buyers shopping for CLM
Review Excerpts
Below are excerpts from public reviews. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch were excluded.
“After switching to Shortwave, I got to Zero Inbox in record time! Plus, the AI-based Summarize feature is a real time-saver for long threads.”
“I no longer dread looking through my email, since Shortwave has everything I need to get through it FAST.”
“We started Shortwave on Business at $30 a seat. Once we needed Max-level AI usage, seats jumped to $120.”
“We run personal Gmail through Shortwave for summaries and filters, and keep customer support in the shared helpdesk.”
Methodology
This page is an independent evaluation of Shortwave for buyers comparing options in ai email assistants. AI Industry Reviews accepts no sponsorships, advertising, or pay-for-placement fees. Shortwave did not pay for this review.
What we scored
The headline number is an Overall Score on a 0-10 scale. Eight criteria sit under it in two groups.
- Buyer outcomes (for ai email assistants)
- AI inbox triage & search
- Gmail client productivity
- Team collaboration depth
- Seat price value at scale
- Company & commercial
- Innovation & product leadership
- Project management & communication
- Pricing
- Contract fairness
Pricing measures whether the price looks fair for the value delivered, including packaging and renewal friction that show up in real buying cycles.
Score Composition
| Input | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 40% | A proprietary read of what practitioners say about likes, complaints, and day-to-day use, including public review sites, forums, and private chat rooms. Paid reviews and pay-for-play sites such as Clutch are out of scope. |
| Product | 35% | Hands-on look at screens and workflows. |
| Pricing | 15% | Whether the price looks fair for what you get. |
| Docs & training | 10% | Docs, tutorials, and training material. |
How we balanced the evidence
The Overall Score is the simple average of the eight criteria. Recommendation language follows that score and the fit pattern described above.
Scope
Shortwave is graded here as ai email assistants. Criteria scores can move as more review volume and product checks are added.