Shortwave
AI email client for Gmail with Claude-powered search and drafting
Overview
Shortwave is an AI email client built on Gmail and Google Workspace by Shortwave Communications. Its Claude-based assistant searches email by description, summarises messages, drafts replies in your style and runs AI filters, and it works on web, Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. A free plan exists; paid plans run from $18 to $120 a seat a month.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 14 Oct 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Basic intelligence
- Limited AI usage quota
- 90 days of standard and AI search history
- Max 15 threads per AI search
- "Sent with Shortwave" email signature
- Standard intelligence
- Standard AI usage quota
- Full standard search history
- 3 years of AI search history
- Standard intelligence, more AI usage
- 5 years of AI search history
- Max 50 threads per AI search
- 3 AI-powered filters
- AI integrations and web browsing
- Advanced intelligence
- 2x more AI usage
- Unlimited AI search history
- Max 100 threads per AI search
- 10 AI-powered filters
- 2x context tokens
- Expert intelligence
- 6x more AI usage
- Max 150 threads per AI search
- 50 AI-powered filters
- 3x context tokens
What you can produce with Shortwave
- Emails found by plain-language description across years of Gmail history
- An automatic AI summary at the top of every email
- Replies drafted in your own writing style, plus predictive autocomplete
- AI filters that label, archive, star or delete new mail from a written prompt
- One-click inbox clean-up that archives low-priority mail and turns action items into tasks
- Assistant answers that draw on your calendar, attachments, the web and MCP-connected apps
- Shared threads, team comments and assignees for email handled as a team
Shortwave is one of the most complete AI email clients: description-based search across years of mail, automatic summaries, drafting that learns your style, AI filters and one-click inbox clean-up, all on Claude models. Outlook and other accounts work only by routing them through Gmail.
The free plan is usable but limited; the AI quota and search history that matter come at $18 to $120 a seat a month, billed monthly. Best for Gmail-centred professionals and teams who live in email; note the changelog has been quiet since February 2026.
What we found
Shortwave is an AI email client built on top of Gmail by Shortwave Communications, Inc. Its founders are Andrew Lee, who earlier co-founded Firebase, and Jonny Dimond. Shortwave launched publicly on 15 February 2022, announcing a $9 million Series A led by Union Square Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. It connects natively to Gmail and Google Workspace accounts; Outlook, Fastmail, Yahoo and other mailboxes work only by first connecting them to a Gmail account, so earlier versions of this page overstated the lock-out but not the dependence.
The AI assistant runs on Anthropic's Claude models at four levels: Haiku 4.5 for basic requests, Sonnet 4.6 for standard, Sonnet 4.6 with adaptive thinking for advanced and Opus 4.6 for expert, upgraded in February 2026. It searches email by description rather than keyword, summarises every message, drafts replies in your own style, browses the web, reads attachments, checks your calendar and connects to tools such as Notion, HubSpot and Asana through MCP. AI filters act on new mail automatically, and a one-click command archives low-priority email and turns action items into tasks. For round-the-clock automation Shortwave points to Tasklet, a sister product launched in October 2025 that drafts replies and comments inside Shortwave on triggers.
Plans are billed monthly. Free has basic intelligence, a limited AI quota, 90 days of search history and a "Sent with Shortwave" signature. Pro costs $18 a month per seat. Business is $30, Premier $45 and Max $120, raising the daily AI quota from roughly 150-300 standard requests on Business to 900-1,800 on Max, with more AI filters and longer AI search history. Paid plans start with a 14-day trial, and refunds are offered within 14 days of payment.
Shortwave suits people whose work runs through Gmail and who will use search and drafting daily. Its public changelog has had no entry since February 2026.
Compiled by RECATOOLS from public sources: vendor documentation and pricing, code repositories and published reporting.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Shortwave's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Shortwave unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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