Notion Mail alternatives now that it has shut down
Notion Mail shut down on September 22, 2026. These Notion Mail alternatives replace its AI labels and inbox for Gmail, and some add iCloud and Outlook.
By Emmett Miller
The best Notion Mail alternative is Alrighty if you want Gmail, iCloud and Outlook in one inbox, mail that sorts itself from a sentence you write, and your own AI, such as Claude, working in your mail. Superhuman is the pick for Gmail and Microsoft 365 teams that want AI labels and will pay per seat. Shortwave is the most AI-heavy Gmail app. Mimestream is a native Mac app for Gmail with almost no AI. Spark is free and runs on every device.
Notion Mail shut down on September 22, 2026. Your mail is safe in Gmail, but the inbox you built is gone: the auto labels, the views, the snippets and the reminders. Most lists of Notion Mail alternatives just name Gmail apps. This one starts with what you lost and says which app replaces each part.
How we checked
We read Notion's shutdown notice and each alternative's own pricing, help and privacy pages on November 4, 2026, and every fact links to its source. Notion has since removed its Notion Mail help pages, so we link to the copies the Internet Archive saved in August 2026. For each app we noted the price, which accounts it takes, how its AI sorts mail, and where it processes your mail. Alrighty is our app, and it's listed first.
What happened to Notion Mail?
Notion closed the Notion Mail app on web, desktop and iPhone on September 22, 2026. Its shutdown notice said "The Notion Mail app for iOS, desktop, and web is going away for everyone," on all Notion plans. The export window ran from June 25 to September 21.
- Your email is still in Gmail. "Notion Mail always synced two ways with Gmail, so every email you received or sent in Notion Mail also exists in your Gmail inbox."
- Some things are gone for good. "The way your inbox was organized" didn't transfer: "Custom views and sorting you set up in Notion Mail won't transfer to Gmail." Neither did reminders set on emails. Drafts, scheduled emails, snippets and auto label instructions had to be exported by September 21, or they were "permanently deleted."
- Synced databases stopped. Email databases you synced into Notion stay, but "new emails will no longer sync into those databases."
- The Notion AI parts still work. The Gmail AI Connector, mail blocks in pages, and "Agents that can read, draft, and send email via Gmail" keep running.
Notion Mail took one kind of account. Its security page said "Notion Mail currently only supports Gmail. Microsoft Outlook is not supported at this time." So any Gmail app can open your mail. The question is which one gives back the parts you used.
What each alternative gives back
| What you used in Notion Mail | Alrighty | Superhuman | Shortwave | Mimestream | Spark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto labels from instructions | Groups you describe; Filters in your words | Custom Auto Labels (Business) | AI filters in plain English | Gmail's own filters | Smart Inbox sorting |
| AI that writes replies | Suggested replies in your voice | Write with AI, Auto Drafts | Learns your voice | Apple's Writing Tools | Spark +AI on paid plans |
| An AI agent on your mail | Your own AI (Claude, ChatGPT) over MCP | Superhuman Mail MCP (Business) | Its own AI assistant | None | AI Assistant, Autopilot (Pro) |
| Accounts besides Gmail | iCloud, Outlook | Microsoft 365, Outlook | Forwarding only | None | iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, IMAP |
The alternatives at a glance
| App | Price | Accounts | Runs on | Where your mail is processed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alrighty | 14-day trial, then Free or Pro | iCloud, Gmail, Outlook only | Mac (Apple silicon), Windows, Linux | Your computer; AI features use its server |
| Superhuman | From $25 a member a month, yearly | Gmail, Microsoft 365 | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android, web | Its pages disagree; see below |
| Shortwave | From $30 a seat a month | Gmail and Google Workspace | Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android | Shortwave's servers on Google Cloud |
| Mimestream | $49.99 a year or $4.99 a month | Gmail only | Mac; iPhone and iPad in beta | Your Mac |
| Spark | Free; Plus $99/yr, Pro $199/yr | iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, IMAP | Mac, iPhone, Windows, Android | Spark's servers for some features |
Alrighty: best Notion Mail alternative for Gmail plus iCloud and Outlook
Alrighty is a mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux that puts Gmail, iCloud and Outlook accounts in one inbox. If Notion Mail kept your Gmail apart from your other addresses, this is the app that brings them together.
- Sorting you describe. Notion Mail's auto labels ran on instructions you wrote. In Alrighty, you name a group and describe what belongs in it, and new mail sorts into it across your accounts. See how Alrighty's groups work. Sorting into groups is part of Pro.
- Filters in your own words. Describe a kind of mail you never want, such as cold sales, or set rules, and new Inbox mail that fits moves to Archive. Mail from people you wrote to is never moved.
- Your own AI, not a built-in agent. Notion is moving email to its agents. Alrighty lets the AI you already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex, Cursor or a local model, read and search your mail through a connection on your computer. It stays off until you turn it on. That AI can work in a window you watch: open mail, write replies, file messages. Nothing sends until you click Send. Notion's Gmail agents can send email themselves.
- Replies in your voice. When you're signed in, opening a reply starts a suggested draft, written from what you've sent that person before. Ask for a change in your own words, or click Shorten, Warmer or Formalize. You send it.
- Search that finds what you remember. It runs on your computer and matches what you mean as well as the words: "when is my flight" finds the airline's confirmation. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.
- Stop mail. One click unsubscribes from a sender in every way the message offers, archives their mail, and keeps new mail from them out.
Where your mail goes. Your mail stays with Google, Apple and Microsoft, and Alrighty keeps its copy and its search index on your computer. Your sign-ins stay on your computer, encrypted with a key from your system's keychain. Alrighty's own AI features send only the emails they need to its server, which passes them to an AI model (OpenAI's for answers and replies). Sorting into groups sends each email's sender, subject and the start of its body. Signed out, nothing goes to Alrighty's server.
Price. A 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. The Free plan has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups. See everything Alrighty does.
What it can't do. Notion Mail ran on the web and on iPhone. Alrighty has no iPhone or web app, and has no calendar. It has no snippets, scheduled send or email reminders, so it doesn't replace those three. It takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook accounts only. It's a new app with no long track record.
Pick it if you used Notion Mail for AI that sorts and drafts, and you want Claude or ChatGPT in your mail across more than Gmail.
Superhuman: best for Gmail and Microsoft 365 teams
Superhuman is "Built for teams that use Gmail or Outlook" (Superhuman). It has the closest match to Notion Mail's auto labels: its Business plan adds "Custom Auto Labels" with AI, plus Ask AI, Auto Drafts and the Superhuman Mail MCP (plans). It runs on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and the web.
Price. Starter is $25 a member a month billed yearly, with Superhuman AI. Business is $33. Each plan card lists Mail, Grammarly, Docs and Go. The plans page didn't show monthly-billed prices or a free trial when we read it.
Where your mail goes. Superhuman's blog says "your inbox is never stored on our servers." Its privacy policy says "We receive the content you upload or enable our products to access, such as emails and drafts." Its pages don't reconcile the two.
What to know. It takes Gmail and Microsoft 365 only, so no iCloud or Yahoo. Our Superhuman alternatives page covers it further.
Pick it if your team ran Notion Mail on Google Workspace, some of you use Microsoft 365, and the company pays per seat.
Shortwave: best for AI-first Gmail
Shortwave is the app that does the most with AI, as Notion Mail tried to. You write its custom AI filters in plain English, the way you wrote auto label instructions. Its AI summarizes emails, and it says it "learns your unique voice and style from the emails you send" (Shortwave). Its Business plan runs on Claude Sonnet 4.6.
Price. Business is $30 a seat a month with 3 AI filters, Premier is $45 with 10, and Max is $120 with 50 (pricing). Paid plans start with a 14-day trial. A help doc mentions a Free plan, but the pricing page didn't show its terms.
Where your mail goes. "All Shortwave data is stored in Google Cloud's highly secure & compliant data centers," and besides Google Cloud it uses "OpenAI, Anthropic, and Pinecone" (security). So your mail sits on Shortwave's servers, as it did with a cloud app like Notion Mail.
What to know. It's Gmail and Google Workspace only. Microsoft 365 and Exchange are "not supported at this time," and other providers work only by forwarding into Gmail (help). "There is no default option to view a unified inbox in Shortwave" (help). See our Shortwave alternatives.
Pick it if you want more AI than Notion Mail had, all your mail is Gmail, and you're fine with a cloud app.
Mimestream: best native Mac app for Gmail
Mimestream is the opposite of Notion Mail. It's a Mac app built for Gmail that "only stores your data and tokens on your device," and connects straight to the Gmail API, with no sync service in between (Mimestream). It shows "all of your inboxes together, as one unified inbox," across several Gmail accounts.
Price. $49.99 a year or $4.99 a month, after "a fully functional 14-day free trial that doesn't require a credit card" (pricing).
AI. Almost none. It supports Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools (releases). Sorting comes from Gmail's own filters, and search is "Gmail-backed."
What to know. It's Gmail only and needs macOS 12 Monterey or newer. The iPhone and iPad version is in beta. See our Mimestream alternatives if you have other accounts.
Pick it if you liked Notion Mail's clean design more than its AI, and you want a fast native Mac app.
Spark: best free alternative across devices
Spark is free with unlimited email accounts on Mac, iPhone, Windows and Android (pricing), and it takes iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo and IMAP as well as Gmail. Its Smart Inbox sorts mail on the free plan.
AI. Spark +AI covers writing, summaries, "My Writing Style," an AI Assistant, Auto-Drafts and Autopilot (Spark AI). It's "available as a part of the Spark paid plans": Plus at $99 a year, or Pro at $199 a year for Autopilot and Auto-Drafts. Free has a limited preview. Spark uses "the Azure OpenAI Service."
Where your mail goes. Some features "require our server-side email processing to work" (privacy). Our Spark alternatives page covers this.
Pick it if you used Notion Mail on iPhone and want one free app on every device.
Do you need a new mail app at all?
Maybe not. If what you used was Notion AI, not the inbox, Notion says those parts still work. The Gmail AI Connector lets you "Search Gmail and draft replies with Notion AI," and a Custom Agent with Gmail access can apply labels like your old auto label instructions did. You read mail in Gmail itself, on the web or in a Mac app from our Gmail app for Mac guide.
That route keeps your mail in one place and your AI in Notion. It doesn't give you a mail app with AI built in. If you'd rather bring the AI to your mail, with Claude or ChatGPT reading it on your computer, see the best email client for Claude and ChatGPT.
How to choose
- Gmail plus iCloud or Outlook, sorting you describe, Claude or ChatGPT in your mail: Alrighty.
- A Gmail and Microsoft 365 team that pays per seat for AI labels: Superhuman.
- The most AI, Gmail only, in the cloud: Shortwave.
- A fast native Mac app for Gmail, with little AI: Mimestream.
- Free, on every device: Spark.
- You only used Notion AI on your mail: Gmail plus Notion's Gmail AI Connector.
For a side-by-side of the two apps, see Alrighty vs Notion Mail.
Questions
Is Notion Mail shut down?
Yes. Notion shut down the Notion Mail app on web, desktop and iPhone on September 22, 2026, for every plan. The last day to export drafts, scheduled emails, snippets and auto label instructions was September 21.
Did I lose my emails when Notion Mail shut down?
No. Notion Mail synced both ways with Gmail, so every email you sent or received is still in your Gmail account. What's gone is what lived only in Notion Mail: your views and sorting, email reminders, and any drafts, scheduled emails or snippets you didn't export.
Can I get my Notion Mail auto labels back?
Not as they were. If you exported your auto label instructions, you can paste them into an app that sorts from a description: Alrighty's groups, Superhuman's Custom Auto Labels or Shortwave's AI filters. Notion suggests a Custom Agent with Gmail access to apply labels instead.
Does Notion Mail work with Outlook?
It never did. Notion's help page said "Notion Mail currently only supports Gmail. Microsoft Outlook is not supported at this time." Notion says an Outlook account connected to Notion itself keeps working, but the Notion Mail app couldn't open one. Alrighty, Superhuman and Spark take Outlook accounts.
Why did Notion shut down Notion Mail?
Notion's shutdown notice gave no reason. It said email work in Notion continues through its agents and its Gmail AI Connector, which keep running without the inbox app.