Shortwave pricing, and what the Free plan leaves out

Shortwave has a Free plan, Pro at $18 a month for one person, and three team plans: Business at $30 per seat a month, Premier at $45 and Max at $120. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and Shortwave bills monthly only, with no yearly price on its pricing page.

Prices as of November 2026, from Shortwave's own pricing page, billing guide and help pages. The Free and Pro plans sit under the page's Individual tab. The page opens on Business, so they're easy to miss.

What each Shortwave plan costs and adds

Plan	Price, monthly	Yearly	AI model	AI requests a day	AI filters	AI search history
Free	$0	n/a	Basic (Claude Haiku 4.5)	Limited	None	90 days
Pro	$18	Not listed	Standard (Claude Sonnet 4.6)	About 75 to 150	None	3 years
Business	$30 per seat	Not listed	Standard (Claude Sonnet 4.6)	About 150 to 300	3	5 years
Premier	$45 per seat	Not listed	Advanced (Sonnet 4.6, thinking)	About 300 to 600	10	Unlimited
Max	$120 per seat	Not listed	Expert (Claude Opus 4.6)	About 900 to 1,800	50	Unlimited

The request counts come from the pricing page's FAQ, which says Advanced mode "uses 1.5x more quota" and Expert mode "3x more quota than Standard mode." Requests at the Basic level don't count against the quota. Each AI search also has a cap on how many threads it reads: 15 on Free, 50 on Pro and Business, 100 on Premier and 150 on Max.

What the jump from Pro to Business buys is mostly team and sales tools: AI integrations and MCP, attachment analysis, read statuses, link tracking, snippets and AI filters. Pro has none of those.

Is Shortwave free?

Yes. Shortwave's FAQ says "Our Free plan gives you access to our core AI and productivity features," and that it shows no ads and doesn't sell your data. The Free plan keeps instant AI summaries, AI replies, block and unsubscribe, and calendar integration. It has three limits worth knowing before you rely on it:

• Search goes back 90 days, for both normal and AI search.
• AI answers use the Basic model, Claude Haiku 4.5, with a limited daily quota.
• Your mail is signed "Sent with Shortwave." Removing that signature is a paid feature.

Free also lacks personalized AI writing, the feature that learns your voice from your sent mail, and AI filters. Several Gmail accounts work on Free: "Multi-account support is available for all users, even those on the Free plan" (Shortwave).

Does one Shortwave plan cover all my accounts?

Yes, if the accounts are yours. Shortwave charges one flat rate per person for all of that person's email accounts (billing guide). Sign your other Gmail accounts in on the same device as the paid one, and they get the paid features. The guide says not to add your own accounts to a team: "Teams are only for paying for other people."

Is there a Shortwave student or team discount?

Shortwave's pricing page and billing guide mention no student, nonprofit or startup discount, and the FAQ says there is no one-time purchase. Teams pay per seat, and everyone on a team must be on the same plan. Seats you add mid-cycle are charged a prorated amount, and removing a seat gives a prorated credit on the next bill. The plain way to pay less is to choose Pro at $18 if you work alone, instead of Business at $30.

How do I cancel Shortwave?

In Shortwave, go to Settings, then Members & Billing. Pick the team you pay for, click Manage plan, then Cancel plan, and confirm (Shortwave). That moves you to the Free plan. You keep the paid features until the billing period ends.

Shortwave warns that replying to a Stripe payment email does not cancel anything. If you can't sign in, email billing@shortwave.com, and after it checks who you are, it can cancel for you.

Your mail is not lost when you cancel. Shortwave works on top of your Gmail account, so the mail stays in Gmail. Searching past 90 days and the paid AI stop.

Can I get a refund from Shortwave?

Yes, within 14 days of a payment. The pricing page FAQ says "we will provide a refund upon request within 14 days of your payment." Downgrade to Free first, then write to billing@shortwave.com. After 14 days there's no refund, but you keep access to the end of the period you paid for.

Why does Shortwave cost so much?

Most of the price is AI. Each plan is defined by which Anthropic model it runs and how many requests a day it allows, and Max at $120 is six times Business's AI usage on Claude Opus 4.6. Shortwave stores your data in Google Cloud and says that "besides Google Cloud, we only use OpenAI, Anthropic, and Pinecone" (security). The money pays for those model calls and that storage. Shortwave doesn't run ads to cover it.

Is Shortwave worth it?

It depends on your accounts more than on the price.

• Worth it if all your mail is Gmail or Google Workspace, and you will use AI search and drafts every day. Pro at $18 is the fair test for one person.
• Not worth it if you also have an Outlook or iCloud address. Shortwave "connects natively to Gmail & Google Workspace accounts," and other providers come in only through Gmail first. Our Shortwave alternatives page covers what that forwarding costs you.
• Not worth it if you rarely use AI. The Free plan already has summaries and block and unsubscribe, so try it for a few weeks before you pay.

Trial the highest plan you're curious about. Shortwave's FAQ suggests it, and you can switch plans before the trial ends.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Shortwave? Alrighty and others

Alrighty is a mail app for Mac, Windows and Linux, and its price is a 14-day trial with no card, then a Free plan or Pro. Free has a small monthly AI allowance and no sorting into groups.

What you get for that, against Shortwave's paid plans:

• iCloud, Gmail and Outlook added directly, in one inbox, with no forwarding. That includes Microsoft 365, which Shortwave doesn't support.
• Search on your computer that matches meaning as well as words, across every account. Ask a question and get the answer with the emails it came from.
• Reply drafts in your voice, written from what you sent that person before. Always a draft; you send it.
• The AI you already pay for. Connect Claude, ChatGPT's desktop app, Codex or Cursor through a local MCP server, and it reads and searches your mail. In Shortwave, AI integrations and MCP start at Business, $30 a seat. In Alrighty this link stays off until you turn it on with Connect AI.

What it can't do: Alrighty has no iPhone, Android or web app, and Shortwave has all three. It takes iCloud, Gmail and Outlook only, so no Yahoo or Fastmail. It's new, with no long track record. Its AI features send the emails they need through Alrighty's server to OpenAI and other model companies. Our Alrighty vs Shortwave page goes feature by feature, and features shows the app.

Two other ways to spend less:

• Mimestream, a native Mac app for Gmail, is $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year after a 14-day trial with no card (Mimestream). It has almost no AI of its own.
• Gmail itself is free, and your mail is already there. Our Gmail app for Mac guide compares ways to run it on the desktop.

Questions

How much is Shortwave a month?

Pro is $18 a month for one person. Business is $30 per seat a month, Premier $45 and Max $120. There's also a Free plan. Shortwave bills monthly and lists no yearly price.

Does Shortwave have a free trial?

Yes. Every paid plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and you can change plans during it. When the trial or a paid plan ends, the account drops to the Free plan.

Does the Shortwave Free plan add a signature?

Yes. The pricing page lists a "Sent with Shortwave" signature on Free plan mail. Pro and the team plans remove it.

Is Shortwave cheaper than Superhuman?

For one person, yes. Shortwave Pro is $18 a month. Superhuman's Starter is $25 a member a month and Business $33, both billed yearly (Superhuman). For teams, Shortwave Business at $30 a seat, billed monthly, sits between those two.