Superhuman vs Shortwave Pricing Compared: What You Actually Pay
The short answer
Both bill per person, but the shapes differ. Superhuman Mail sells tiered seats monthly or annually, with the stronger AI in the higher tier. Shortwave's tiers meter the AI itself — model class, daily quota, search reach — and it requires a Google account. For an Outlook shop, that settles it before price does.
Superhuman vs Shortwave pricing compared: per-seat tiers versus AI allowances, what drives the bill up, and why provider support decides it first.
On this page
- 01Why neither price appears on this page
- 02The two pricing shapes at a glance
- 03Where Superhuman's model wins
- 04Where Shortwave's model wins
- 05The question that decides it before price does
- 06Which Superhuman are you even pricing?
- 07What drives the bill up as a team grows
- 08How to compare the two in ten minutes
- 09Who each pricing model is genuinely for
- 10A third option, honestly
- 11The short answer, once more
Superhuman vs Shortwave pricing is usually framed as a race to the lower number. That framing hides the two things that decide your bill: what each vendor puts behind a tier, and whether the product can sign your team in at all.
Both are per-person subscriptions, so headcount drives cost linearly either way. Past that they diverge. Superhuman Mail gates features and integrations by tier; Shortwave gates the AI allowance itself, which means its cheap plan is a different product rather than a smaller one.
This page compares the shapes, not the figures, and it opens with the question most pricing comparisons skip: which of the two can even open your mailbox.
Why neither price appears on this page#
Researching this cluster, we pulled third-party pricing pages across the AI email category. For one vendor a single search returned three price sets that disagreed about how many tiers exist. For another, two published comparison tables contradicted each other outright.
The vendors' own sites are not always consistent either. On 29 July 2026, Shortwave's pricing page showed three paid plans and a 14-day trial, while its own billing guide still described a line-up including a Pro plan and a free tier. Superhuman is harder again: the company changed hands in July 2025 and the parent renamed itself in October 2025.
So we compare what does not expire — billing unit, tier logic, commitment, what breaks the price as a team grows, and who each model suits.
Verify both pricing pages yourself — structure checked 29-30 July 2026
The two pricing shapes at a glance#
Read this as billing mechanics, not value. Two products can charge similar amounts and still produce very different invoices twelve months later.
| Pricing dimension | Superhuman Mail | Shortwave |
|---|---|---|
| Unit of billing | Per user, per month | Per person, with its billing guide stating one flat rate covers that person's email accounts |
| Tier count | A starter tier, a business tier, and a quoted enterprise tier | Three paid tiers on the page we loaded, while the billing guide still lists a fourth |
| What the tiers gate | Features and integrations, with the stronger AI in the business tier since the acquisition | The AI allowance itself — model class, daily quota, searchable history, threads per search, filter count |
| Billing cadence | Monthly or annual, annual lower per month | Its billing guide described new subscriptions as billed monthly |
| Annual commitment | Offered, and it is the discounted path | Not presented as the default, so do not assume an annual discount exists |
| Free plan | None presented on the plans page | Narrowed — the pricing page led with a trial |
| Mixing tiers in one team | Confirm with the vendor before assuming it is allowed | Its billing guide states all team members must be on the same plan type |
| Provider coverage | Gmail and Google Workspace, plus Microsoft 365 and Outlook | Google accounts only — Microsoft 365, Outlook.com and Exchange are not supported natively |
Where Superhuman's model wins#
Predictability is the honest headline. When a tier sells a named set of capabilities rather than a daily allowance, nobody discovers on a Tuesday afternoon that the assistant has stopped answering until tomorrow.
The annual option is the second win: commit for twelve months and the per-month rate drops, a lever Shortwave's published billing terms did not obviously offer when we checked.
- One rate times headcount, with no daily usage variable in the middle of the sum.
- An annual cadence that is cheaper per month if you are willing to commit.
- A quoted tier holding SSO and security controls, which is what procurement is asking for.
- Coverage of both Google and Microsoft mail, so one contract serves a mixed company.
Where Shortwave's model wins#
Flexibility is the counterweight. Monthly billing with prorated seat changes means a five-person team that becomes a four-person team next month stops paying for the fifth seat instead of carrying it to renewal.
Its tier ladder is also more open about what AI costs to run. Model class, daily quota, searchable history and filter count are each stated, so a heavy user can see in advance which constraint they will hit — including that the affordable plan runs the smallest model.
- Month-to-month billing, with prorated credits when seats are removed.
- One rate per person rather than per mailbox, per its own billing documentation.
- AI limits published as limits, so you can size your own volume before paying.
- Seats added the day someone starts, without waiting for a renewal date.
The question that decides it before price does#
Here is what most pricing comparisons omit. Shortwave requires a Google account. Microsoft 365, Outlook.com and Exchange are not supported natively, and its own documentation is explicit that Microsoft accounts cannot even be routed through Gmail's send-as feature, because Microsoft requires OAuth2.
Superhuman Mail covers both. It shipped Outlook support in 2022 and rebuilt the client against Microsoft's API rather than porting the Gmail version — which is why the two are genuinely comparable for Google shops and not comparable at all for Microsoft ones.
If your company runs on Microsoft 365, the cheaper tier is a number about a product you cannot buy. A forwarding workaround exists for some other providers, but replies then come from your Gmail address, which most client-facing professionals will not accept.
| Your mail lives on | Superhuman Mail | Shortwave | What it does to the price comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gmail or Google Workspace | Supported | Supported | Both are real candidates — now compare tier shape and AI allowance |
| Microsoft 365 or Exchange | Supported, on a client rebuilt for Microsoft's API | Not supported natively | Shortwave's rate is irrelevant; it cannot sign your team in |
| Outlook.com personal mail | Covered by its Microsoft support — confirm your account type | Not supported, and excluded from the Gmail send-as route | Check sign-in before you check price |
| Generic IMAP or self-managed server | Not supported | Not supported | Neither is a candidate, so price never enters into it |
| iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail, Zoho | Not supported directly | Reachable only by forwarding into Gmail with send-as configured | The workaround changes your reply address — a real cost, just not a billed one |
| A mixed Google and Microsoft team | One product covers everybody | Covers the Google half only | You would buy two clients, the most expensive outcome on this page |
Which Superhuman are you even pricing?#
Since October 2025 the word Superhuman names two things. Superhuman Mail is the email client. The Superhuman Suite is the bundle from the renamed parent company, folding in writing assistance, a docs workspace and a cross-app assistant.
A per-user figure for the suite is not a per-user figure for the client. Comparison tables written before the rename mix them freely, and a suite figure set against Shortwave's client-only figure is not a comparison at all.
One name, two products
What drives the bill up as a team grows#
Per-seat software is easy to model on day one and surprising in month nine. These are the events that move the number.
| Growth event | Under Superhuman's model | Under Shortwave's model |
|---|---|---|
| You hire a tenth person | One more seat at your tier's rate | One more seat, available immediately |
| One person needs the strongest AI | Check whether a single seat can sit on a higher tier than the rest | Its billing guide says everyone must be on the same plan type, so the heaviest user can set the plan for the team |
| Someone exhausts the AI mid-month | The tier sells capabilities, not a daily allowance, so this is a tier question | Daily allowances are the product, so the answer is an upgrade rather than an overage |
| A person adds a second mailbox | Confirm whether a second account consumes a second seat | Its billing page states one flat rate per person covers their email accounts |
| Somebody leaves in month seven | On an annual term the seat is generally paid for — ask about mid-term reductions before signing | Remove the seat, take a prorated credit next cycle |
| You acquire an Outlook-based team | The same client covers them | It does not — add a second product or migrate mailboxes |
How to compare the two in ten minutes#
Do this in order. The first step eliminates one vendor for a large share of readers.
- 1
Confirm sign-in before anything else
List every provider your team is on. If any is Microsoft 365, Exchange, Outlook.com or generic IMAP, Shortwave is out for those people.
- 2
Check you are on the Mail page, not the suite page
If the plans mention writing help, documents or a general assistant, you are pricing the bundle rather than the email client.
- 3
Price the tier that has the capability you saw in the demo
On Superhuman the stronger AI moved into the business tier after the acquisition. On Shortwave the entry tier runs the smallest model with the lowest daily quota.
- 4
Match the billing cadence on both sides
Note whether each page is showing a monthly or an annual rate. Comparing one vendor's annual rate to another's monthly rate can flip the answer.
- 5
Model twelve months, then date-stamp it
Multiply by seats and by twelve, add one hire and one leaver, then screenshot both pages with the date so nobody mistakes stale figures for current ones.
The check that beats any price table
Who each pricing model is genuinely for#
- Superhuman's shape suits you if you want a fixed per-seat line item, an annual discount, a mixed Google and Microsoft workforce on one contract, and a quoted tier for security review.
- Shortwave's shape suits you if you are entirely on Google, want month-to-month flexibility, and would rather read AI limits as published limits than infer them from a feature list.
- Neither suits you if your mail is on generic IMAP or a self-managed server, because neither product will connect to it.
A third option, honestly#
Full disclosure: we build AI Emaily, so read this as an interested party's summary with the limits stated. We publish our own figures because we can verify them — the same standard that stops us guessing at anyone else's.
AI Emaily is an AI email client with three authority modes: Manual, Copilot and Autopilot. In Copilot nothing sends without your approval, every agent action can be undone, and everything the agent did lands in an audit log you can inspect. Drafting voice comes from a Personal Context you write plus per-client profiles you set, not from a model reading your archive, and we do not train on your mail.
On the coverage question this page is built around, we connect Gmail, Outlook and standard IMAP in one inbox — the case neither of the other two fully answers.
- Our limits, plainly: the desktop app is downloadable on macOS (Apple Silicon only) and Windows, built as an Electron shell rather than a hand-written native binary. No Linux build, and Android is a PWA today.
- Where Shortwave is ahead, it is ahead: if you live entirely in Gmail and want the deepest semantic search over your own archive, that is what it was built to do. Weigh against that its founding team's public shift toward a separate agent product — continuity risk to price in, not a shutdown.
- Where Superhuman Mail is ahead, it is ahead: speed and keyboard fluency are its purpose and its history, and the suite's consolidation argument is real if you already pay separately for writing help and documents.
| AI Emaily plan | Price, July 2026 | What the seat covers |
|---|---|---|
| Free | No cost | One connected account, to test the agent on real mail before paying anyone |
| Pro | 17.99 USD per month, billed annually | One person, across Gmail, Outlook and IMAP |
| Team | 22.99 USD per seat per month, billed annually — 5+ seats save 10% | Per seat like the rest of the category, Autopilot included |
The short answer, once more#
Superhuman Mail sells tiered per-seat subscriptions, monthly or annually, with the stronger AI in the business tier and a quoted enterprise tier above it. Shortwave sells per-person plans whose tiers escalate the AI allowance itself, billed monthly, with a free plan that has narrowed.
Which is cheaper depends on seat count, commitment appetite and AI volume. Which is possible depends on your mail provider, and that question comes first. Take both figures from the vendors' own pricing pages, read today, with the date beside them.
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Written by
Nafiul HasanNafiul Hasan is an entrepreneur and AI automation system builder with 10+ years of experience turning messy, manual workflows into reliable automated systems. He designs and ships AI enterprise solutions end-to-end — the agent logic, the data plumbing, and the product people actually use — and founded AI Emaily to give busy professionals their attention back. He writes here from the builder's seat: what works, what breaks, and how to put AI to work without giving up control.