Airo Mail vs Shortwave

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan: Shortwave — $18/mo vs $25/mo for Airo Mail
Free plan: Only Shortwave (Airo Mail has paid plans only)
Higher Trust score: Shortwave — 96 vs 83 for Airo Mail
Best fit: Airo Mail: small agencies and consultancies juggling sign-offs and deliverables across many client accounts · Shortwave: People who search and question years of Gmail history
Platforms: Airo Mail: Web, iOS, Android · Shortwave: Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

Airo MailAI email assistant for client-facing businesses that tracks every promised reply, sign-off and deadline across Gmail and Outlook.

ShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

Fact	Airo Mail	Shortwave
Category	Email Management	Email Management
Pricing model	Paid	Freemium
Starts at	$25/mo	$18/mo
Trust score	83 / 100	96 / 100
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Company	Airo Intelligence, Inc.	Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Launched	2026	—
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

Airo Mail

Airo has narrowed from a general inbox assistant into a client-retention tool for agencies, lawyers, accountants and other firms that live in client email: it tracks what each client is waiting on and drafts the nudge before an account goes quiet. The review-before-send model keeps a human on every outgoing message, which suits client work but means it never runs the inbox on its own. The pricing page no longer lists a free tier, so the way in is a 7-day trial.

Pros

turns client threads into tracked requests rolled up by account
drafts follow-ups for review rather than sending on its own
works with Gmail, Google Workspace, Outlook and Microsoft 365
web, iOS and Android apps with a unified inbox for up to 10 accounts
CASA Tier 2 assessment and AI vendors that do not train on email, per the security section

Cons

no free plan on the pricing page any more, only a 7-day trial
AI use is metered by weekly credits on Pro
the built-in CRM (Pipelines) is still marked coming soon
Team plan price is quote-only

Shortwave

Still the most capable AI layer we have seen on top of Gmail, and it is now cheaper to try: a free plan and an $18 individual Pro tier sit below the $30-plus business seats. The value is in asking questions of years of old mail, so people who only triage today's inbox will not get much from the paid tiers.

Pros

Free plan and an $18 individual tier make it possible to test the assistant without a business seat
AI search answers questions across the mail archive, not just keyword hits
Model tier, AI quota and filter count scale clearly from plan to plan
Native apps on all major desktop and mobile platforms

Cons

Business seats at $30 to $120 a month are expensive next to Gmail's built-in AI
Free plan limits search history to 90 days and adds a Shortwave signature to sent mail
No annual discount is offered; billing is monthly only

Which one fits

Choose Airo Mail if you need

small agencies and consultancies juggling sign-offs and deliverables across many client accounts
solo professionals who want overdue client replies surfaced without keeping a separate CRM

Choose Shortwave if you need

People who search and question years of Gmail history
Small teams that share threads and assign emails inside the inbox
Users who want AI filters to sort incoming mail without hand-written rules