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Caret 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. Shortwave publishes a starting price ($30); Caret does not. Only Caret is free.

CaretMac-wide autocomplete: press Tab in any app and it finishes the sentence from what it has seen on your screenShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

FactCaretShortwave
CategoryDesktop & OS AssistantsEmail Management
Pricing modelFreePaid
Starts at—$30 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsmacOSWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
CompanyCaret Ops, Inc.Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Launched2026—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Caret

Caret's idea is that the AI should come to where you type rather than making you visit a chat window, and one keystroke in any Mac app is about as low-friction as that gets. Storing memory locally is the right default for something this invasive. But the mechanism is continuous screen reading, it demands macOS 26 or newer, and free at launch from a v1 startup is a price that has nowhere to go but up.

Pros

  • Works across dozens of apps rather than inside one editor
  • Single Tab keystroke — no palette, no window switch
  • Memory is stored locally on the Mac and improves with use
  • Free at launch with no card required

Cons

  • macOS 26 or newer only, which excludes most machines today
  • Requires continuous screen-reading permission to function at all
  • Free at launch is not a committed price for a v1 product
  • No API, no team features, no cross-device sync mentioned

Shortwave

The strongest AI layer on Gmail right now, priced accordingly: $30 a seat is Superhuman money for a product whose real value is search and the assistant, not keyboard shortcuts. Worth it only if you interrogate old mail rather than just triage new mail.

Pros

  • AI search across multi-year history is the feature rivals handle worst
  • Real desktop apps for macOS and Windows plus iOS and Android, not a web wrapper
  • Collaboration is built in rather than bolted on
  • Model class is an explicit priced choice instead of a black box

Cons

  • No free plan and no cheap individual tier any more
  • Gmail-only, which rules out a large share of business mail
  • The $120 Max seat is hard to justify outside very heavy use
  • No public API to build on

Which one fits

Choose Caret if you need

  • Heavy Mac writers working across Mail, Slack and documents all day
  • People who dislike switching to a chat window to get a sentence finished
  • Anyone on macOS 26 who wants completion inside Xcode and VS Code too

Choose Shortwave if you need

  • People whose job is finding things buried in years of email: recruiters, founders, account managers
  • Small teams wanting shared threads and assignment without adopting a helpdesk
  • Gmail users who liked Google Inbox and want a modern equivalent

More comparisons

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