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iGPT 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 $20/mo for iGPT
Free plan
Both have one
Public API
iGPT has one; not confirmed by us for Shortwave
Higher Trust score
Shortwave — 96 vs 83 for iGPT
Best fit
iGPT: People whose real knowledge base is their inbox and shared drive · Shortwave: People who search and question years of Gmail history

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

iGPTTurns your email, files and meetings into cited answers, through a chat app or a token-billed context APIShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

FactiGPTShortwave
CategoryPersonal & Enterprise SearchEmail Management
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$20/mo$18/mo
Public APIYesNot confirmed
Trust score83 / 10096 / 100
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
CompanyiGPTShortwave Communications, Inc.
Last verifiedOct 16, 2026Oct 15, 2026

What our research says

iGPT

The interesting part is not the chat box but the plumbing under it — deduplicating quoted email text and attributing speakers across thread formats is fiddly work most 'chat with your inbox' tools skip. Selling that same layer as a token-billed API is unusual and genuinely useful if you are building on top. The unknown is the vendor itself: no company name, no address, no country.

Pros

  • Rebuilds email threads with quoted-text deduplication and participant attribution
  • Combines private context with live web data in a single cited answer
  • Developer API priced per token with no setup fee or commitment
  • States that customer email, documents and chat history are not used for model training

Cons

  • No legal entity, address or country disclosed anywhere on the site
  • Team carries a three-seat minimum, so the practical entry is $90/month
  • Token-billed API makes costs hard to forecast in advance

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 iGPT if you need

  • People whose real knowledge base is their inbox and shared drive
  • Developers who want parsed email and work-app context as an API rather than writing the parsers
  • Teams that want answers traceable back to the original thread

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

iGPT vs Shortwave: the questions people ask

Is iGPT cheaper than Shortwave?

On published entry prices, Shortwave starts lower — $18/mo against $20/mo for iGPT. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does iGPT or Shortwave have a free tier?

Both: iGPT has a free tier, and Shortwave has a free tier.

Which has a public API, iGPT or Shortwave?

iGPT ships a public API, as of our last verification. A public API for Shortwave is not confirmed by us — check its developer docs before you plan an integration.

More comparisons

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