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Letty 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. Letty starts at $9, Shortwave at $30. Only Letty has a free tier.

LettyGmail-only Chrome extension that drafts replies in your writing style and can be trained on your documents.ShortwaveAI-first email client for Gmail with deep assistant search

Side by side

FactLettyShortwave
CategoryEmail WritingEmail Management
Pricing modelFreemiumPaid
Starts at$9 month$30 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsChrome ExtWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Company—Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Last verifiedSep 1, 2026Sep 6, 2026

What our research says

Letty

Letty drafts Gmail replies that match your tone and can be grounded in documents or sites you feed it, which makes it useful if most of your email already lives in Gmail. It doesn't help outside Gmail yet, and the free tier's 10 credits a month will run out fast for anyone emailing daily.

Pros

  • Generates contextual reply suggestions instead of generic templates
  • Can be trained on specific documents or websites for grounded answers
  • Three clear pricing tiers from free up to unlimited credits

Cons

  • Only works inside Gmail in Chrome; Outlook and Zoho are listed as planned but not shipped
  • Free tier's 10 monthly credits cover only light use

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 Letty if you need

  • Gmail-heavy users who want drafted replies rather than typing every response
  • People who repeatedly reference the same documents or product pages in email

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

All Letty alternatives →Browse all Email Writing →