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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.

The short answer

Cheaper paid plan
Letty — $9/mo vs $18/mo for Shortwave
Free plan
Both have one
Higher Trust score
Shortwave — 96 vs 69 for Letty
Best fit
Letty: Gmail-heavy users who want drafted replies rather than typing every response · Shortwave: People who search and question years of Gmail history
Platforms
Letty: Chrome extension · 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

Side by side

FactLettyShortwave
CategoryEmail WritingEmail Management
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$9/mo$18/mo
Trust score69 / 10096 / 100
PlatformsChrome extensionWeb, macOS, Windows, iOS, Android
Company—Shortwave Communications, Inc.
Last verifiedOct 15, 2026Oct 15, 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

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 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 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

Letty vs Shortwave: the questions people ask

Is Letty cheaper than Shortwave?

On published entry prices, Letty starts lower — $9/mo against $18/mo for Shortwave. Entry price is the lowest paid plan as we last verified it; what each plan includes differs.

Does Letty or Shortwave have a free tier?

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

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