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Shortwave costs Free to $100 per user/month as of June 2026, with 5 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Free (free), Business at $30/user/month, and Premier at $45/user/month. Enterprise pricing is available on request. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: Yes

Shortwave offers 5 pricing tiers: Free, Business, Premier, Max, Enterprise. A free plan is available. Paid plans include Business at $30/user/month, Premier at $45/user/month. The Business plan is business professionals and teams needing everyday ai productivity for email management with full search history.

Last verified: | Sources: 4 pricing pages and reviews
+70% above list price
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Shortwave true cost runs 70% above the listed $0-$100/user/month price as of June 2026. For a 25-person team, expect ~$12,240 in year-one costs vs the $7,200 base license. Key hidden costs: ai usage daily limits - shortwave meters ai usage by daily requests (~150-300 on business). power users who rely heavily on ai search, summaries, and writing assistance can hit daily caps, forcing them to upgrade from business ($24/month) to premier ($36/month) or max ($100/month) for more ai headroom, mandatory 'sent with shortwave' signature on free plan - the free tier appends a mandatory 'sent with shortwave' branding signature to every outgoing email that cannot be removed. this is unprofessional for business use and effectively forces business users to upgrade to a paid plan, 90-day search limit on free plan - free users can only search the last 90 days of email history with ai. for anyone with important older emails, this severely limits the utility of shortwave's ai features and pushes users toward the business plan ($24/month) for 5-year history or premier ($36/month) for unlimited history. Verified from 4 sources by CostBench.

Hidden Costs Breakdown

1

AI usage daily limits - Shortwave meters AI usage by daily requests (~150-300 on Business). Power users who rely heavily on AI search, summaries, and writing assistance can hit daily caps, forcing them to upgrade from Business ($24/month) to Premier ($36/month) or Max ($100/month) for more AI headroom

2

Mandatory 'Sent with Shortwave' signature on free plan - The free tier appends a mandatory 'Sent with Shortwave' branding signature to every outgoing email that cannot be removed. This is unprofessional for business use and effectively forces business users to upgrade to a paid plan

3

90-day search limit on free plan - Free users can only search the last 90 days of email history with AI. For anyone with important older emails, this severely limits the utility of Shortwave's AI features and pushes users toward the Business plan ($24/month) for 5-year history or Premier ($36/month) for unlimited history

4

Monthly billing premium of ~25-29% - Monthly billing costs significantly more than annual. Business is $30/month vs $24/month annual; Premier is $45/month vs $36/month annual. This adds $72-$108/year per seat for users who prefer monthly flexibility

5

AI intelligence tiers create feature stratification - Shortwave's AI quality differs by plan: Standard intelligence on Business, Advanced on Premier, Expert on Max. Users on lower tiers may find AI responses less accurate or capable, creating pressure to upgrade for better AI output quality rather than just more usage

Example: True Cost for 25 Users

License (25 × $24 × 12) $7,200/yr
Implementation (one-time) +$15,000–$50,000
Premium Support (20%) +$1,440/yr
Training (25 × $500) +$12,500
Admin (part-time) +$15,000–$25,000/yr
Estimated Year 1 Total ~$12,240
That's roughly 1.7× the advertised license price. The median Shortwave contract is $325/yr across 10 Vendr purchases.
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