AI email assistants

The best AI email assistants in 2026

Seven AI email tools compared on price, platform, where they run and what they actually do. They are not all the same kind of product, and that difference matters more than the feature lists. Every price was read from the vendor's own pricing page.

Reviewed by Matt Senter, the developer of Premail. Updated November 8, 2026

Jump to the comparison table

The seven tools, side by side

Prices were read from each vendor's own pricing page, most recently on November 8, 2026. Where a vendor offers both monthly and annual billing, both are shown as they frame them, rather than quoting only the cheaper one.

App	Price	Runs on	Platform	How it makes money
Premail	Free for up to 2 personal inboxes, then $9/mo, $79/yr, or $99 once	Your own computer	Mac, Windows, Linux	Paid licences, plus your own AI key
Superhuman	$30/mo, or $25/mo billed annually per member	Cloud client	Mac, Windows, web, iOS, Android (Gmail and Outlook)	Subscriptions
Shortwave	Free plan, then $18 per seat/mo (Pro)	Cloud client	Desktop, iOS, Android (Gmail and Google Workspace accounts)	Subscriptions
Spark Mail	Free, then $10/mo per user, or $99/yr	Cloud client	Mac, Windows, iOS, Android	Free tier, then subscriptions
Apple Intelligence in Apple Mail	Free	Your Mac, iPhone or iPad	Mac, iPhone, iPad (Apple Mail)	Part of the operating system
Gemini in Gmail	With Google AI Plus ($9.99/mo) or Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo)	Your provider (Google)	Gmail on the web, iOS, Android	Subscriptions
Copilot in Outlook	With Microsoft 365 Personal, $9.99/mo, or $99.99/yr	Your provider (Microsoft)	Outlook for Windows, Mac, web and mobile	Subscriptions

1. Premail

Free for up to 2 personal inboxes, then $9/mo, $79/yr, or $99 once

Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux

Best for: Acting on mail before you read it, without switching email clients

Premail is the odd one out here, and the difference is worth stating plainly: it is not an email client. It sits behind whatever client you already use and decides what to do with a message before you see it. You bring your own AI key, or run a local model, or use Apple Intelligence on a supported Mac, so the AI cost is whatever the provider charges you and nothing is marked up. If what you want is a better inbox to read, one of the clients below is the right answer instead.

Source Premail pricing

2. Superhuman

$30/mo, or $25/mo billed annually per member

Platform: Mac, Windows, web, iOS, Android (Gmail and Outlook)

Best for: People who live in email and want it to feel fast

Superhuman is the best known name in this category and is built around speed: keyboard-first navigation, a split inbox, and AI for drafting, summarising and asking questions about your mail. It is a full replacement for your email client, not a layer on top of one, and it is priced per member with the more advanced AI held back for the Business tier.

Source

3. Shortwave

Free plan, then $18 per seat/mo (Pro)

Platform: Desktop, iOS, Android (Gmail and Google Workspace accounts)

Best for: Searching and reasoning across a large mail history

Shortwave leans hardest into AI as the interface: AI search across years of mail, AI-written filters, summaries and integrations that can pull in context from elsewhere. Its tiers are unusual in that they meter the AI itself rather than the features, so how far back AI search reaches and how many AI filters you get are what separate the plans.

Source

4. Spark Mail

Free, then $10/mo per user, or $99/yr

Platform: Mac, Windows, iOS, Android

Best for: A capable client with AI attached, at the lowest price

Spark is a mature email client that added AI rather than an AI product that added email, and it is the only one here with a genuine free tier instead of a trial. Paid plans bring the AI assistant, meeting notes and team features. If you want most of the category benefit at a fraction of Superhuman or Shortwave, this is where to look first.

Source

5. Apple Intelligence in Apple Mail

Free

Platform: Mac, iPhone, iPad (Apple Mail)

Best for: Summaries and priority hints with nothing to install or pay for

On supported Apple hardware, Mail already summarises messages, surfaces priority mail at the top of the inbox and offers writing tools, processed on the device at no cost. It will not act on mail for you or enforce rules, and it only covers Apple Mail. But it is free and already there, so it is worth trying before paying for anything, and it is the honest baseline any paid tool should be measured against.

Source Apple Intelligence in Premail

6. Gemini in Gmail

With Google AI Plus ($9.99/mo) or Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo)

Platform: Gmail on the web, iOS, Android

Best for: Gmail users who want summaries and drafting without leaving Gmail

Google sells Gemini in Gmail as part of its Google AI plans rather than on its own: you get thread summaries, drafting help and questions about your mail inside Gmail, plus extra storage. Google already holds the mail, so nothing new gets access to it. It helps you read and write; it does not file or quarantine mail for you by rules you write.

Source

7. Copilot in Outlook

With Microsoft 365 Personal, $9.99/mo, or $99.99/yr

Platform: Outlook for Windows, Mac, web and mobile

Best for: Outlook users who already pay for Microsoft 365

Microsoft now includes Copilot in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint on its Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium plans, with AI usage limits that rise with the plan. In Outlook it summarises threads and drafts replies. If you already pay for Microsoft 365, it costs nothing extra to try. Like Gemini in Gmail, it helps you get through mail rather than acting on it before you see it.

Source

AI email client or AI filter: which do you need?

"AI email assistant" covers two things that barely overlap, and choosing badly usually comes down to not noticing which one you were buying.

The first is an AI email client. Superhuman, Shortwave and Spark all replace the app you read mail in, and the AI helps once you are there: summarising a long thread, drafting a reply, answering a question about your history. The promise is that the time you spend in your inbox is better spent. You do have to move in, which means a new client, new habits, and your mail passing through their service. Gemini in Gmail and Copilot in Outlook are the same idea without the move: the assistant comes to the client you already use.

The second is an AI filter. It never asks you to change clients. It decides what happens to a message before you see it, so the mail that does not deserve your attention is already handled by the time you open your inbox. The promise is that you spend less time in your inbox rather than better time. Premail is this.

A useful test: are you trying to get through your inbox faster, or trying to open it less often? The first wants a client. The second wants a filter. Buying the wrong one is how people end up with an expensive subscription and the same number of messages.

Who pays for the AI, and how much does it cost?

Running a language model over your mail costs real money, and every product here makes a different decision about who absorbs it. It is worth knowing which, because it explains the price differences better than the feature lists do.

The cloud clients bundle it: you pay one subscription and they pay the model provider, which is why their tiers often meter AI usage rather than features. Google and Microsoft bundle it into a storage or Office plan. Apple Intelligence avoids the question by running on your own device at no marginal cost. Premail takes the third route and has you bring your own key, so you pay the provider directly at their rates with no markup, and you can see exactly what your classification is costing.

None of these is the correct answer. Bundled is simpler; bring-your-own is cheaper at low volume and transparent at any volume; on-device is free but limited to one vendor's hardware. What matters is not being surprised later. Premail's own approach, including running a model locally so nothing leaves your machine, is covered in the features page.

The Premail AI Model screen showing OpenAI / gpt-5-mini in use with running costs of $1.05 for the current model and $30.20 all-time, provider cards for Apple Intelligence, Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google Gemini, a green "Apple Intelligence is ready" panel, a Model calls per hour field set to 500, and estimated spend and model pricing in the footer. — Premail tracks what your own API key is actually costing you, per model and all time, and caps how many paid calls it will make in an hour so a busy inbox cannot run up a surprise bill.

Frequently asked questions

Which AI email assistant is best?

It depends on whether you want help reading mail or want mail handled before you read it. If you live in Gmail or Outlook, try Gemini in Gmail or Copilot in Outlook first, since they work inside the app you already use. Superhuman, Shortwave and Spark replace your email client with one built around AI. Premail is the pick if you want messages filed, archived or quarantined by rules you write in plain English, before they reach your inbox.

Is there a free AI email assistant?

Yes. Apple Intelligence in Apple Mail is free on supported Apple hardware, Spark and Shortwave have free plans, and Premail is free for up to two personal inboxes. With Premail you can also run the AI on your own computer with Ollama or Apple Intelligence, so the AI itself costs nothing.

Do AI email assistants read my email?

They have to read a message to summarise or sort it. Gemini in Gmail and Copilot in Outlook run at the provider that already holds your mail. The AI clients process your mail on their own service. Premail runs on your computer and sends a message only to the AI provider you choose, or to none at all with a local model.