Shortwave vs MorningZero: Gmail-only with a daily AI quota, or every provider with none

Most of the decision about Shortwave comes down to three lines in its docs, which we read on 20 September 2026.

Shortwave requires a Gmail or Google Workspace account to sign in.

Microsoft 365 and Exchange accounts are not supported at this time.

We do not have a timeline for Microsoft support.

If every mailbox you care about is Gmail or Google Workspace, without exception, those lines never touch you and the rest of this page is about quotas. If even one of your accounts lives somewhere else, they're most of the story.

What Shortwave suggests for other accounts

For a second account, the recommendation is forwarding. You send mail from other accounts into your primary Gmail, then set up Gmail's "Send mail as" so replies carry the right address. For Outlook.com that only half-works. Microsoft's sign-in requires OAuth2, which Gmail's "Send mail as" can't do, so replies come from the Gmail address.

Gmail's "Send mail as" for non-Google addresses also ends in January 2027.

That's a design choice, published plainly, not a flaw. We connect Gmail and Workspace the same way Shortwave does, and also Outlook.com and Microsoft 365 through Microsoft's consent screen, plus nine app-password providers. Every account lands in one list, and replies go out from the account the message arrived in.

If you're all Google, it's about the meter

Shortwave publishes its limits in more detail than anyone else in this category. "Roughly 150–300 Standard intelligence AI requests per day" on the entry tier is a more honest sentence than most vendors write, and it tells you the shape of the product: the AI is what's metered.

	Shortwave Business ($30)	Premier ($45)	Max ($120)	MorningZero (either plan)
Daily AI requests	~150–300	2×	6×	No fixed quota (fair use)
Threads per AI search	50	100	150	No cap
AI filters	3	10	50	Rules unlimited
AI search history	5 years	Unlimited	Unlimited	No window; Ask Zero searches live through your provider

Read from shortwave.com/pricing on 20 September 2026.

Shortwave lists CASA Tier 2 compliance; our own CASA assessment is on the security page.

If you ask a handful of questions a day, 150 is unlimited in practice, and a quota you rarely touch isn't really a limit. If the assistant is how you work through mail, a heavy day means watching the meter.

So if you're all Google, AI search is what you'd pay for, your use comes in bursts and you want iOS, Shortwave is the one to pick.

We don't sell AI by the request. The sorting runs on a small model chosen for volume, and the expensive work is rare enough per person that we can absorb it. How that works.

Per mailbox

Shortwave prices per seat, while ours covers five or fifteen mailboxes merged into one stream. Here's how that plays out.

Mailboxes	Shortwave	MorningZero
1 (Gmail)	$30/seat	$19
3 (all Gmail)	$30 a seat	$19, one list
3 (one is Outlook)	Not supported; forward into Gmail, reply from Gmail	$19, one list, replies from each
10	$30	$29

What each side has

Shortwave has deeper AI search, an iOS app, model choice by tier, published quota figures more transparent than anything we can point at, and four more years of building.

On our side, any mailbox that isn't Google sits in one merged stream instead of being forwarded. There are no credits and a reason on every row, there's a Linux app, and nothing sends itself.

Sources

• Shortwave tiers, daily request ranges, thread caps and AI filter counts: shortwave.com/pricing, read 20 September 2026.
• Sign-in requirement and Microsoft status: Shortwave docs, "Use Shortwave with other email providers", read 20 September 2026.
• Forwarding as the multi-account route: Shortwave docs, "Unified inbox via forwarding", read 20 September 2026.