Pick ChatGPT if
everyone who wants a hosted general assistant — writing, Q&A, light research, images.
Read the ChatGPT pageChatGPT vs Shortwave
Our take
Pick ChatGPT if everyone who wants a hosted general assistant — writing, Q&A, light research, images. Pick Shortwave if people who will reconnect Gmail and pay $30/seat after the trial. Skip ChatGPT if teams that cannot send prompts to OpenAI, or developers who need a repo-aware IDE (Cursor) or a local runtime (Ollama). Skip Shortwave if people who want a general assistant (ChatGPT) or a notes AI (Notion AI).
Best for
ChatGPT A general-purpose conversation
Shortwave Search and act on Gmail from one box
Free plan
ChatGPT $0 · unlimited everyday text chats (abuse guardrails). Limited uploads, images, voice, deep research, memory, Codex, and desktop Work. Confirmed as the free plan on chatgpt.com/pricing copy and Help
Shortwave No free plan
Lowest paid
ChatGPT Plus $20/mo, monthly only
Shortwave Business $30
Next step up
ChatGPT Pro $100 / $200 / $500 per month
Shortwave Premier $45
Coding agent
ChatGPT Codex, rate-limited on Free
Shortwave
Runs where
ChatGPT Local or hosted
Shortwave Hosted
Watch out
ChatGPT chatgpt.com/pricing HTML still hides $
Shortwave $30 / $45 are Business seats
Last checked
ChatGPT 2026-10-19 · help.openai.com
Shortwave 2026-10-21 · shortwave.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Shortwave if
people who will reconnect Gmail and pay $30/seat after the trial.
Read the Shortwave page