The 6 Best AI Email Assistants in 2026: An Honest Comparison

We evaluated each AI email assistant across six criteria: AI drafting quality, voice and tone matching, inbox management features, pricing transparency, email platform support, and ease of setup.

All data in this comparison comes from publicly available information -- pricing pages, feature documentation, and help articles from each product's website. We did not use any insider information or undisclosed review data.

We use Draftery ourselves, so we are transparent about our perspective. We built Draftery because we believed per-recipient voice matching was missing from the market, and we still believe that. But we have done our best to present each product fairly based on its actual strengths. Every tool on this list has genuine value for the right user. Our goal is to help you figure out which one fits your workflow, not to convince you that one tool is universally superior.

Draftery is an AI email assistant for Gmail that learns how you communicate with each individual recipient. Instead of building a single voice profile, Draftery studies the nuances of every conversation -- how you write to clients versus colleagues, the formality you use with your manager compared to a vendor. The result is drafts that sound authentically like you wrote them, tailored to the person on the other end.

Every edit, acceptance, or rejection teaches Draftery more about your communication style for that specific relationship. The more you use it, the more accurately it captures the subtle differences in how you write to different people. After a week or two of use, most users find that drafts require minimal editing.

Draftery costs $19.99 per month with a flat rate that includes approximately 300 drafts. There is no tiered pricing or feature gating -- every subscriber gets the full experience. A 7-day free trial with no credit card required lets you experience per-recipient voice matching before committing.

The focus is intentionally narrow. Draftery does one thing -- draft emails that sound like you, differently for each person -- and does it exceptionally well. It does not include inbox organization, meeting notes, or calendar features. If you already have a system for managing your inbox and primarily need help writing better, faster, more personal emails, Draftery delivers where it counts.

Best for: Professionals who email diverse audiences daily -- consultants, account managers, founders, sales professionals -- and need each email to reflect the right relationship dynamics. If your reputation depends on how you communicate, Draftery was built for exactly this scenario.

Fyxer takes an all-in-one approach to email productivity, bundling AI drafting with inbox organization, meeting notes, and CRM integration. It learns your general writing style by analyzing your past emails and applies that style when generating new drafts.

Beyond drafting, Fyxer automatically labels incoming emails as "To Respond," "FYI," or "Marketing" to speed up inbox triage. It can also transcribe meetings and generate follow-up emails based on discussion points, connecting your meeting workflow to your email workflow. For teams that live in meetings and email, having these tools under one roof reduces context switching.

Fyxer supports both Gmail and Outlook. The Starter plan costs $30 per month, with a Professional plan at $50 per month that adds HubSpot CRM integration and priority support. Annual billing brings the Starter plan to $22.50 per month.

The trade-off compared to Draftery is voice matching depth. Fyxer learns your general style and applies a single voice profile across all emails, regardless of who you are writing to. For many users, general style matching is sufficient. But if your emails to a client read the same as your emails to a close colleague, some recipients may notice the uniform tone.

Best for: Users who want one tool for drafting, inbox management, meeting notes, and CRM. Ideal for professionals who prefer breadth of features over depth of voice matching, and who use both Gmail and Outlook.

Source: Pricing and feature details from <a href="https://www.fyxer.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">fyxer.com</a>.

Superhuman is a speed-focused email client with AI drafts and keyboard shortcuts that make inbox zero achievable. At $30 per month, it is a premium option built for power users who process hundreds of emails daily. It supports both Gmail and Outlook, offers AI-generated drafts with general style matching, and includes split inbox, scheduled sends, and read receipts. The 14-day free trial is the most generous on this list. Best for users who prioritize speed and workflow efficiency above all else.

Shortwave is a Gmail-only email client with AI search, Ghostwriter AI drafting, and smart bundling of related conversations. At $14 per month for the Pro plan, it offers solid value for Gmail power users who want AI built into their email client rather than bolted on as an extension. Shortwave has a free tier for basic use, making it accessible for testing. Its AI search is particularly strong -- you can ask questions about your email history in natural language. Best for Gmail users who want AI-native email with strong search capabilities.

Spark is a cross-platform email client with basic AI compose features at $4.99 per month, making it the most affordable option on this list. It supports Gmail, Outlook, and other email providers, with a clean interface and team collaboration features. The AI drafting is more basic than Draftery or Fyxer -- it generates competent drafts but without deep voice matching. A free tier covers basic email management. Best for budget-conscious teams who need a capable email client with basic AI features.

SaneBox is fundamentally different from the other tools on this list. It is not an AI email writer at all -- it is pure inbox organization. SaneBox analyzes your email behavior to sort messages into folders like SaneLater, SaneNews, and SaneBlackHole. Pricing ranges from $3.49 to $16.99 per month depending on the plan. It works with virtually any email provider, including Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and iCloud. A 14-day free trial lets you test the sorting intelligence. Best for users whose primary problem is inbox overwhelm and who do not need AI drafting at all.

Source: Product details from <a href="https://superhuman.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">superhuman.com</a>, <a href="https://www.shortwave.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">shortwave.com</a>, <a href="https://sparkmailapp.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">sparkmailapp.com</a>, and <a href="https://www.sanebox.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">sanebox.com</a>.

Every tool on this list can generate a grammatically correct email. The real question is whether the draft sounds like you or like a robot.

Generic AI email tools analyze your past writing and build a single voice profile. This works reasonably well for your average email -- the tone is generally appropriate, the vocabulary roughly matches your style. But it falls apart at the edges, where most of your important communication happens.

Think about the last time you received an email that felt slightly off -- the tone did not match the relationship, the formality was wrong for the context, or the language was strangely uniform compared to what you expected from the sender. Recipients notice these things, even if they cannot articulate exactly what feels different.

Per-recipient voice matching solves this by treating each conversation as its own context. Instead of one voice profile applied everywhere, it builds a separate understanding for every person you communicate with. The result is drafts that reflect the actual dynamics of each relationship.

• Generic AI: One voice profile applied to every email. Works for average communications, feels off for important or relationship-specific emails
• Per-recipient AI: Separate understanding for each contact. Your email to a long-time client reads differently than your note to a new team member -- as it should
• The test: Send AI-drafted emails to five different people in your contacts. If they all sound the same, the AI is not matching your voice -- it is imposing its own
• Why it matters: Email is still the primary professional communication channel. The quality of your emails affects your reputation, your relationships, and your ability to get things done

The AI email assistant market spans a wide price range, from Spark at $4.99 per month to Fyxer Professional at $50 per month. Here is how the pricing breaks down and what you get for the money.

At the budget end, Spark ($4.99 per month) and Shortwave (free tier, $14 per month for Pro) offer basic AI drafting with email client features. SaneBox ($3.49 to $16.99 per month) is the cheapest option but does not include AI drafting at all -- it is inbox organization only.

In the middle range, Draftery ($19.99 per month) offers the most advanced voice matching at a competitive price point. It sits below the premium options while providing per-recipient AI drafting that the budget tools cannot match. At roughly $0.07 per draft (based on 300 monthly drafts), the cost per email is minimal for the quality improvement.

At the premium end, Superhuman ($30 per month) and Fyxer Starter ($30 per month) offer broader feature sets. Fyxer Professional ($50 per month) adds CRM integration. These tools justify their higher price through additional productivity features beyond drafting.

The value question comes down to what you are paying for. If you primarily need better email drafts that sound authentically like you, Draftery offers the best value at $19.99 per month -- advanced per-recipient voice matching at 33% less than premium alternatives. If you need a full email client replacement or all-in-one productivity suite, the premium options bundle more features to justify their higher cost.

All tools listed offer free trials, so you can evaluate the drafting quality before committing to a subscription.

With six tools to consider, the right choice depends on which features matter most for your specific workflow. Here is a decision framework based on the most common priorities.

If per-recipient voice matching is important to you -- meaning you want your emails to sound different depending on who you are writing to -- Draftery is the only option that offers this. Every other tool on this list applies a single voice profile across all your emails.

If you need inbox organization built into your email tool, look at Superhuman, Fyxer, Shortwave, or SaneBox. Draftery and Spark focus on other areas and do not include inbox management features.

If you need meeting notes and follow-up email generation, Fyxer is the only tool here that connects meeting transcription to email drafting. No other tool on this list offers this integration.

If budget is your primary concern, Spark ($4.99 per month) and Shortwave (free tier) are the most affordable options with AI drafting. SaneBox starts at $3.49 per month but does not include AI drafting.

If you use Gmail only, all six tools support Gmail. Your choice comes down to which features you value most.

If you require Outlook support, your options narrow to Fyxer, Superhuman, Spark, and SaneBox. Draftery and Shortwave are Gmail-only today.

If you want the best AI drafting quality at a reasonable price, Draftery at $19.99 per month offers per-recipient voice matching that no other tool on this list provides, at a price point below the premium alternatives. Try the 7-day free trial to see the difference for yourself.