Superhuman vs Spark (2026): Price, AI, Platforms and Privacy Compared

Superhuman is the faster tool if you live in Gmail or Outlook and can justify $25 to $40 a month. Spark is the better deal for almost everyone else: it works with nearly any email account, has a free plan and tops out at $20. Its AI just does less on its own.

Disclosure: we make Dove, an AI email app from the team behind Canary Mail. Neither Superhuman nor Spark is ours. Dove gets one short mention near the end, clearly labelled.

Superhuman vs Spark at a glance

Prices are per person in US dollars, taken from each vendor's own site and checked on October 7, 2026.

Price

Superhuman's Mail pricing has two published plans. Starter is $30 a month, or $25 a month billed yearly. Business is $40 a month, or $33 billed yearly, with a discount for teams of five or more. Enterprise is priced by sales. There's no free plan, and Superhuman's billing FAQ says it doesn't "currently offer discounts or free trials".

Spark's pricing starts at $0. Plus is $10 a month or $99 a year. Pro is $20 a month or $199 a year. Both paid plans have a seven-day trial when you subscribe inside the app, and one subscription covers all your devices.

Here's the yearly bill for one person:

The fairest match is the AI tier on each side. Superhuman's automatic drafting and Ask AI are on Business. Spark's top individual plan is Pro. That's $396 against $199 a year, so Superhuman costs about twice as much. On monthly billing it's $40 against $20.

Several pages ranking for this comparison still quote Spark at $4.99 a month or $59.99 a year, or call it "completely free". Those prices are out of date: the free plan exists, but Spark's AI writing tools need Plus or Pro.

Speed and everyday workflow

Superhuman is built around the keyboard. Nearly every action has a shortcut, Cmd+K (Ctrl+K on Windows) opens a command menu, and Split Inbox lets you define lanes for your team, your VIPs or tools like Google Docs. It adds follow-up reminders, Snippets you can share, Instant Reply, read statuses and its own autocorrect. Superhuman says its users save four hours a week. We didn't time either app, and the speed tests some reviews quote don't explain how they were run.

Spark is the calmer of the two. Its Smart Inbox puts mail from people first and groups newsletters and notifications on their own. Every plan includes a unified inbox, Snooze, Set Aside, Reminders, Mark as Done, scheduled sending and a command center. Plus adds Priority (important senders pinned to the top), Gatekeeper (you approve first-time senders) and a Home Screen summary. Spark has keyboard shortcuts too, and Spark says its desktop app has a "Superhuman" shortcut set under Settings → Shortcuts. That helps if you're switching.

Superhuman wins if you clear hundreds of emails a day from a desk; that's the job it was built for. Spark wins if you have a personal Gmail, an iCloud account and a work Outlook, you see them all in one inbox. Superhuman's own help center calls its tabs-per-account setup a Unified Inbox workaround.

AI features

Superhuman's AI does more work without being asked. Its AI features include Auto Archive, Auto Labels, Auto Reminders, Auto Drafts, Auto Summarize, Instant Reply, Instant Event, Write with AI and Ask AI, an assistant that answers questions from your inbox and calendar. The catch is the plan. Starter includes "Superhuman AI", but Auto Drafts, Ask AI, custom auto labels and the Superhuman Mail MCP server are listed only under Business.

Spark's AI mostly waits for you. Plus and Pro include the Writing Assistant (draft, proofread, translate), AI quick replies, email summaries and the AI Assistant, which searches emails, attachments, meeting notes and your calendar. Spark's pricing table gives the assistant one month of email history on Free, one year on Plus and your full history on Pro. Plus also gets 40 AI meeting notes a month, and Pro gets unlimited. Spark doesn't publish its AI limits as numbers, though: Plus has "Extended" monthly credits and Pro has "High". Auto-Drafts and Autopilot are on the Pro plan but still marked "Soon". Superhuman's own comparison page says Spark's AI acts "only after you ask". Going by Spark's own "Soon" labels, that's fair for now.

Spark has one AI extra Superhuman doesn't match directly. Spark CLI lets your own AI agents read your mail on any plan. On Pro, they can also triage it, and since a July 2026 update they can send email within limits you set, on Mac and Windows. Superhuman's answer is the Mail MCP server on Business.

If AI drafting is the reason you're buying, Superhuman Business is the more complete product today. If you mostly want help writing and finding things, Spark Plus covers that for a quarter of Business's yearly price.

Platforms and email providers

Both run on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. Superhuman also has a Chrome extension for working in the browser. Spark has an Apple Watch app, and we found no web version on its site.

Email providers are the bigger dividing line. Superhuman says it's "built for teams that use Gmail or Outlook", and that's all it supports. iCloud, Yahoo, Fastmail or a custom domain hosted elsewhere can't be added. Spark supports Gmail and Google Workspace, Outlook and Office 365 (including Exchange Online), iCloud, Yahoo and any standard IMAP account, with unlimited accounts even on the free plan.

If any of your mail lives outside Google or Microsoft, that settles it. Pick Spark.

Team features

Superhuman lets you share a live view of any email and comment on it, even with colleagues who don't use Superhuman. It also has shared Snippets, a warning when a teammate is already replying, and help finding a meeting time for a group. Business adds HubSpot, Salesforce and Pipedrive integrations. Enterprise adds SSO, admin controls and team analytics.

Spark puts more of the shared-mailbox work on its plans. Shared threads, shared drafts, private comments and assignments are on every plan. The free plan is limited to two active collaborators and ten assignments per team. Pro adds shared inboxes for addresses like sales@ or support@, read statuses and a HubSpot integration. Enterprise adds security controls and a success manager.

For a sales team living in Salesforce, Superhuman fits better. For a small team that answers a shared address together, Spark Pro is cheaper and has shared inboxes.

Privacy and where the AI runs

Both encrypt mail in transit and at rest. Neither offers end-to-end encryption.

Superhuman: with Ask AI turned on, your email is stored by a SOC 2 compliant third-party vendor. Write with AI requests aren't stored. Instant Reply and Auto Summarize requests and responses are kept for 90 days, and Ask AI queries are kept to improve quality. The help center says "neither Mail nor any vendor trains on your data". But Superhuman's privacy policy says you can decide whether Superhuman trains its own AI models on your content, using a control in your account settings. If that matters to you, check the setting.

Spark: the AI Assistant builds a search index on your device. When you ask something, only the few emails related to your question go to an AI provider. They're kept for up to 30 days for abuse monitoring, and they aren't stored on Spark's servers. Spark's privacy policy names Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, Anthropic and Google Vertex AI as possible providers, and says "we do not use your data to train any AI model". Shared emails, shared drafts and Send Later do pass through Spark's servers.

Spark keeps more of your mail on your device, and it states its training policy in one place. Superhuman's help center and privacy policy say different things, which isn't reassuring.

Choose Superhuman if

• Your mail is in Gmail or Outlook, and nothing else.

• You handle a lot of email at a desk and want to do it by keyboard.

• You want AI that drafts replies, archives low-priority mail and brings back unanswered threads without being asked. Budget for Business at $33 to $40 a month.

• Your team sells through Salesforce, HubSpot or Pipedrive and wants it connected to the inbox.

Choose Spark if

• You have accounts outside Google and Microsoft, such as iCloud, Yahoo or IMAP, or you want every account in one inbox.

• You want a free plan, or a paid plan at $99 to $199 a year.

• You want AI help when you ask for it, plus meeting notes, and you can wait for auto-drafting.

• Your team shares an address like support@ and needs shared inboxes without paying for a help desk.

Neither? Other options

If neither fits, our guide to Superhuman alternatives compares ten more options, from Mimestream for Gmail on a Mac to Missive and Front for teams, with the same price checks.

One of them is ours. Dove, made by the team behind Canary Mail, is an AI email app that sorts mail into Focus, Feed and Noise and drafts replies. It works with Gmail, Outlook, iCloud, Yahoo and IMAP on Mac, Windows, iPhone, Android and the web. It costs $20 a month or $200 a year, and a free plan includes 10 AI actions a day; see Dove's pricing. Its real downside is that it's new, so its track record is short next to Superhuman's and Spark's.

For more on each, see our Superhuman review, Superhuman pricing and Dove vs Spark. Our guide to the best AI email apps compares both with the rest of the field.

FAQ

Is Spark better than Superhuman?

For most people, yes. Spark is better if you use several email providers, want a free or cheaper plan, or share an inbox with a team. Superhuman is better if you work in Gmail or Outlook all day by keyboard and want AI that drafts and triages without being asked.

Is Spark Mail free?

Yes. Spark's free plan includes Smart Inbox, unlimited email accounts, smart notifications and a calendar. The AI writing tools, Priority and Gatekeeper need Plus ($10 a month or $99 a year) or Pro ($20 a month or $199 a year).

Does Superhuman have a free plan or free trial?

No. Superhuman Mail has no free plan, and its billing FAQ says the Superhuman suite has no free trials. The cheapest option is Starter at $25 a month billed yearly.

Does Superhuman work with iCloud or Yahoo?

No. Superhuman supports Gmail and Outlook accounts only. Spark supports iCloud, Yahoo and any IMAP account as well as Gmail and Outlook.

Does Spark have read receipts?

Yes, on the Pro plan, where they're called Read Statuses. Superhuman has read statuses too.

Can I use Superhuman keyboard shortcuts in Spark?

Spark says its desktop app includes a Superhuman shortcut set. You'll find it under Settings → Shortcuts.

Is there a web version of Superhuman or Spark?

Superhuman runs in the browser through its Chrome extension. We found no web version of Spark; it has apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad, Android and Apple Watch.

Does Superhuman or Spark train AI on my email?

Spark says it doesn't use your data to train any AI model, and its AI providers keep inputs for up to 30 days. Superhuman's help center says no one trains on your data, but its privacy policy describes an account setting that controls whether Superhuman can train its own models on your content.