NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook)

NotebookLM is Google’s research and note-taking assistant. Google renamed it Gemini Notebook in July 2026, so you may see either name. You upload your own sources, such as documents, web links, videos and audio, and it answers questions grounded in those sources with citations. It can also turn them into podcast-style Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes and reports.

Quick facts

• Made by: Google
• Free plan: Yes. The free Standard tier needs only a Google account.
• Paid plans: Higher limits come bundled with Google AI Plus, AI Pro and AI Ultra subscriptions. It is not sold on its own.
• Works on: Web, iOS and Android
• Pricing last checked: October 2026, using several recent published sources, including figures attributed to Google’s help pages. Limits and regional prices change, so confirm on Google’s official page.

What NotebookLM is best at

• Answers grounded in your own material: responses draw from the sources you add and show where each point came from.
• Studying and learning: study guides, flashcards, quizzes and mind maps built from course material.
• Listening instead of reading: Audio Overviews turn dense documents into a conversation you can play.
• Research projects: keep a set of papers, notes and links in one notebook and question them together.
• Sharing: shared notebooks let a team query the same sources, on plans that include it.

Plans and limits

Each source can be up to about 500,000 words or 200 MB. Since 2 September 2026, free usage has refreshed every five hours up to a weekly limit instead of a fixed daily chat count. Cinematic Video Overviews need a Pro or Ultra plan. Google has also been reported to offer college students a free year of an AI plan, so check whether you qualify. Confirm all figures on Google’s official page.

Best for

• Students and researchers who want answers tied to specific documents.
• Anyone who wants to absorb long reports by listening to a summary.
• Teams that want a shared, source-grounded knowledge base without building one.

Less suited to

• Questions that need fresh information from across the web. Perplexity is built for that.
• Free-form writing or brainstorming with no source material, where a general assistant such as ChatGPT or Claude fits better.
• Confidential documents that your organisation does not allow you to upload to a Google service.

How to get started

1. Sign in with a Google account and create a new notebook.
2. Add sources: upload PDFs and documents, paste links or add videos and audio.
3. Ask a specific question, then click the citations to check each answer against the original.
4. Generate a study guide, mind map or Audio Overview once your sources are in.
5. If you keep hitting the limits, compare the Google AI plans against your real usage before you upgrade.

Prompt ideas to copy

Using only my sources, give me a one-page briefing on [topic]. Cite the source for each point and flag anything the sources disagree on.

Create a study guide from these sources: key terms with short definitions, five likely exam questions and a short model answer for each.

Compare how [source A] and [source B] treat [issue]. Show where they agree, where they differ and which is better supported.

List the open questions these sources do not answer, so I know what to research next.

Limitations and things to watch

• It is only as good as the sources you add. Poor or one-sided sources give poor or one-sided answers.
• Summaries, including Audio Overviews, can leave out nuance or misread a point, so check the citations.
• Limits and plan names changed in 2026 and may change again.
• Think before uploading sensitive or private documents to any cloud service.

Alternatives

Compare Perplexity for cited web research, Gemini for general Google AI help, and ChatGPT or Claude for flexible chat with uploaded files.