NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook)

NotebookLM — now renamed Gemini Notebook by Google — is an AI research and study notebook that works from your own sources. You add lecture notes, PDFs, Google Docs, slides, websites or YouTube videos to a notebook, and it answers questions using only those sources, with citations pointing to the exact passages it used.

That source-grounded approach is what makes it so useful for studying. Instead of a general chatbot that might invent facts, NotebookLM stays inside your course material, so a student can ask "what are the three causes the lecturer gives for the Industrial Revolution?" and get an answer tied to their own notes.

It became famous for Audio Overviews — podcast-style conversations between two AI hosts that discuss your sources — and has since added Video Overviews, mind maps, reports, slide decks, infographics, flashcards, quizzes and Deep Research. Most of these features are free with a Google account.

How NotebookLM works

A typical study workflow is:

1. Create a notebook for a course, project or topic.
2. Add sources: upload PDFs and notes, link Google Docs and Slides, or paste websites and YouTube links.
3. Ask questions in chat and check the citations against your sources.
4. Generate study materials: a briefing report, flashcards, a quiz or a mind map of the topic.
5. Create an Audio or Video Overview to review the material on the go.
6. Share the notebook with classmates or colleagues to study together.

Key capabilities

Source-grounded chat — Answers drawn only from your sources, with inline citations to the passages used.

Wide source support — PDFs, Google Docs and Slides, websites, YouTube videos, pasted text and more.

Audio Overviews — Podcast-style discussions of your sources in several formats and many languages, including an interactive mode where you can ask the hosts questions.

Video Overviews — Narrated video explainers built from your sources.

Study tools — Flashcards, quizzes, reports, mind maps, slide decks and infographics generated from your material.

Deep Research — Searches beyond your sources to find and add relevant material on a topic.

Sharing and collaboration — Share notebooks with others; paid plans add advanced sharing.

Custom chat and analytics — Customise how the notebook responds and see how shared notebooks are used.

Mobile app — Study from your phone, with notebooks syncing across devices.

NotebookLM plans explained

There's no separate NotebookLM subscription. The free Standard tier needs only a Google account; higher limits come with Google's AI plans, a qualifying Google Workspace or Workspace for Education licence, or Google Cloud.

Standard (free) — 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook, with access to Gemini models and most features, including Audio and Video Overviews, study tools and Deep Research. Usage runs on an allowance that Google says is subject to change; independent reviewers report it now refreshes every few hours up to a weekly limit.

Plus (with Google AI Plus, about $4.99 a month) — 200 notebooks and 100 sources per notebook, with higher usage and earlier access to new features.

Pro (with Google AI Pro, about $19.99 a month) — 500 notebooks and 300 sources per notebook, higher access to Gemini models, priority access to new features and watermark removal on generated images and videos (except in India, South Korea and Vietnam).

Ultra (with Google AI Ultra, about $99.99 or $199.99 a month) — 500 notebooks with 500 or 600 sources per notebook and the highest usage limits.

Google AI plans also include other benefits such as Gemini and cloud storage, so the price isn't for NotebookLM alone. Google has run free-access offers for eligible students; check current eligibility before paying.

Privacy and data

Google says your data isn't used to train Gemini Notebook unless you give feedback, in which case it may review that interaction. For Google Workspace and Workspace for Education users, uploads, queries and responses aren't reviewed by human reviewers or used to train AI models. Enterprise users on Google Cloud get additional controls and data stays in their project.

Who NotebookLM is for

Students — revise from your own lecture notes and readings, with flashcards, quizzes and audio summaries.

Researchers and writers — synthesise large sets of documents with citations you can check.

Teachers — build study guides and quizzes from course materials.

Professionals — turn reports, policies and meeting notes into briefings and shared knowledge bases.

Getting the most out of NotebookLM

Keep one notebook per course or project, so answers stay focused on the right sources.

Add the original material — slides, readings and notes — rather than summaries, for better answers and citations.

Always open the citations before relying on an answer, especially for exams and essays.

Use Audio Overviews for review, not as a replacement for reading the sources yourself.