NotebookLM: the AI that actually reads your documents

Google's research assistant: upload your documents and interrogate them, with citations.

Quick answer: I treat NotebookLM as the one AI tool I trust with serious reading.

Our Verdict

I treat NotebookLM as the one AI tool I trust with serious reading. Upload a stack of PDFs and it answers like a research assistant who actually opened the files, citations included. The Gemini Notebook rename is a little confusing, but the product itself has only gotten better.

Visit NotebookLM →

Pricing shown below is approximate and may have changed — always confirm on the official site.

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🚀 Key Features

Upload PDFs, Google Docs, websites, YouTube videos, and pasted text as notebook sources
Chat with your documents and get answers with exact inline citations you can verify
Audio Overviews that turn your sources into a podcast-style discussion between two hosts
Video Overviews, Deep Research, Slide Decks, and Data Tables generated from your sources
Flashcards and quizzes auto-generated from your material for studying

💰 Pricing

Plan	Details
Plan	Free (~$0/mo): 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chats/day, 3 audio/video overviews a day
Plan	Google AI Plus (~$5/mo): 200 notebooks, 100 sources per notebook, 2x usage budget, early access to new features
Plan	Google AI Pro (~$20/mo): 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, 4x usage budget, Cinematic Video Overviews
Google AI Ultra (~$100/mo): 500 notebooks, up to 600 sources per notebook, up to 20x usage, watermark	free cinematic videos

Free, paid tiers from ~$5/mo (approximate) A free tier is available if you want to try before you pay.

👍👎 Pros & Cons

✅ What we like

Answers come only from your sources, with citations you can check, so it invents far less than open chatbots
The free tier is genuinely generous: 100 notebooks and daily audio overviews at no cost
Audio Overviews turn dense reading into a podcast you can join and steer live
Deep Research and YouTube transcripts make it a one-stop study and briefing station

🤔 What could be better

It only knows what you upload: it is no replacement for open-web search like Perplexity
Paid upgrades are bundled into Google AI plans, not sold separately, which can feel like overpaying
Google renamed it to Gemini Notebook in 2026, so branding and URLs feel unsettled
Best experience needs a Google account and an internet connection; no offline mode

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Is NotebookLM free to use?

Yes. The free plan gives you 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chats a day, and 3 audio or video overviews a day. Higher limits come bundled with Google AI Plus (~$5/mo), Pro (~$20/mo), and Ultra (~$100/mo). There is no standalone NotebookLM subscription anymore.

What happened to NotebookLM? Is it now Gemini Notebook?

In July 2026 Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. Existing links keep working and the product stayed a standalone research tool, just with the new name and logo rolling out across Google's apps.

Does NotebookLM use my documents to train AI models?

Google says it does not. Your uploads, queries, and notebook content are not used to train its public models, which is why many teams use it for internal documents.

How is NotebookLM different from ChatGPT or Perplexity?

ChatGPT and Perplexity draw on the open web and their training data. NotebookLM only answers from the sources you upload, with every claim linked back to a citation. That makes it far more reliable for studying, research, and document-heavy work.