What is Gemini Notebook?
Renamed on 16 July 2026. NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook. Same product, same notebooks, nothing to migrate, and existing links redirect — Google’s own announcement is explicit that it “remains a standalone product”. We have kept this page at its original address because that is the name people still search for, and because the URL holds the equity.
Gemini Notebook is Google’s free study and research tool built around one idea: it only answers from the sources you give it. Upload your notes, PDFs, slides or YouTube links and it becomes a grounded assistant that quotes your own material back with citations — ideal for revision, literature reviews or making sense of dense documents. Its standout Audio Overview turns your sources into a podcast-style discussion you can listen to on the go. It won’t invent outside facts, which is exactly why students and researchers trust it.
Best for: Studying and researching from your own documents.
Gemini Notebook pricing
| Plan | Price | What you actually get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chat queries a day and 3 Audio Overviews a day. Enough for a full course or research project, and the source limit is the one you hit first. |
| Included with Google AI Pro | $19.99/mo | 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, 500 chat queries and 20 Audio Overviews a day. Bundled with the Google AI plan rather than sold separately. |
| Included with Google AI Ultra | from $99.99/mo | 600 sources per notebook on the 30 TB plan, 500 notebooks, 5,000 chat queries and 200 Audio Overviews a day. Worth it only if a single notebook genuinely needs more than 300 sources. |
Prices checked 2 August 2026. Vendors change limits often — treat the caps as indicative and confirm on the pricing page before you buy.
What Gemini Notebook is good at
- Turning lecture notes, PDFs and slides into a study guide you can question
- Getting an audio summary of dense material for the commute
- Finding the answer inside your own documents rather than the open web
- Building a briefing pack from twenty sources without reading all twenty first
Turn a module of lecture material into a revision pack
- Create a notebook and upload every source for the module — slides, readings, your own notes.
- Generate the Study Guide first. It surfaces the structure the lecturer intended.
- Ask "what is on here that is not in my notes?" to find your blind spots.
- Generate an Audio Overview and listen while travelling. This is where it earns its keep.
- Before the exam, ask it to quiz you and grade your answers against the sources.
Who should skip Gemini Notebook
- General questions — it deliberately only answers from the sources you give it.
- Anyone wanting a writing assistant. It explains your material; it does not compose new work.
- Highly confidential material, since sources are uploaded to Google.
What's good
- Answers grounded in your sources, with citations
- Genuinely generous free tier
- Audio Overviews for passive revision
- Great for dense PDFs and notes
- Every notebook now gets a secure cloud computer that can run code against your sources
Watch-outs
- Won't add outside knowledge, by design
- Struggles with scanned or handwritten files
- Free tier stops at 50 sources per notebook and 3 Audio Overviews a day
- The NotebookLM name is gone, so searching for help returns documentation under two product names
Gemini Notebook FAQ
- Is NotebookLM now called Gemini Notebook?
- Yes. Google renamed it on 16 July 2026, announced by Josh Woodward of Google Labs. It is the same product with the same notebooks — nothing to migrate, and old links redirect — and Google says more than 30 million people and 600,000 organisations were using it at the time. The rename came with native code execution: each notebook gets a secure cloud computer that can analyse your sources rather than only summarise them.
- Is NotebookLM free?
- Yes, and the free limits are specific rather than vague: 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chat queries a day and 3 Audio Overviews a day. Google AI Pro raises that to 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, 500 queries and 20 Audio Overviews a day; Ultra's 30 TB plan reaches 600 sources per notebook. Checked against Google's own support documentation on 2 August 2026.
- Does NotebookLM make things up?
- Far less than a general chatbot, because it answers only from your uploaded sources and cites the passage it used. It can still misread a source, but you can check it in one click.
- What are Audio Overviews?
- A generated conversation between two synthetic hosts discussing your sources. It sounds gimmicky and turns out to be the most useful feature for revision, because it puts the material in your ears.
- What file types can I upload?
- PDFs, Google Docs and Slides, web pages, pasted text, and YouTube links. Mixing types in one notebook is where it gets genuinely powerful.
The verdict
Gemini Notebook — still NotebookLM in everything but name — earns a 5/5 from us. Free, grounded in your own sources, and the rename brought a real capability rather than just a logo: every notebook now has a sandboxed cloud computer that can run code against your material. The only cost of the change is that help articles now exist under two names.