Tools · Issue #6 ·
Gemini Notebook, the free research tool that only answers from your own sources
In one line: Gemini Notebook (the new name for NotebookLM since July 2026) is Google's free research notebook: drop in your PDFs, docs, links and videos, and it answers questions, writes reports, and makes podcast-style Audio Overviews grounded in just those sources.
What it is
Most AI chat tools answer from whatever they absorbed from the internet. Gemini Notebook flips that: you build a notebook of your own sources, and its answers are grounded in that material, with citations back to the source. Sources can be PDFs, Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, Word and PowerPoint files, Markdown, CSVs, ePubs, images, audio files, web pages, pasted text, and public YouTube videos. On the free plan you get up to 100 notebooks with 50 sources each, and each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200MB. Beyond chat, the Studio panel turns your sources into Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, reports, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes, data tables, infographics and slide decks. It's the same product as NotebookLM, and old notebooks carried over to the new name.
Who it's for
Anyone sitting on a pile of reading they'll never get through: students cramming for an exam, founders comparing competitors' docs, developers learning a new framework from its documentation, or the person in your fantasy league who actually read the rulebook. If you've ever pasted a long PDF into a chatbot and wondered whether the answer came from the PDF or from thin air, this is built for you.
Try this today
Go to notebook.google.com, sign in with a Google account, and create a new notebook. Add three to five sources on one topic, like the docs pages of two tools you're choosing between, plus a long YouTube talk about them. Then ask: "Where do these sources disagree? Give me each point with a citation." Click a citation to check it against the original. Then open the Studio panel and generate an Audio Overview to listen to on your next walk.
The catch
It only knows what you give it, so a thin notebook gets thin answers, and each notebook is walled off: it can't pull from your other notebooks at the same time. Web links import only the page's text (no images, embedded videos or paywalled pages), and YouTube imports only work for public videos with captions, using just the transcript. Free usage limits are now compute-based instead of fixed daily counts: heavy prompts and big generations like Video Overviews or slide decks eat more, the quota refreshes every 5 hours up to a weekly cap, and Google doesn't publish exact numbers. On personal accounts your data isn't used for training unless you send feedback, but feedback lets Google review the full conversation and uploads. Deleted notebooks can't be recovered. Generated images and videos carry a visible watermark, and only paid Pro and Ultra subscribers can turn it off.
Pricing
Free plan: $0 with a Google account, standard limits, 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook. Paid upgrades come bundled in Google AI plans (US prices): AI Plus $4.99/mo (2x limits, 100 sources per notebook), AI Pro $19.99/mo (4x limits, 300 sources), AI Ultra $99.99/mo or $199.99/mo (5x or 20x Pro's limits, 500 or 600 sources). The plans also include Google storage and other Gemini perks.
Pricing checked on notebook.google/plans and one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans on Oct 20, 2026.