How to Use NotebookLM (Now Gemini Notebook): A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

If you want to know how to use NotebookLM, the first thing to know is that it has a new name. On 16 July 2026, Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. It is the same research tool: your old notebooks still work, the old address redirects to the new one, and the core idea has not changed. You upload your own documents, and the AI answers questions using only those sources, with citations you can click.

This beginner’s guide walks you through everything step by step: creating a notebook, adding sources, asking good questions, and turning your material into study guides, Audio Overviews, flashcards and more. We also cover the free and paid plans, usage limits, privacy and the most common problems. Every feature below was checked against Google’s official help pages on 28 September 2026.

What Is NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook)?

NotebookLM, now called Gemini Notebook, is Google’s AI research assistant. Instead of answering from the whole internet like a general chatbot, it works from the sources you give it: PDFs, Google Docs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files and more. Every answer includes inline citations that point back to the exact passage it used, so you can check the claim yourself.

That grounding is what makes it different from tools like ChatGPT or Gemini’s main chat. If you are comparing assistants more broadly, our guide to ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude explains how the general-purpose chatbots differ.

What changed with the rename?

• Name and logo: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook, rolled out gradually across web and mobile.
• Your notebooks: existing notebooks, sources and shared links keep working through automatic redirects.
• Gemini app sync: your notebooks also appear inside the Gemini app, and changes sync both ways.
• New capabilities: Google added a secure cloud computer that lets notebooks write and run code for data analysis, starting with Google AI Ultra and rolling out to Pro subscribers.

Because most people still search for “NotebookLM”, we use both names in this guide.

How to Use NotebookLM: Step-by-Step Guide

Here is the basic workflow from a blank page to your first useful answer.

Step 1: Open Gemini Notebook and sign in

Go to notebook.google in your browser and sign in with your Google Account. The old NotebookLM web address redirects there automatically. You can also use the mobile app on Android or iPhone, or open your notebooks from inside the Gemini app.

If you are using a work or school account and cannot get in, your administrator may need to switch the service on for your organisation.

Step 2: Create a new notebook

1. Click Create new notebook.
2. In the pop-up, choose Upload a source, or search for new sources.
3. Give the notebook a clear name, such as “Marketing report Q4” or “Biology exam revision”.

Keep each notebook focused on one project, course or decision. A notebook full of unrelated files gives vaguer answers.

Step 3: Add your sources

Select Add sources in the left-hand panel. According to Google’s sources help page, you can add:

• Documents: PDFs, Google Docs, Microsoft Word files, TXT and Markdown
• Presentations and spreadsheets: Google Slides, PowerPoint files, Google Sheets and CSV files
• Web content: website links and public YouTube videos that have captions
• Audio and images: MP3 and WAV recordings (transcribed on import) and common image formats
• Other: ePub files, Google Play Books ebooks, pasted text and Gemini chats

Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200MB. Files you import from Google Drive stay in sync and refresh every few minutes, so edits in the original Doc show up in your notebook.

Step 4: Find new sources with Fast Research or Deep Research

If you do not have documents yet, let the tool find them:

• Fast Research searches the web or your Google Drive and suggests relevant sources to add.
• Deep Research browses a large number of websites and builds a multi-page report you can add to the notebook. Google says it is available to users aged 18 and over.

Once a notebook has five or more sources, it can automatically label and group them by topic, which helps when a project grows.

Step 5: Ask questions in the Chat panel

The middle Chat panel opens with a summary of everything you added. Type a question and the answer will cite the passages it drew on. Click a citation number to jump to the original text.

Good starter prompts include:

• “Summarise the main argument of each source in two sentences.”
• “Where do these sources disagree, and what evidence does each give?”
• “List every deadline, figure and named person mentioned in these documents.”
• “Explain this chapter as if I were new to the subject.”

Step 6: Create outputs in the Studio panel

The right-hand Studio panel turns your sources into finished material. Google’s getting-started guide lists these output types:

• Audio Overviews – podcast-style discussions of your sources
• Video Overviews – narrated video summaries with visuals
• Reports – including study guides, briefing documents and FAQs
• Mind Maps – a visual map of the key topics and how they connect
• Flashcards and quizzes – built only from your own material
• Slide decks, infographics and data tables
• Notes – your own notes saved alongside the sources

Many outputs can be customised with your own instructions, a different language, or exported to Google Docs or Sheets.

How to Use NotebookLM Audio Overviews

Audio Overviews are the feature most people discover first. They turn your sources into a spoken discussion you can listen to while commuting or exercising.

According to Google’s Audio Overview help page, you can choose from four formats:

• Deep Dive: two hosts discuss and connect the ideas in your sources.
• The Brief: one speaker covers the key points in under two minutes.
• The Critique: two hosts give constructive feedback, useful for essays or design documents.
• The Debate: a structured back-and-forth exploring different viewpoints.

You can pick from 80+ languages, add a custom prompt (for example, “focus on chapter 3 and assume I am a beginner”), and in English choose a shorter or longer version. With Interactive mode, you can press Join during playback and ask the hosts a question; they answer from your sources and then carry on. Audio files can be downloaded or shared.

How to Use NotebookLM for Study, Research and Work

For students

Upload lecture slides, reading lists and your own notes, then generate a study guide, flashcards and a quiz from the same material. In September 2026, Google announced new study tools, including audio recording in the mobile app for capturing lectures, short video summaries of around 60 seconds, and more quiz formats rolling out over the following weeks. For more options, see our list of AI tools for college students.

For researchers

Load papers on a single research question and ask for the evidence on each side, the methods used, and gaps in the literature. Always open the citations to confirm the tool has read the source correctly. Our guide to AI tools for research students covers complementary tools for finding and managing papers.

For work

Build a notebook around one live decision: meeting transcripts, customer feedback, competitor pages and internal reports. Then ask for a briefing document or a comparison table to share with colleagues. Notebooks can be shared as Viewer or Editor, or published with a public link.

If you also need a tool that searches the open web with citations, compare this approach with how Perplexity handles research.

Is NotebookLM Free? Plans and Usage Limits

Yes, there is a free version. Google’s plan comparison page lists these capacity limits:

Premium access is not sold as a standalone subscription; it comes with Google’s AI plans. Prices vary by country, so check the plan page in your own Google Account.

How usage limits work

Since 2 September 2026, Gemini Notebook uses compute-based usage limits. How much you can do depends on prompt complexity, the model, chat length and which features you use. Your allowance refreshes every five hours until you reach a weekly limit. Google AI Plus gives twice the standard allowance, Pro four times, and Ultra 5x or 20x the Pro level. You can check your remaining usage under Settings > Usage, and on the web you can use Generate later to queue an output instead of waiting.

Tip for students: Google’s September announcement says eligible students in many countries outside the US can get a free year of Google AI Plus until 31 December 2026. Check eligibility in your country before relying on it.

Privacy: What Happens to Your Uploads?

Google’s privacy help page draws a clear line between account types:

• Personal Google Accounts: your uploads, questions and answers are not used to directly train Google’s foundational AI models, unless you give feedback. If you click thumbs up or down, the related content can be reviewed by people (disconnected from your account) and kept for up to three years.
• Workspace and Workspace for Education accounts: content is not reviewed by humans, even when you give feedback, and is not used to train AI models.

For UK and EU users, the practical advice is the same as for any AI tool: avoid uploading sensitive personal data, client files or health information to a personal account, and avoid the feedback buttons when a notebook contains anything private. Companies should use a Workspace account with the stronger protections.

Tips for Better Results

1. Curate your sources. Ten relevant documents beat fifty loosely related ones.
2. Use Google Docs for living material. They stay in sync; a PDF is a fixed snapshot.
3. Set custom instructions for the chat. Tell it your goal, audience and preferred format once.
4. Ask for disagreements, not just summaries. Prompts like “what evidence contradicts this?” produce more useful analysis.
5. Check citations on anything important. Google itself warns the tool can make mistakes.
6. Customise Studio outputs. A one-line instruction (“focus on exam topics only”) makes study guides far more useful.

If you want to organise your notes beyond a single tool, our round-up of AI tools for taking notes covers good companions.

Common Problems and How to Fix Them

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Answers grounded in your own sources, with clickable citations
• A generous free plan with 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook
• Wide range of outputs, from Audio Overviews to flashcards and slide decks
• Works with Google Drive files that stay up to date
• Stronger data protections for Workspace and education accounts

Cons

• The rename may confuse users searching for the old name
• Compute-based limits make it hard to predict how much you can generate
• Some new features launch first on paid Google AI plans
• It can still misread or oversimplify sources

How to Use NotebookLM: FAQs

Is NotebookLM still available?

Yes. It was renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026, but the product, your notebooks and shared links all continue to work, and the old address redirects to the new one.

Is NotebookLM free to use?

Yes. The free Standard plan includes up to 100 notebooks with 50 sources each. Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra plans raise those limits and your usage allowance.

Does NotebookLM use my documents to train its AI?

For personal accounts, Google says your content is not used to directly train its foundational models unless you submit feedback. Workspace and education accounts have stronger protections.

What is the difference between Gemini Notebook and notebooks in the Gemini app?

They share the same notebooks. In Gemini Notebook, answers come only from your sources. In the Gemini app, answers are grounded in your notebook but may also use web search and other tools.

Can I use NotebookLM in other languages?

Yes. Google says the tool supports 80+ languages, and Audio Overviews can be generated in 80+ languages too.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to use NotebookLM takes about ten minutes: create a focused notebook, add a handful of good sources, ask specific questions and turn the answers into study guides, Audio Overviews or briefings. The new Gemini Notebook name brings extra features, but the core habit stays the same: feed it trustworthy material and check its citations. Start with the free plan, and only upgrade if the limits genuinely slow you down.

For more tools that save time at your desk, browse our guide to the best AI tools for work and productivity.