Best NotebookLM Alternatives in 2026: 9 Free, Open-Source and Paid Options

Looking for NotebookLM alternatives? Google’s research notebook, renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026, is excellent for chatting with your sources and turning them into audio overviews. But you might want to stay inside Microsoft 365, keep documents on your own server, search academic papers, or use a different AI model. This guide compares the best alternatives in 2026, including free and open-source options, with what each one does, what it costs and who it suits.

Features and prices were checked on 13 October 2026 on each provider’s official pages. Where an official page did not show a price, we say so rather than guess. We have not run our own tests; this guide compares documented features. Prices are in the currency each company publishes.

First, What Changed With NotebookLM?

On 16 July 2026, Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. Google says it is the same standalone product, notebooks can also be opened in the Gemini app, and old links redirect automatically. Google reports more than 30 million users.

The free plan is generous. Google’s help centre lists up to 100 notebooks with 50 sources each, up to 500,000 words per source and 200 MB per uploaded file, with daily limits of 50 chat queries and three audio generations. Paid Google AI plans raise these limits; in the UK they cost £4.49 a month (AI Plus), £18.99 (AI Pro) and from £79.99 (AI Ultra). Our Gemini Notebook guide explains how to use it, and our Gemini pricing guide covers the plans.

So why look elsewhere? Common reasons include company policies that require Microsoft or self-hosted tools, the need for academic paper search, wanting a different AI model, or simply hitting the free daily limits.

Best NotebookLM Alternatives at a Glance

The Best NotebookLM Alternatives in 2026

1. Microsoft Copilot Notebooks: best for Microsoft 365 users

Copilot Notebooks let you gather Word documents, OneNote pages, PDFs and other files and ask Copilot questions about them. Microsoft’s support pages say it is available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and with Microsoft 365 Personal, Family and Premium. Audio overviews of notebooks are available only for work or school accounts, not for Personal, Family or Premium. In the UK, Microsoft 365 Personal costs £8.49 a month, and the Basic plan does not include AI features.

Best for: students and staff whose files already live in OneDrive or SharePoint. Our Microsoft Copilot pricing guide explains which plan you need.

2. Claude Projects: best for long documents and writing

Claude Projects give you a knowledge base of uploaded files plus custom instructions for each project. Anthropic’s help centre says free users can create up to five projects, and paid plans automatically switch to a retrieval mode as a project fills up, which Anthropic says gives up to ten times more capacity. Claude Pro costs $20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually, before tax. There is no audio overview feature.

Best for: analysing long reports, contracts or dissertations and drafting from them. See our Claude pricing guide.

3. ChatGPT Projects: best if you already use ChatGPT

ChatGPT Projects group chats, files and instructions. OpenAI’s help centre says Projects are available to signed-in users on all plans, with file limits of 5 per project on Free, 25 on Go and Plus, and 40 on Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu. You can upload up to 10 files at once. There is no NotebookLM-style audio overview.

Best for: people who want their research and writing in the same assistant. See our ChatGPT pricing guide.

4. Perplexity Projects: best for web research plus your files

Perplexity’s help centre now describes Spaces as Projects, where you can combine uploaded files with Perplexity’s cited web search. It lists up to 10,000 files and 5 GB per project, with a 100 MB limit per file, which it says is the same on every plan. Our Perplexity pricing guide covers the plans.

Best for: research that needs both your own documents and up-to-date web sources.

5. Elicit: best for academic research

Elicit searches more than 138 million academic papers and can summarise them, let you chat with papers and produce reports and systematic reviews. Its free Basic plan includes unlimited search, summaries and paper chat, with limited research agent and report use, plus Zotero import. Plus costs $11 a month and Pro $39 a month.

Best for: literature reviews, dissertations and evidence summaries. Our list of AI tools for research students covers more academic tools.

6. Open Notebook: best open-source NotebookLM alternative

Open Notebook is a self-hosted, open-source project (MIT licence) that works much like NotebookLM. You add PDFs, videos, audio and web pages, search and chat with your sources, take notes and generate podcasts with one to four speakers and full control of the script. It works with more than 18 AI providers, including local models through Ollama. It runs in Docker with a SurrealDB database, and the project advises changing the default database password before exposing it to a network.

Best for: privacy-conscious users and organisations that want to keep documents on their own server.

7. AnythingLLM: best for offline document chat

AnythingLLM, from Mintplex Labs, is an MIT-licensed app for chatting with your documents and running AI agents using local or cloud models. It has desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux, with Docker for multi-user use. It offers text-to-speech but not podcast-style overviews. Our guide on running AI models locally explains the hardware you need.

Best for: private, offline document Q&A.

8. Khoj: best for a personal knowledge base

Khoj describes itself as an AI second brain that answers questions from your PDFs, Markdown, Word and Notion files and the web. It is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence, works in the browser, Obsidian, desktop, phone and WhatsApp, and offers a free start on its cloud app or self-hosting. We could not verify its paid prices.

Best for: Obsidian users and anyone building a long-term personal knowledge base.

9. ElevenLabs GenFM: best alternative to audio overviews

If NotebookLM’s podcast-style audio overviews are what you value most, ElevenLabs’ GenFM turns a PDF, EPUB, Word document, text file or web page into a podcast with two AI co-hosts or a single host. You can choose the length, edit the script before export, and the language is detected automatically. ElevenLabs’ free plan includes 10,000 credits a month. Our guides to ElevenLabs and the best ElevenLabs alternatives cover its plans.

Best for: turning study notes or reports into something you can listen to.

Free and Open-Source NotebookLM Alternatives

• Gemini Notebook itself remains one of the most generous free options.
• Claude and ChatGPT Projects both have free tiers with limits.
• Elicit Basic is free for academic search.
• Open Notebook, AnythingLLM and Khoj are open source and free to run, though you pay for hardware or AI model usage.

Self-hosted tools need a computer or server; they are not practical if you only use a phone. In that case, start with Claude, ChatGPT or Microsoft’s apps on mobile.

How to Choose

Privacy Considerations

Before uploading confidential documents to any notebook tool, check the provider’s data terms. Business and education plans usually offer stronger commitments than free consumer accounts. Self-hosted tools such as Open Notebook keep files on your own infrastructure, but you become responsible for securing the server. For UK and EU users, personal data in uploaded files is still covered by UK GDPR or GDPR.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best alternative to NotebookLM?

It depends on your needs: Copilot Notebooks for Microsoft 365 users, Claude Projects for long documents, Elicit for academic research and Open Notebook for a self-hosted, open-source option.

Is NotebookLM still free?

Yes. Now called Gemini Notebook, it has a free plan with up to 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chat queries and three audio generations a day.

Is there an open-source NotebookLM alternative?

Yes. Open Notebook (MIT licence) is the closest open-source equivalent and can generate podcasts. AnythingLLM and Khoj are other open-source options.

Does Microsoft have a NotebookLM alternative?

Yes. Copilot Notebooks in Microsoft 365 let you ask Copilot about collected files, with audio overviews for work and school accounts.

Which alternative has audio overviews like NotebookLM?

Open Notebook generates multi-speaker podcasts, ElevenLabs GenFM creates podcast-style audio from documents, and Copilot Notebooks offer audio overviews for work and school accounts.

Conclusion

Gemini Notebook remains a strong free tool, but the best NotebookLM alternative depends on where your work lives and how private it must be. Microsoft 365 users should try Copilot Notebooks, writers and analysts Claude Projects, researchers Elicit, and privacy-focused teams Open Notebook. Test two or three with the same set of documents and keep the one that gives the most reliable, well-cited answers.

Sources: Google – NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook; Gemini Notebook Help – plan limits; Gemini Notebook Help – free limits; Google AI plans (UK); Microsoft – Copilot Notebook audio overviews; Microsoft 365 UK plans; Claude Help – Projects; Claude pricing; OpenAI Help – Projects in ChatGPT; Perplexity Help – Projects; Elicit pricing; Open Notebook on GitHub; AnythingLLM on GitHub; Khoj on GitHub; ElevenLabs – GenFM.