NotebookLM

Pros

• Generates AI insights with your own data
• Wide variety of tools and uses

Cons

• Limited to Google's AI models
• Not private or stored on your device

Editors' note: NotebookLM is unlike other AI tools. While some tools want to be your AI playground and allow you to do a little bit of everything, NotebookLM delivers on what it promises, which is to help you learn and understand your data better. What started as a small Google experiment is now possibly the most practical AI product, which is why it received a CNET Editors' Choice award.

Of all the AI tools Google has churned out in the past couple of years, NotebookLM remains special. It's a tool that's approachable and can be used by anyone, making it a flexible option for school, work or play. 

While there are other options out there, NotebookLM still doesn't have a strong or direct competitor, making it even more appealing. While Google has veered into the learning aspect of its new features, it shouldn't prevent anyone from trying it out. 

At its core, NotebookLM is an AI research assistant that lets you create a variety of outputs based on the sources you feed it. It's not a chatbot, like ChatGPT or Claude, even though it is powered by Google's own Gemini. Instead, it takes your sources as the only source of truth, making it less prone to AI hallucinations.

Not only that, it's what NotebookLM can do with those sources that's really impressive.  

This use of artificial intelligence is valuable and in demand. For instance, Matthew McConaughey said last year on a podcast that he wanted a personal LLM trained on all his books, notes and other personal information, so he could ask questions and get answers without any external influence. This is essentially what NotebookLM does.

Google first demoed what was then called Project Tailwind at its I/O developer conference in 2023, calling it an AI-first notebook. It was able to answer questions based on uploaded documents and automatically create a study guide for the material. While impressive in its own right, that is about as basic as NotebookLM gets today.

Since its official release in 2023, Google has added many more features to NotebookLM, making it one of the best tools for learning and doing more with your data. It can be used in a variety of ways, making it flexible and appealing for just about anyone who uses it.

What is NotebookLM?

NotebookLM organizes your chaotic notes and lets you pull out specific threads from dense information. What makes NotebookLM so interesting is what it can do with your source material once it has it.

You can chat with Gemini about the material to get answers. NotebookLM can also transform your sources into unexpected final products. It can provide written answers or create entirely new content, such as audio or video overviews, slide decks, study guides, and more. Depending on your needs and use case, NotebookLM can be a truly all-in-one AI tool.

NotebookLM is nothing without the sources you feed it, and this is all it requires to work its magic. It treats sources as the only truth and bases all answers and outputs on them. It won't scour the internet for answers. If your sources don't have an answer to a question you ask, it will tell you.

For example, I asked "What's 2 + 2?" in a Notebook that had some research notes from one of my vibe coding articles. Its response: "The provided sources do not contain information regarding mathematics or the sum of 2 plus 2."

This is what sets NotebookLM apart. You deliberately give the app guardrails so you can better trust the information it feeds back to you. AI likes to lie to you when it doesn't have the answer. NotebookLM doesn't do this, or at least not as frequently.

Your sources can be documents, audio files, YouTube videos, web links and more. Every time you add a new one, NotebookLM will reanalyze the entire notebook and provide a summary of the collective sources. That means  NotebookLM is only as good as what you feed it. Fill your notebook with bad research materials, and you get bad results.

In its simplest form, you can ask NotebookLM specific questions based on your sources to find answers, which is great if your source material is very dense and you're seeking a very specific answer.

For example, say you upload an entire ebook for a book report you're working on for school, along with notes you've taken for the class. You can ask NotebookLM to pull themes, key character motivations, and any other information based on your sources. This alone is incredibly helpful, but it's just a fraction of what NotebookLM can do.

Standout features

NotebookLM is good at a lot of things, but there are two features that usually noted at the mention of its name: Audio and Video Overviews. 

Audio Overviews

NotebookLM shines with its ability to turn all of your sources into a lengthy or bite-sized audio podcast. If you're an auditory learner, then this is a must-try feature. 

Audio Overviews will take all of your sources and turn them into a podcast-style audio presentation. It typically features AI hosts that tackle the subject matter head on. The hosts are charismatic, have weirdly good chemistry and break down your sources in a way that's easy to understand.  

That's not all, though. Audio Overviews are customizable. You can choose from the default, "deep dive" option, which will cover your sources in depth, or you can choose from a brief, critique or debate option, allowing you to get different angles. Moreover, if you know there's a specific part of your sources that you want the audio to cover, there's a text box to give the AI host instructions, and they will only focus on what you tell them to. 

Depending on how many sources you have will determine the length of your Audio Overview, and it can take a couple of minutes for it to generate for you. 

Video Overviews

Visual learners have Video Overviews at their disposal, and it's capable of creating some incredibly impressive outputs. If Audio Overviews put NotebookLM on the map as its "killer feature," Video Overviews ups the ante. 

In the beginning, Video Overviews were a bit basic. A whiteboard-like explanation of your sources, but earlier this year, the feature received a serious upgrade. Utilizing Nano Banana Pro, Veo 3 and Gemini models, the outputs for the feature are truly something. 

Like Audio Overviews, Video Overviews can be customized as well. You have the option to to choose Cinematic, Explainer and Brief options, all of which are self-explanatory, though the Cinematic option is typically the most impressive. Also like Audio Overviews, you can tell NotebookLM exactly the subject matter to focus on through a text box. 

NotebookLM on the go

Initially, NotebookLM was only accessible via the web app, but Google eventually released a dedicated iOS and Android app that wasn't much to write home about. When it first launched, nearly no features from the Studio area were available, leaving much to be desired. 

It didn't take that long for that to change, though. First, features trickled in slowly but surely, and today, nearly everything can be made within the app itself. 

Who is NotebookLM best for?

NotebookLM is for anyone looking to better understand and use their data, so there's no single "best" candidate. However, given the sheer number of features aimed at learning, I'd be remiss if I didn't suggest schoolwork. That said, NotebookLM can be used for work and personal and creative projects, so it really doesn't make sense to set limitations on it.

Common uses for NotebookLM

School material

Throw in your study notes, your homework for the day, and the teacher's handouts, and you have a thorough resource you can chat with about your subject. With a click of a button, you can create flash cards, audio or video overviews, quizzes and more to prepare for the next quiz. Not everyone learns the same way, and NotebookLM lets students absorb knowledge on their terms with a variety of different outputs. Flash cards? Sure. Prefer podcasts? You can instantly create something you can listen to to go over your notes.

Professional work

NotebookLM can be used nearly as much for work and business as it can for school, and it could come in clutch for your next big meeting or presentation. Whether you need to make talking points from a dense report or an easy way to visualize that data in a chart or slide deck, this can all be done with a click of a button in the NotebookLM studio tab.

For example, if presented with a lengthy press release or report, I can throw it into NotebookLM and ask the chat to break down the most important aspects in a list with bullets. Then I can create a short Audio Overview that guides it to do the same thing with only the important information. Finally, I can request a longer, more in-depth version of the Audio Overview so I can dive into all the details if I want. The last step is most important: Always be sure to double-check your sources. NotebookLM is great at delivering the goods, but it doesn't pass the fact-check test.

Creative assistant

For personal and creative endeavors, all of NotebookLM is at your disposal. Whether you need a writing partner or want to hear your notes, thoughts and journals relayed to you in the form of an audio overview, this is how you break the rules. Now that NotebookLM has Nano Banana as an image generator, you can even have it spin up some solid visuals based on your ideas and other work that you want to better understand and work with.

One of my latest surprises for a "let's see what happens" type of project was during the holidays, when I called my aunt for a recipe. I recorded the call so I wouldn't miss anything. Equipped with a short doc of notes and the 45-minute call recording, I threw both into NotebookLM as sources to generate a proper recipe document, which it did without issue. What surprised me was what happened when I just used the call recording as the only source and had it create a slide deck.

NotebookLM went to town, creating a lengthy slide deck full of personality. It wasn't just a recipe, either. NotebookLM extracted the conversation context and integrated it into the slide deck. It was charming, cute and funny. Titled Aunt Carol's Gumbo Gospel, it even featured one quote from the phone conversation, as if it knew it was perfect. "They're coming if you got the gumbo, honey." This is where NotebookLM can shine, in those "wildcard" moments where you aren't expecting much, only to be wowed.

What are the cons of NotebookLM?

NotebookLM has a lot going for it, but it's not without cons. You're stuck with Google if you want to use it. That also means you're stuck only using Gemini, too. And although Google says the information you add to NotebookLM isn't used to train its AI models, some may feel a bit apprehensive about using such a tool, given just how much data Google already has about you.

That said, if you're already deeply entrenched in Google services, you may have already weighed those risks. But for the tech-savvy, there is an alternative called Open Notebook. While setting it up is far from as easy as accessing NotebookLM, and it can't match it feature-for-feature, it's an overall solid alternative that has privacy at its core.

NotebookLM pricing

NotebookLM is free to use with a Google account. For casual use, you might not need more than the free version's capabilities. However, if you're a heavy user, you might want to consider paying for a Google One AI plan. Higher access to Gemini models, more generations, and new features are prioritized to the higher paid plans. Here's a breakdown. 

NotebookLM competition and comparison

There isn't too much direct competition to NotebookLM. It functions as a general purpose AI tool that almost anyone can use and while there are competitors or tools within chatbots that function similarly, NotebookLM still stands on its own for the most part. 

One of the most similar AI tools is Atlas. It has a similar layout, but is primarily for deep research projects that require deep synthesis and has a focus on knowledge mapping. NotebookLM can still be used for this, but it offers a wider gamut of features and is focused more generally for everyday use. 

Another option out there is OpenNotebook -- an open-sourced and privacy focused option that requires you to set it up yourself. It offers a ton of flexibility, like being able to choose your own AI models to work with, but it's not as easy to use as NotebookLM. 

While those are all dedicated tools, there are some built-in features in popular chatbots that somewhat function as NotebookLM does. For instance, Claude has Projects, which are self-contained workspaces where you provide instructions and add sources for research. Projects have their own chat histories and knowledge bases and may be better for intensive tasks, like coding. 

Then there's Custom GPTs in ChatGPT. It's essentially a mini ChatGPT that is build around a specific purpose.  Like NotebookLM, you can give CustomGPTs instructions, but Google's product is made with less specificity in mind. 

Final thoughts

NotebookLM is an interesting concept to begin with, and it has grown into such a powerful AI tool that it might be the best Gemini-powered product released to date. It's easy to use, but it will also reward you the more you tinker with it. There's nothing else like it on the market right now that isn't hindered in some way, and it receives updates and new features fairly consistently. There's no wrong way to use it, and whatever feature you want might indeed be on the NotebookLM team's to-do list.