What is NotebookLM? Uses, limits and how to get the most from it

NotebookLM is Google's AI research assistant, renamed Gemini Notebook on 16 July 2026. It works on the material you give it (PDFs, Google Docs, web pages, YouTube videos, audio recordings), answers with citations pointing to the exact passage, and turns your sources into audio and video summaries, mind maps, flashcards and slides.

This guide is compiled from Google's help pages and blog (read on 27/9/2026), press coverage, an independent study and community experience. Google states that its limits may change.

Renamed to Gemini Notebook: what changed?

On 16 July 2026 Google announced that NotebookLM would become Gemini Notebook, with a new logo rolling out over several weeks. According to Google's blog it remains a standalone product, now more closely tied to Gemini: notebooks sync with the Gemini app, and a code-execution environment for data analysis was added (initially for Ultra and Workspace customers).

Existing notebooks stay where they are and old links redirect (notebooklm.google now forwards to notebook.google). In this guide both names refer to the same product.

What is NotebookLM used for?

Each project is a notebook holding the sources you choose, with two main areas:

• Chat: generates a summary of all your sources and answers your questions. Answers carry numbered citations; click one to see the matching passage and check it straight away.
• Studio: turns sources into other formats. The help centre currently lists Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Mind Maps, Reports (FAQ, study guide, briefing document), Flashcards and Quizzes, Infographics, Slide Decks and Data Tables.

Audio Overviews come in four formats: Deep Dive (two AI hosts in conversation, the default), The Brief (one speaker, under two minutes), The Critique and The Debate. Google says the feature supports more than 80 languages, including Vietnamese; length settings and the interactive voice mode are currently English only.

NotebookLM can create slides through Slide Deck in Studio. Choose a Detailed Deck (full text, meant to be read on its own) or Presenter Slides (lean, to support a talk), pick the language and length, and add instructions. Decks download as PDF or PowerPoint (.pptx); the Revise button edits individual slides, but each revision regenerates the whole deck and revisions are rate-limited. The feature is for users over 18, and AI-generated slides can contain errors.

Supported sources and size limits

According to Google's help centre, NotebookLM accepts:

• PDF, Word, PowerPoint, text, Markdown and CSV files;
• Google Docs, Google Slides (up to 100 slides), Google Sheets (up to 100,000 tokens);
• web URLs, YouTube videos, ePub files, Play Books titles and Gemini chats;
• audio files (MP3, WAV and others) and images (JPG, PNG, HEIC, WEBP and others).

Each source is capped at 500,000 words or 200MB for uploads, on every plan. Notebooks are independent: NotebookLM cannot read across several notebooks at once, so documents you want to compare must sit in the same notebook.

Is NotebookLM free?

Yes, at the basic level. The Standard tier is free with a Google account. Paid tiers come with Google AI plans (sold through Google One), and organisations can use the Enterprise edition through Google Cloud or Google Workspace. The table reflects Google's "Upgrade Gemini Notebook" page as read on 27/9/2026:

Ultra has two levels (20 TB and 30 TB of storage), hence the ranges. Prices are not listed here because they vary by country; check Google One before buying.

What is "NotebookLM Pro"? It is the common name for NotebookLM as included in the Google AI Pro plan: more notebooks, sources and generations, earlier access to new features and higher Gemini models. One note for Vietnam: Pro and Ultra include watermark removal on generated content, but Google's page says a visible watermark is still applied for people living in India, South Korea or Vietnam.

Is your data used to train AI?

According to Google's privacy page:

• Personal Google accounts: sources, questions and answers are not used for training and are not read by human reviewers, unless you submit feedback (thumbs up/down, reports). Feedback may be reviewed.
• Google Workspace or education accounts: data is not reviewed by humans and is not used to train AI models.

If your company is still choosing an office suite, see Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace.

How to use NotebookLM step by step

1. Go to notebook.google (the old notebooklm.google address redirects), sign in with your Google account and choose Create new notebook.
2. Choose Upload a source to add files, or paste a web or YouTube link, or pick files from Google Drive. Name the notebook after the project.
3. Read the automatic summary in Chat to get the overview.
4. Ask specific questions. Click the citation numbers to check the original passage before relying on an answer.
5. Open Studio and pick an output (report, mind map, Audio Overview, slides...). Use the pencil icon to customise first; generation runs in the background and can take a few minutes.
6. To collaborate, share the notebook: personal Gmail accounts can share privately with up to 50 people, or publicly.

Using NotebookLM effectively at work

• Meeting notes: put a project's minutes or recordings into one notebook, ask "which tasks went to whom, and by when", then click the citations to verify.
• Internal policies: load the staff handbook and procedures into one notebook for quick lookups. Anything with legal weight still needs the original document or the person responsible.
• Reports: import several monthly reports, ask for a briefing or draft slides, then correct the figures yourself.

Users on the Vietnamese forum Tinhte describe using NotebookLM for long documents, customer feedback and research papers, and advise loading only relevant, good-quality sources. This is community experience; Dùng Gì has not tested it.

Using NotebookLM for study

Put a course's textbook, lecture slides and YouTube videos into one notebook, then generate a study guide, flashcards and quizzes; Audio Overviews are handy for revision on the move. For example, if you are following the Excel learning path for office staff, you can collect the material for each stage in one notebook.

Speaking to VnExpress (June 2026), NotebookLM co-founder Steven Johnson said Vietnam ranked in the top 10 by number of users the previous year, and stressed that AI should help you brainstorm rather than write for you. For studying, that means using flashcards and quizzes to test yourself, not just reading summaries.

NotebookLM vs ChatGPT

The two serve different purposes. ChatGPT is a general assistant for writing, brainstorming and answering from general knowledge. NotebookLM answers within the sources you choose, with citations and study-oriented outputs. A 2025 study (Hagar, Agustianto, Diakopoulos) tested ChatGPT, Gemini and NotebookLM on 300 documents: about 13% of NotebookLM's answers contained a hallucination, against about 40% for the other two. 13% is still not zero; the typical error was over-interpretation, turning one person's opinion into a general conclusion.

Research and revision from existing documents: NotebookLM. Writing from scratch or general questions: a general assistant.

Limitations

• Answers, slides and audio are AI-generated and can be wrong; always check the citations.
• Outdated or wrong sources produce outdated or wrong answers.
• The free tier's daily generation limits are low for heavy use.
• The mobile app has fewer features than the web version.
• NotebookLM is not your primary storage: keep the originals and back them up with the 3-2-1 rule.

Frequently asked questions

What is NotebookLM?

Google's AI research assistant (now Gemini Notebook). It answers questions and creates summaries, slides and flashcards from the documents you add, with citations.

Is NotebookLM free?

The Standard tier is free with a Google account, limited to 50 sources per notebook and 50 chats per day. For more, use Google AI Plus, Pro or Ultra.

What is NotebookLM Pro?

NotebookLM as part of Google AI Pro: up to 300 sources per notebook, 500 chats and 20 Audio/Video Overviews per day, plus earlier access to new features.

Should I put company documents into NotebookLM?

For Workspace accounts, Google says data is not used for training and not read by human reviewers. For personal accounts, data is not used for training unless you submit feedback. Follow your company's security rules either way.