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NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）

NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves

# Summarization & Translation# Search & Recommendation# Audio Generation# Japanese Supported

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What is NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）?

NotebookLM (now renamed to "Gemini Notebook") is a Google-built AI research and thinking partner that answers with citations based only on the materials you upload. You can use PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio, Google Docs, and more as sources, and the latest Gemini models handle summarizing, question answering, and material creation. Because it limits the basis for its answers to your sources, it curbs plausible-sounding errors and lets you grasp materials quickly, and it can also generate an Audio Overview (podcast-style conversational audio) and slide decks you can download as PDF or PowerPoint. It is free to use, with limits and available models increasing as it is included in Google AI Plus/Pro/Ultra (available in limited regions).

Business problems it solves

About "NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）"

What is NotebookLM

NotebookLM is a Google-built AI research and thinking partner that answers based only on the materials you upload. It is now renamed to "Gemini Notebook" and is built on the latest Gemini models (provided by Google; the official domain has moved to notebook.google, with the old notebook.google redirecting there). When you load sources such as PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio, and Google Docs, it summarizes, answers questions about, and creates materials from their contents. Unlike a typical chat AI, it limits its answers to the sources you load and shows citations.

The Studio screen of NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook). Generation actions such as Add note, Study guide, Briefing doc, FAQ, and Timeline appear alongside an artifact created from the sources titled "Ulysses: A Study Guide"

Source: Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) official site

Answering with citations, based only on "your own materials"

The heart of NotebookLM is source grounding (basing answers on the materials you load). Answers are generated within the scope of the trusted sources you provide, with citations showing which passages they are based on. This lets you quickly grasp the contents of your materials while curbing the "plausible-sounding errors" that tend to occur with general generative AI. Organizational and school data is never used for training, and even for personal use it is not used for learning unless you share feedback.

The flow from upload to understanding

SOURCE

Add your sources

  • PDFs, sites, YouTube, audio
  • Google Docs / Slides
ANALYZE

Gemini analyzes

  • Understands content multimodally
  • Extracts connections between topics
GROUND

Answers with citations

Answers within the scope of your sources and shows citations for the supporting passages, curbing plausible-sounding errors

CREATE

Turn it into deliverables

  • Audio Overview, study guide, FAQ
  • Timeline, mind map

The materials you load turn into a personalized AI expert.

How to use

  1. Create a notebook

    Go to notebook.google and create a new notebook with your Google account.

  2. Upload sources

    Add the materials you want to research (PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio, Google Docs, and more).

  3. Ask questions and have a dialogue

    Ask about the contents of your sources, and answers come back with citations. Use it to grasp key points and do preliminary research.

  4. Generate deliverables

    Generate an Audio Overview (a podcast-style conversational audio), slide deck, infographic, study guide, briefing doc, FAQ, timeline, mind map, and more.

  5. Share and put it to use

    Share the generated content and notebooks, and put them to work for your team or your studies.

Features

01Dialogue with sources

Understand based on trusted materials.

  • Multi-source ingestion — PDFs, sites, YouTube, audio, Google Docs, and more
  • Cited answers — Shows supporting passages and answers within the scope of your sources
  • Multimodal analysis — Understands content across the board with the latest Gemini

02Deliverables you can generate

Turn reading into something usable.

  • Audio Overview — Summarizes sources into conversational audio
  • Study guide, briefing doc, FAQ — Automatically generate documents for each purpose
  • Timeline, mind map — Visualize structure and chronology
  • Slide Deck, infographic — Generate image-based presentations and visual summaries from your sources (PDF, PPTX, PNG)

03Plans and data

Choose limits and quality to fit your needs.

  • Higher limits — Higher tiers increase the number of sources per notebook
  • Better models — Higher tiers use more capable Gemini models
  • Data protection — Organizational data is not used for training, and personal data is not used by default

Creating slide decks from your sources

With Slide Deck in Studio, you can turn the sources you have loaded into a presentation with headings, diagrams and illustrations in a few minutes (launched in November 2025; available to users aged 18 and over). The slides are drawn by the image-generation model Nano Banana Pro, so the design is polished, but the text is part of the picture.

Format
Choose between Detailed Deck, with full text and details that reads on its own, and Presenter Slides, which show the key points visually to support what you say
Language, length, instructions
Pick the output language and one of three lengths (short, default, long). You can describe the audience, style and points to emphasise in a prompt
Download
PDF and PowerPoint (.pptx, since February 2026). Even in PPTX each slide is an image, so the text cannot be edited directly. Export to Google Slides is not available as of September 2026
Revise
Write what to change on each slide and apply the changes together. Every revision creates an entirely new slide deck, and sources are not considered during revisions. You can also delete and reorder slides
Watermark
Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can turn off the visible watermark in settings

The revise screen for a NotebookLM slide deck. Under slide 9, the "Change Slide 9" box contains an instruction to change the title, and "Pending changes (4)" and the "Generate new deck" button sit at the bottom right

Source: official demo from Google Workspace Updates (20 March 2026) (English UI, before the rename)

Infographics, also created in Studio, are images too and download as PNG. For ways to fix just part of the text on a slide (tips for revising, overlaying text in PowerPoint, converter tools that turn slides back into editable PPTX, and rebuilding the deck), see our article "How to edit NotebookLM slides".

Pricing

You can use it for free, and limits and available models increase as it is included in Google AI subscriptions (Plus / Pro / Ultra). Higher tiers are available in limited regions (as of August 2026).

PlanPositioningSource limit per notebook
Gemini Notebook (free)For individuals, standard Gemini model, standard accessUp to 50
PlusIncluded in Google AI Plus, early access to new featuresUp to 100
ProIncluded in Google AI Pro, high-performance Gemini model, priority accessUp to 300
UltraIncluded in Google AI Ultra, highest-performance Gemini model, priority accessUp to 600

Usage limits also vary by the type of deliverable. Since 2 September 2026 the limits have been compute-based: your allowance refreshes every 5 hours, with a weekly cap (Plus gets 2x the free allowance, Pro 4x, and Ultra 5x or 20x Pro). Please check the official plan page for the latest supported regions and limits.

How it differs from other AI research tools

NotebookLM stands out for being specialized in "answering with citations, based only on the trusted sources you choose". Its aim differs from general-purpose generative AI and AI search that answer from the whole web, making it well suited to preliminary research, reading comprehension of materials, and studying. Its Audio Overview (a feature that turns sources into podcast-style conversational audio) is also unique.

NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook)PerplexityChatGPT
Basis for answersLimited to sources you add, with citationsWeb search + citationsModel knowledge + optional web
StrengthsReading comprehension, summarizing, studying, Audio OverviewResearch on the latest informationGeneral-purpose generation and dialogue
Best forPeople who want to deeply understand the materials at handPeople who want to research with sourcesPeople who want to handle a wide range of tasks

If you want to research the whole web with sources, Perplexity is a good comparison; for AI search in Japanese, Felo; and Genspark, which handles everything end to end from material generation to slides, is also worth comparing.

The information on this page is based on content published on the official site and help center as of September 2026. Please check the official site for the latest specifications and pricing.

Try NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）

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Articles featuring NotebookLM（現Gemini Notebook）

How to Edit NotebookLM Slides [September 2026]: Why You Can't Fix the Text Even in PPTX, and Five Methods by What You Need to Change

NotebookLM (renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026) produces slide decks that are "a single picture with text in it", drawn by the image generation model Nano Banana Pro. Whether you export to PDF or PowerPoint (PPTX), each slide goes in as an image, and export to Google Slides is still not available as of September. This article confirms from Google's official help that the official Revise feature rebuilds the entire slide deck every time and does not consult your sources during revisions, then sets out five methods you can choose by what you want to fix: giving instructions with Revise; laying corrections over the top in PowerPoint; conversion tools that use OCR to turn slides back into a PPTX with editable text (comparing pricing and data handling for NoteSlide, Kirigami, DeckEdit, CopySlides and Swift-Slide); redrawing the slide as an image with Nano Banana; and rebuilding it as an editable deck with tools such as GAMMA or Irusiru. It also covers caveats such as Canva's Grab Text not working on Japanese slides, the compute-based limits in place since 2 September, and how watermarks are handled.

How to Edit NotebookLM Slides [September 2026]: Why You Can't Fix the Text Even in PPTX, and Five Methods by What You Need to Change

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