When Google launched NotebookLM in 2023, it was limited to only a few countries and was not yet available in India and other parts of the world. In June, Google extended its availability in more than 200 countries around the world. Now you can use NotebookLM for free in almost all regions with no restrictions on key features. It’s still labeled as experimental, but Google is continually improving NotebookLM and I love the new additions.
First of all, Google calls NotebookLM an “AI-powered research and writing assistant,” but it’s much more than that. You can upload different file types, including PDFs, Google Docs, Google Slides, TXT, and Markdown. Plus, it lets you enter URLs to fetch content directly from the internet or paste text into the source page.
You can add up to 50 sources in a single notebook. By the way, none of your uploaded files are used to train Google’s Gemini AI.
NotebookLM, based on Google’s flagship Gemini 1.5 Pro, analyzes all your local documents and becomes an expert on the material you provided. Basically, NotebookLM lets you create a personalized AI chatbot that generates relevant answers from your personal notes and documents.
For students and researchers, NotebookLM is an incredible AI tool because it allows you to generate new ideas and find information from multiple sources in no time.
What I like about NotebookLM is that it adds inline citations to quickly find the reference passage in a document. Additionally, since Gemini 1.5 Pro is a multimodal model, it can also analyze images, charts, and graphs from your local sources, inferring meaning from both visual and textual data. I wish this feature was available in Gemini Gems, but for now, you can use NotebookLM.
In addition to this, Google recently added an “Audio Preview” feature for NotebookLM that creates an in-depth podcast-style discussion on documents uploaded using AI-generated hosts. I found it exceptionally good and natural to understand key topics as if I was listening to a podcast on my personal notes.
How to use Google’s NotebookLM
So, if you’re interested in Google’s NotebookLM AI tool, here’s how you can use it.
- Go to notebooklm.google.com (visit) and sign in with your Google account.
- You do not need a Gemini Advanced subscription to access NotebookLM. Now click on “New Notebook”.
- On the sources page, you can upload your files, connect your documents from Google Drive, or paste a URL to fetch content.
- Now NotebookLM will analyze your documents and provide a summary.
- Now you can start chatting with your documents. In each reply, he adds quotes from your personal notes.
- You can also create an FAQ, study guide, backgrounder, table of contents, and timeline.
- Better yet, you can generate a podcast-like audio conversation using two AI hosts discussing your uploaded content.
So, this is how you can leverage NotebookLM to gain new insights and find information from your personal documents and notes. The AI tool is completely free, which is the best part. If you are looking for the best AI tools for researchers, check out our linked guide. And if you have any questions, leave a comment below.
