If you are looking for NotebookLM and keep landing on “Gemini Notebook”, you are in the right place. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026, calling it “a natural evolution of the product.” Then on September 2, 2026 it replaced the old fixed daily limits for chat and Studio features with a compute quota that refreshes every 5 hours up to a weekly cap. The tool itself still does what made it popular: you upload your own sources, and it answers questions, writes summaries and makes podcast-style Audio Overviews grounded only in those sources, with citations. This guide covers the current limits for every plan, what the new quota means, and how to get the most out of it.
- Name: NotebookLM is now Gemini Notebook (since July 16, 2026). Same product, same notebooks.
- Free plan: 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook, 500,000 words or 200 MB per source.
- Paid plans: AI Plus 100 sources, AI Pro 300, AI Ultra 500 to 600 sources per notebook.
- New quota: chat and Studio use (Audio/Video Overviews, reports) is metered by compute, refreshing every 5 hours with a weekly limit. Plus gets about 2x Free, Pro 4x, Ultra 5x to 20x.
- Best for: studying, research, long reports, meeting notes and turning documents into audio or video explainers.
What Is NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook)?
NotebookLM is Google’s “research assistant over your own documents.” You create a notebook, add sources such as PDFs, Google Docs, Slides, web pages, YouTube videos, audio files or pasted text, and then chat with them. Unlike a normal chatbot, answers are grounded in your sources and come with numbered citations that jump to the exact passage. That makes it far less likely to make things up, and easy to check when it does.
Common uses:
- Studying: turn lecture notes and textbooks into summaries, flashcards and quizzes.
- Research: compare many papers or reports and ask questions across all of them.
- Work: summarize long contracts, meeting transcripts or product docs.
- Content: generate an Audio Overview (two AI hosts discussing your sources) or a Video Overview to share.
The Rename and the New Compute Quota
Two changes in 2026 confuse a lot of people:
- July 16, 2026: renamed to Gemini Notebook. Existing notebooks carried over. Many people (and search engines) still say NotebookLM.
- September 2, 2026: compute quota. Instead of counting “50 chats a day,” Google now measures compute. It depends on how complex your prompt is, which model and features you use, and how long the chat is. The allowance refreshes every 5 hours until you reach a weekly limit.
Google has not published absolute numbers for the quota, only multipliers: AI Plus about 2x Free, AI Pro 4x, AI Ultra 5x to 20x. The practical effect: short questions about a small notebook go a long way, while repeatedly generating long Video Overviews from 300 sources burns through the window fast. This mirrors the Gemini app, which uses the same 5-hour and weekly pattern. If you also use Gemini through the API, my Gemini API pricing guide covers that side.
Limits by Plan (Free, Plus, Pro, Ultra)
Structural limits (not affected by the compute quota), last verified by Gemini Omni Prompts on August 10, 2026:
| Limit | Free | AI Plus | AI Pro | Ultra (20 TB) | Ultra (30 TB) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notebooks | 100 | 200 | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| Sources per notebook | 50 | 100 | 300 | 500 | 600 |
| Words per source | 500,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 | 500,000 |
| Upload size per file | 200 MB | 200 MB | 200 MB | 200 MB | 200 MB |
| Compute quota vs Free | 1x | About 2x | About 4x | About 5x to 20x | |
For reference, the old fixed daily limits before September were: chat 50 (Free), 200 (Plus), 500 (Pro), 2,500 to 5,000 (Ultra); Audio and Video Overviews 3, 6, 20 and 100 to 200 per day; Cinematic Video Overviews 2 per day on Pro and 10 to 20 on Ultra. Treat these as a rough guide to the relative size of each plan, since the compute quota now governs them.
How to Use It: Step by Step
- Open it at notebooklm.google.com (it redirects to Gemini Notebook) or in the mobile app, and sign in with your Google account.
- Create a notebook for one topic. One topic per notebook gives much better answers than a dump of everything.
- Add sources: upload PDFs or files, pick Google Docs and Slides from Drive, paste a website or YouTube link, or paste text. Each source can be up to 500,000 words.
- Ask questions in the chat panel. Click the numbered citations to see where each claim comes from.
- Pin good answers as notes so you can reuse them.
- Use the Studio panel to create Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, reports, mind maps, flashcards and quizzes from your sources.
- Share a notebook with others, or publish a public notebook if your account allows it.
Studio Features: Audio, Video, Reports and More
| Feature | What you get | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Audio Overview | A podcast-style conversation about your sources | Use the customize box to set focus, audience and length |
| Video Overview | A narrated slide-style explainer | Best with 3 to 10 focused sources |
| Cinematic Video Overview | More polished video (paid plans) | Costly on quota; generate once you are happy with the script |
| Reports and blog-post format | Briefing docs, study guides, articles | Ask for a specific structure and reading level |
| Mind maps | Visual map of topics in your sources | Great first step on a new subject |
| Flashcards and quizzes | Study material from your notes | Point it at one chapter at a time |
| Deep Research | Finds new web sources and adds them to the notebook | Limited on Free; check what it adds before trusting it |
| Data tables, infographics, slide decks | Structured outputs | Limited on Free, higher on paid plans |
Tips for Better Answers and Fewer Quota Hits
- Keep notebooks focused. 15 relevant sources beat 50 loosely related ones, and smaller notebooks use less compute.
- Turn sources off (uncheck them) when a question only needs some of them.
- Clean your PDFs. Scanned images without text give poor results; run OCR first.
- Start new chats for new questions, since long chats cost more compute under the new quota.
- Draft before you render. Ask for an outline in chat, then generate the Audio or Video Overview once.
- Verify citations on anything important. Grounding reduces errors but does not remove them.
Which Plan Do You Need?
- Free: students and casual research. 50 sources per notebook is plenty for most projects.
- Google AI Plus ($4.99/month): doubles sources and quota, plus 400 GB storage. Good value if you hit the free quota weekly.
- Google AI Pro ($19.99/month): 300 sources, 4x quota, Cinematic Video Overviews, plus Gemini 4 Argon in the Gemini app and 5 TB storage.
- Google AI Ultra ($99.99 or $199.99/month): only if you produce a lot of video overviews or work with very large source sets.
Full plan comparison: my Google AI Plus vs Pro vs Ultra guide.
Alternatives, Including Private Local Options
- ChatGPT Projects and Claude Projects let you chat over uploaded files, with different limits. See my ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini vs Grok comparison.
- Fully local: for confidential documents, run a local model with a document chat UI (for example Open WebUI with Ollama). Nothing leaves your PC. Start with my Ollama install guide and best Ollama models.
- Students: my best AI tools for students list covers more study tools.
Troubleshooting: Common Problems and Fixes
Most problems with Gemini Notebook come from the source itself, not the app. Google’s help pages list clear rules for each source type, so start by checking your file or link against them.
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube video will not import | Only public videos with captions (uploaded or auto-generated) work. Videos without speech, uploaded in the last 72 hours, or in an unsupported language often fail. | Check the video is public and has captions, wait a few days for new uploads, or paste the transcript as text instead. |
| Website source fails or looks empty | Paywalled pages are not supported, and only the page’s HTML text is imported, not images, embedded videos or linked sub-pages. | Copy the text and paste it as a source, or save the page as a PDF and upload that. Add sub-pages as separate links. |
| “File too large” or upload rejected | Each source is capped at 500,000 words or 200 MB for uploads. | Split the file into parts (for example by chapter) and add each part as its own source. |
| PDF imports with errors or no text | The PDF is copy-protected, or it is a scan of images with no text layer. | Remove the protection if you own the file, or run OCR and upload the text version. |
| Audio file will not import | Audio is transcribed on import, so files with no speech or very poor quality can fail. | Use a clearer recording in a common format such as MP3, WAV or M4A, or upload a transcript. |
| Cannot add more sources | You reached the per-notebook limit (50 on Free). | Merge small notes into one document, remove sources you no longer need, or split the topic into two notebooks. |
| Audio or Video Overview will not generate | Your compute quota for the current 5-hour window, or your weekly cap, is used up. Very large notebooks also cost more. | Wait for the window to refresh, untick sources you do not need, and draft the outline in chat before generating. |
| Answers ignore one of your sources | That source is unticked, or it imported with little usable text. | Make sure the source is selected, open it to check what text was imported, and re-add it if needed. |
Two smaller limits catch people out too: Google Slides sources are limited to 100 slides, and Google Sheets sources to about 100,000 tokens. For a big spreadsheet, export only the tabs or columns you need. If a YouTube video or web page you used is later deleted or made private, Google removes that source from your notebook within 30 days, so keep your own copy of anything important.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is NotebookLM still free?
Yes. Gemini Notebook (the new name) has a free plan with 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. Chat and Studio use is limited by a compute quota that refreshes every 5 hours.
Why was NotebookLM renamed?
Google renamed it Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026, describing it as a natural evolution that ties it to the Gemini brand and plans. Your notebooks were kept.
How many sources can I add to NotebookLM?
50 per notebook on Free, 100 on AI Plus, 300 on AI Pro, and 500 or 600 on AI Ultra. Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200 MB.
How many Audio Overviews can I make per day?
There is no fixed daily number any more. Since September 2, 2026, Audio Overviews count against your compute quota. Before that, Free allowed 3 a day and Pro 20.
Is my data used for training?
Google has said NotebookLM does not use personal users’ uploaded sources to train its models, but check the current privacy notice in the app, especially on work or school accounts.
Why can’t NotebookLM import my YouTube video?
The video must be public and have captions, either uploaded or auto-generated, because only the transcript is imported. Videos with no speech or uploaded less than 72 hours ago may fail. Pasting the transcript as text is a reliable workaround.
What file types can I upload to NotebookLM?
PDF, Word, TXT, Markdown, CSV, PowerPoint, ePub, images and audio files such as MP3 and WAV, plus Google Docs, Slides and Sheets from Drive, web links, YouTube links and pasted text. Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200 MB.
Sources
- Gemini Omni Prompts: NotebookLM and Gemini Notebook limits 2026 (updated September 5, 2026)
- Elephas: NotebookLM daily limits and the new 5-hour usage limits
- Mean CEO: NotebookLM news (November 2026)
- Wikipedia: NotebookLM
- Google Help: Add or discover new sources (checked November 5, 2026)
- AI Pricing Guru: Gemini plans and prices (November 5, 2026)
