NotebookLM FAQ

NotebookLM can be accessed on your mobile, laptop, desktop, or tablet using a web browser. Simply open your preferred browser on any of these devices and navigate to NotebookLM. Sign in with your Google credentials to get started. You can upload documents directly from your device, whether they are stored locally or in other supported locations. Alternatively, if you use Google Drive, you can access and select your documents directly from there. For the best experience, ensure your documents are formatted as Google Docs. Once your content is ready, you can explore summaries, insights, and responses seamlessly.

No, there is no Android app for NotebookLM. It is a browser based application.

No, you don’t need to download any app to use NotebookLM. It is entirely web-based and can be accessed through your preferred browser on any device, including mobiles, laptops, desktops, and tablets. Simply visit NotebookLM, sign in with your Google credentials, and start using the tool right away.

NotebookLM does not have strict system requirements, but for the best experience, ensure you have the following:
Device Compatibility: It works on mobiles, laptops, desktops and tablets.
Web Browser: A modern web browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge is recommended. Make sure your browser is updated to the latest version for optimal performance.
Google Account: You’ll need an active Google account to sign in and use NotebookLM.
Internet Connection: A stable internet connection is required, as NotebookLM is a web-based tool.
Document Format: While it supports various file types, documents stored in Google Docs format offer the best compatibility.
For the best experience, convenience and practicality, it is highly recommended to use NotebookLM on a laptop or desktop. Most users prefer these devices due to their larger screens and ease of navigation, which make working with documents more efficient. By following these guidelines, you can enjoy a seamless and productive experience with NotebookLM.

NotebookLM offers a free version that provides functionality comparable to the paid versions, allowing users to access its core features without any subscription cost. However, the paid versions, such as NotebookLM Plus (launched on 13 December 2024) and NotebookLM Enterprise, come with additional features and benefits.

These premium versions offer enhanced data privacy, ensuring stronger protection of user data, alongside customisable privacy and access settings, enabling users to control who can access their content and how it is shared. Privacy policy for NotebookLM Free version is different from the other two. This makes them particularly suitable for businesses or users with specific security and collaboration requirements.
Furthermore, users of NotebookLM Plus have reported better-quality responses and overall improved performance. While the free version is sufficient for most, the premium options may be worth considering for those seeking advanced privacy controls or enhanced AI capabilities.

Notebooks in NotebookLM are like digital binders where you organise your projects. Think of them as folders on your computer. You can store source documents, like articles or web pages, and your own notes related to a specific topic or project all within a single notebook. This keeps your work organized and allows NotebookLM to focus on the relevant information for each project. It’s important to remember that each notebook is completely separate, so NotebookLM can only use information from the specific notebook you are currently working in. If you are using NotebookLM for the first time, you can try out the demo Notebook that the Google Labs team created before setting up your own.

Open NotebookLM on your computer. Click on ‘Create New’. A Notebook will be generated. This will not be functional until a Source is added.

Click ‘+ Add Source’ in the pop-up screen showing in the middle of the screen.

Choose the files you want to include in your Notebook (Google Docs, PDFs, YouTube link, MP3 audio file, web pages (url/link), etc.).

Click ‘Insert’, and your first Notebook is generated.

The source added first will generate a summary of its content. This is generated by AI without any prompt from you. There are other options within the interface to create Notes and generate Briefing Doc, Study Guide etc, which, once created, will become Notes. You can also chat within the Chat interface panel in the middle. The response from the AI in the Chat can also be saved as a Note.

The Sources and Notes together make a Notebook.

Once you’ve created a Notebook with your first Source, the NotebookLM interface organises your work into three main panels.

The Sources Panel on the left lists all your uploaded Sources, such as pasted text, web links, YouTube videos, PDFs, or Google Slides. At the top, there is a light blue summary of the current Source, and to the right, Key Topics extracted from the Source are displayed in a dark blue section. You can continue adding more Sources the same way. However, a lack of syncing options currently might cause only the Summary of the first uploaded Source to appear in Centrestage. To learn more about this and a workaround, read the helpful article on Managing Source Syncing Limitations in NotebookLM

Centrestage* is the middle panel where interactivity happens between you and the AI. The analysis runs quietly in the background, but Centrestage is where you interact with the AI, the Notes, and everything generated—such as answers, analysis, and insights—through your questions and the uploaded Sources. There are two ways to engage with it:

Using the Chat input box: Use the input box at the bottom of Centrestage to ask questions. NotebookLM will respond strictly based on your uploaded Sources, enabling dynamic, interactive exploration between you and the AI.

Clicking on a Key Topic: Select a Key Topic from the Sources Panel to bring its analysis to Centrestage. From there, you can explore the insights provided or click on numbered citations, marked as circled numbers, to view the exact location of the cited text. Clicking a citation will automatically scroll the Sources Panel to that precise section, even in lengthy Sources.

The Studio Panel on the right enhances your workflow further. It allows you to generate an Audio Overview and create structured content like a Study Guide, FAQ, Table of Contents, Timeline, or Briefing Doc. Each of these documents is generated by AI and can be saved as Notes. Saving them as Notes adds value and context to the Source, making them relevant additions to your Notebook. You can also manually add, organise, or manage Notes alongside your Sources.
With these three panels—Sources, Centrestage, and Studio—NotebookLM offers a seamless, interactive experience for navigating and exploring your documents.

*Footnote: Centrestage is the name this panel badly deserves. While Google currently refers to it as Chat, the panel is far more than just a chat window. It is a dynamic space where interactivity between the AI, the Notes, and the user takes the spotlight, built on analysis that quietly happens backstage. Meanwhile, Sources serves as the Greenroom, where the main characters wait to be taken to Centrestage.

NotebookLM can help in many ways, simplifying both simple and complex tasks:
Summarising Notes: Condense large volumes of information into concise, digestible formats.
Answering Questions: Get quick, precise answers to direct questions based on your Sources and Notes.
Translating Documents: Translate even obscure languages, ensuring accessibility across regions and diverse audiences.
Brainstorming: Generate new ideas by finding connections across different parts of your Sources and Notes.
Research Assistance: Organise notes, highlight key concepts, and suggest related papers or resources for academic or industry research.
Project Management: Track tasks and summarise project progress efficiently.
Meeting Assistant: Create meeting agendas from related Notes and summarise discussions with actionable items.
Personalised Study Guides: Tailor study guides, complete with quizzes and summaries, to your focus areas.
Creative Storyboarding: Turn ideas into structured storyboards for scripts, presentations, or other creative projects.
Data-Driven Insights: Extract quantitative data from Sources and Notes and generate visualisations or identify trends.
Writing Assistance: Draft, edit, and refine written content, whether it’s an article, report, or creative work.
Collaboration Facilitation: Share Notebooks and ideas seamlessly, allowing for real-time collaboration and input.
Learning New Skills: Break down complex topics into manageable steps and create personalised learning paths.
Archiving and Retrieval: Automatically organise and categorise Sources and Notes for quick access to past projects or information.
Content Localisation: Adapt existing content for different cultural or regional contexts, ensuring relevance and effectiveness.
Cataloguing and Summarising Records: Catalogue manuscripts or archived content, search through extensive records quickly, and summarise historical contexts.
Legal Analysis and Documentation: Analyse case notes, prepare summaries, track legal precedents, and draft or refine legal documents efficiently.
Strategic Planning and Reporting: Plan strategies, summarise meetings, and create dynamic, tailored reports or presentations for stakeholders.
Creating Journalistic Articles from Scratch: Develop compelling, well-researched articles based on sources, delivering impactful stories or analyses.
Using as a Creative Writing Tool: Generate ideas, refine narratives, and create engaging content for fiction, poetry, or other creative works.
Writing Screenplays: Develop structured screenplays by outlining scenes, refining dialogues, and organising narrative arcs.
Reading and Analysing Old Manuscripts and Handwritten Documents: Digitise, transcribe, and analyse historical or handwritten documents for deeper insights and preservation.

Sources are the bedrock of your work in NotebookLM. When you want NotebookLM to assist you with a specific topic, you first need to provide it with the relevant information. This is where sources come in. Think of them as the textbooks or articles you would use to research a subject. You can add various types of sources to NotebookLM, such as documents, web pages, or even audio files. NotebookLM then uses these sources to understand the topic and answer your questions accurately.

No, this isn’t supported. Videos are only accepted if they are publicly available on YouTube, and photos cannot be uploaded directly as Sources.

In experiments, Base64 encryption of images appeared to help AI understand image content, but it’s a complex and unnecessary workaround for most users. Instead, if you want to include the context of a photo or video, you can describe it yourself or use tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to generate a detailed description. For example, you might use a prompt like: “I have an image I’d like NotebookLM to consider while analysing my document, as my thesis revolves around an obscure painting housed in a private museum. Could you describe it in a way NotebookLM would understand in context?”

Once you have the description, copy it into the Paste Text field as a Source. Using AI tools in this way allows you to provide granular and meaningful context to NotebookLM without needing to upload media files.

When you add a new source to NotebookLM, it automatically creates a “Source Overview” for you. This is a very handy feature that acts like your personal research assistant. The Source Overview summarises the main points of the document, highlights key topics, and even suggests some questions you might want to ask about the material. It’s a great way to get a quick grasp of the content and identify areas you want to explore further.

NotebookLM is designed to handle a variety of source formats, making it flexible for your needs. Currently, you can use:Google Docs
Google Slides
PDF files
Text files (.txt)
Markdown files (.md)
Web URLs (web pages)
Copied and pasted text
YouTube URLs (public videos with captions)
Audio files

Each source file can contain a maximum of 500,000 words.
If you’re uploading a file from your computer, it can be up to 200MB in size.
It’s also important to remember that you should only upload documents that you have the right to use. Notice that this limitation is the same for NotebookLM Free, NotebookLM Plus, and NotebookLM Enterprise as of 10 January 2025.

Importing from Google Drive is seamless. You can directly add your Google Docs and Google Slides as sources in NotebookLM. However, remember that NotebookLM creates a static copy of your file. This means that any changes you make to the original file in Google Drive will not be automatically reflected in NotebookLM. You’ll need to manually re-sync the source in NotebookLM to get the latest version.

This handy button appears next to your source in NotebookLM if the original file in Google Drive has been updated since you last viewed it in NotebookLM. Clicking it will update the source with the latest changes from Google Drive. Keep in mind that you’ll only see this button if you have permission to edit the original file in Google Drive.

For sources other than Google Docs and Google Slides, updating them requires a bit more manual work. Since NotebookLM only keeps a static copy of these files, you’ll need to delete the old source and then re-upload the updated version.

When you use a web URL as a source, NotebookLM extracts the text content from that page. However, it doesn’t import images, videos embedded on the page, or content from other web pages linked within the source page. Also, you won’t be able to use web pages that require a subscription (paywalled) or those that have blocked web scraping.

Yes, you can use YouTube videos as sources, but there are some specific requirements: The videos must be public and have captions (either those you’ve added or auto-generated ones).
NotebookLM will only import the text transcript of the video, not the video itself.
Keep in mind that very recently uploaded videos (less than 72 hours old) might not be available to import immediately.
Videos without any speech are not supported.

You can use your own audio files as sources in NotebookLM. Supported file type is MP3. When you upload an audio file, NotebookLM transcribes it into text and uses that text as the source. NotebookLM supports a wide range of languages for audio import, but the transcription might not be accurate if the audio quality is poor.

A: No, NotebookLM never alters your original files. When you upload a document or link a Google Doc, NotebookLM creates a copy of that file to work with. This ensures that your original files remain unchanged and safe. However, this also means that if you update the original file, NotebookLM won’t automatically know about those changes. You’ll need to manually update the source in NotebookLM to reflect those changes.

Yes, you have control over which Sources are included in the answering process. Each source in your Notebook has a checkbox next to it. By selecting or deselecting these checkboxes, you can tell NotebookLM which Sources it should or should not use when answering your question. This gives you fine-grained control over the information NotebookLM considers.

Once you’ve uploaded your Sources to a Notebook, you can start asking NotebookLM questions or giving it instructions in the Chat. Simply type your question or request in the chat box, just as you would when talking to a person. NotebookLM will analyse your Sources and provide an answer based on the information it finds.

NotebookLM is designed to be a responsible AI. A key feature is that it only uses information from the Sources you’ve provided within your Notebook, unless you specifically ask it to be creative (e.g., “write a poem about this topic”). If you ask a question that goes beyond the scope of your Sources, NotebookLM will let you know that it can’t answer. In such cases, try rephrasing your question or asking a different one that relates more closely to the information in your Sources.

No, NotebookLM cannot access information from multiple notebooks at the same time. Each notebook is treated as an independent workspace. This ensures that the information used by NotebookLM is always relevant to the specific project you are working on within that particular notebook.

Citations are a crucial part of how NotebookLM presents information. When NotebookLM answers your question, it will often include citations within its response. These citations are direct quotes from your Sources that NotebookLM used to formulate its answer. They act like footnotes, showing you exactly where the information came from. Citations are important because they help you verify the accuracy of NotebookLM’s response and easily locate the original information in your Sources.

NotebookLM makes it easy to work with citations. If you hover your cursor over a citation, you can see the full text of the quote. If you want to see the citation in context, simply click on it. This will automatically scroll the Source viewer to the exact location of the quoted text within the source document.

Notes in NotebookLM are where you capture and organise key information, insights, and ideas related to your Sources. They’re like digital sticky notes or a dedicated space for summarising and keeping track of important points. You can create Notes from NotebookLM’s responses, write your own Notes, or even convert Notes into Sources for further analysis.

There are a few ways to create Notes:
Save a model response: If NotebookLM provides a response you find valuable, click the “Save to note” button beneath the response to add it to your Notes.
Write a new Note: In the Studio panel on the right, go to the Notes section and click “Add note.” This opens a new Note where you can write your own thoughts or paste text.
Save the FAQ, Briefing Doc, Study Guide etc as Note

It depends on how the Note was created. Notes created by saving a model response are not editable. This is to ensure you have a clear record of the AI’s output. However, you can always create a new Note and paste the text from a saved response into it if you want to make changes. Notes you write yourself are, of course, editable.

Yes, you can create up to 1,000 Notes per Notebook. This gives you plenty of space to capture the summaries, key information, and your thoughts.

Yes, you can convert your Notes into Sources. This is useful if you want NotebookLM to focus on the information in your Notes or if you want to ask questions specifically about the content of your Notes.

1. Open the Note you want to convert.
2. Click the ‘Convert to source’ button located at the bottom left of the Note.

Yes you can. In the Studio panel, go to the Notes section.
Click the three dots.
Select ‘Convert all notes to source.’

Audio Overviews are a unique way to get a quick summary of your Sources. Imagine two AI hosts having a lively discussion about the key topics in your Notebook – that’s what an Audio Overview provides. It’s like having an AI-generated podcast tailored to your research! It’s important to remember that the AI hosts don’t offer their own opinions; they simply reflect the information in the Sources you’ve uploaded.

Open an existing Notebook (or create a new one and add some Sources).
Open the Notebook guide.
In the Studio panel on the right, find the Audio Overview section and click the “Generate” button.
If you want to focus the overview on a particular topic, click “Customise” and add a steering prompt (up to 500 characters long).
Now, just wait a few minutes while NotebookLM generates your Audio Overview.

If an Audio Overview already exists for a Notebook:
1. Open the Notebook.
2. In the Studio panel, go to the Audio Overview section and click the ‘Load’ button.
Give it a few seconds to load.

You have a few options for sharing:

Option 1: Public Link (Consumer Accounts Only):
Generate the Audio Overview.
Click the share icon in the audio player to create a public share URL. (Note: This is currently not available for Workspace Enterprise or .EDU accounts.)

Only Notebook owners and editors can generate these public links.
They can also turn off sharing by toggling off ‘Public’ access in the sharing panel.

If the audio is deleted or regenerated, the public link will no longer work.

Option 2: Share the Notebook:
Share the entire Notebook with other users, and they’ll be able to load the same Audio Overview in the Studio panel.

Option 3: Download and Share:
Download the Audio Overview using the “Download” button (within the three dots on the player) and share the downloaded audio file directly.

Yes, NotebookLM is testing an interactive mode (currently in Beta):
Create a new Audio Overview.

Tap the ‘Interactive mode (BETA)’ button.
While listening, tap “Join” when you want to ask a question.
Ask your question, and the AI hosts will try their best to answer it based on your Sources.
The hosts will then resume the original Audio Overview.

Accuracy: Since the voices and content are AI-generated, there might be occasional inaccuracies or glitches in the audio.
Language: Audio Overviews are only available in English for now.
Generation Time: It takes a few minutes to generate an Audio Overview.
Interruptions: You can’t interrupt the AI hosts during the overview (except in Interactive mode).
Interactive Mode Limitations: Your voice and interactions with the hosts are not stored.
Sharing or Downloading: This will share the original Audio Overview, not your interactive version.
Availability: This feature is only available for newly generated Audio Overviews.

Sharing a notebook is easy! Just open the notebook you want to share and look for the “Share” icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Clicking this icon will open a sharing menu where you can add the email addresses of the people you want to share with.

When you share a notebook, you can choose between two different access levels:

Viewer: Can see all the source documents and notes in the notebook but can’t make any changes. It’s like giving them a read-only copy.

Editor: Allows others to view, add, or remove sources and notes, and even share the notebook with other people.

l Gmail Account: You can share a notebook with up to 50 other individual users. However, you can’t share with Google Groups.
Enterprise or EDU Account (e.g., work or school email): You can share a notebook with an unlimited number of individual users and even with Google Groups within your organization.

Whether you can share with a Google Group depends on your account type:

Personal Gmail Account: You cannot share with a Google Group.
Enterprise or EDU Account: You have the option to share your notebooks with Google Groups that are within your organization.

The ‘Chat-only’ notebook is a special feature available to NotebookLM Plus users. It allows you to share a notebook with others but only gives them access to the chat interface. This means they can interact with the information in the notebook by asking questions and having a conversation, but they won’t be able to see the original source documents. This is useful when you want to share insights without revealing the underlying data. You can also set a welcome note that everyone will see when they access the ‘Chat-only’ notebook.

If you’re a NotebookLM Plus user, you have access to advanced Chat settings that allow you to customise how NotebookLM responds to your questions. You can find these settings by clicking on the settings icon in the top right corner of the Chat panel.

With this feature, currently, you can customise two main aspects of NotebookLM’s responses:

Conversational Style: This lets you choose how you want NotebookLM to interact with you. Options include “Default” (for general research), “Analyst” (for business strategy), “Guide” (for sharing knowledge), and “Custom” (to define your own style).

Response Length: You can tell NotebookLM whether you prefer shorter and more concise answers or longer, more detailed responses.

If you are a NotebookLM Plus user, you can view usage analytics for your notebooks. This is especially helpful when you share your Notebooks with others. Simply open the notebook you’re interested in and click on the “Analytics” option. This will show you data about how your notebook is being used by others.

The analytics provided by NotebookLM give you insights into how your notebook is being used over time. Currently, you can see two main metrics: Users per day shows how many people accessed your notebook each day (including yourself). Queries per day tells you the total number of questions or requests made by users within your notebook each day. This data helps you understand how people are interacting with your shared notebook.

For the Usage Analytics to work, a few conditions need to be met:

1. The Notebook must be shared with at least four other users. This ensures that there is enough activity to generate meaningful data.

2. There needs to be some chat activity within the notebook in the past seven days. If these conditions are met, you’ll be able to see the analytics for your notebook.

The analytics for your notebook are updated approximately every 24 hours. So you can expect to see fresh data on a daily basis, giving you a regular snapshot of how your notebook is being used.

With the free version of NotebookLM, you can have:

Upto 100 Notebooks.
Each Notebook can hold up to 50 Sources.
Each Source can be up to 500,000 words long.
You get 50 Chat queries per day.
You can generate 3 Audio Overviews per day.

NotebookLM Plus significantly increases your usage limits:

You can have up to 500 Notebooks.
Each Notebook can contain up to 300 Sources.
You get 500 Chat queries per day.
You can generate 20 Audio Overviews per day.

NotebookLM Plus is like the supercharged version of NotebookLM. It gives you everything in the standard version plus some extra benefits:
Higher Limits: You can work with more Notebooks, Sources, and Chat queries.
Premium Features: Access to exclusive features like “Chat-only” sharing and advanced Chat settings.
More Sharing Options: More control over how you share your Notebooks.
Analytics: See how others are using your shared Notebooks.

Not really. The user interface of both the free and paid tiers are similar except some minor variations like the addition of Analytics feature in the Plus version. The difference lies in user privileges, capacity etc.