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In one or two sentences, before anything else.
Gemini Notebook is Google's research notebook that answers from the sources you add and turns them into audio, video, reports and quizzes. Google renamed it from NotebookLM on July 16, 2026; it is the same standalone product, existing notebooks carried over, and notebooklm.google.com now redirects to notebook.google.com.
What it can do, one sentence each, and whether we actually tested it.
Chat answers questions from the PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files and Google Docs or Slides you add, with inline citations back to each source.
Per Google's help center. A 2025 study still found at least one hallucination in 13% of outputs.
Turns a notebook into a podcast-style conversation between two AI hosts; a Customize field sets audience, focus and tone, and the Deep Dive format lets you interrupt with questions.
Interactive mode as described in MakeUseOf's June 2026 test; settings must be chosen before generating.
Narrated slide-style and Cinematic animated videos made from your sources; Google added roughly 60-second Video Overviews in more than 80 languages on September 15, 2026.
XDA found Google AI Pro allowed only two Cinematic videos in June 2026.
Mind maps, reports, flashcards, quizzes, infographics and slide decks from your sources; Google announced short-answer, multiple-select and fill-in-the-blank quizzes on September 15, 2026.
Writes and runs code to analyse the data in your sources and exports PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, CSV, JSON and PNG or SVG charts.
Google AI Ultra and some Workspace business plans first; Google said Pro users on the web would follow in the weeks after July 16, 2026.
Notebooks can be created and opened inside the Gemini app and stay in sync with the standalone Gemini Notebook site.
Google says notebooks are also coming to AI Mode in Search, with no date.
Talk to a notebook in the Android and iOS app in nearly 100 languages and interrupt by speaking; answers stay grounded in your sources.
Rolling out first to Google AI Ultra subscribers aged 18 and over, per Google's September 15, 2026 post.
The people it helps and the problems it solves, and where it ranks.
Built for
Problems it solves
Graded in
Public tests other people ran: what they gave it and how it did.
Case 1
Input
A reporting-style task over a 300-document corpus on TikTok litigation and policy in the US, given to NotebookLM, ChatGPT and Gemini with varied prompt detail and context size.
What happened
13% of NotebookLM's outputs contained at least one hallucination, against about 40% for ChatGPT and Gemini. Most errors were overconfident readings of the sources, such as turning an attributed opinion into a general statement, rather than invented names or numbers. The test ran before the rename and the June 2026 move to Gemini 3.5.
Case 2
Input
A research notebook on how intentional noticing counters emotional numbness, with Customize prompts for a target listener, a narrative arc from problem to practical advice, and a debate between an optimist and a devil's advocate.
What happened
Basu found the briefed overviews went from rambling to focused, and the narrative-arc version easier to remember than a flat summary; he did not report how the debate version sounded. Settings must be chosen before generating, a finished overview cannot be edited, and he tested a single notebook.
Case 3
Input
Camera and lens reference material as sources; a Cinematic Video Overview of the camera's custom button assignments, and a mind map of the lens's low-light limits.
What happened
Mathur rated the Cinematic video far ahead of the older slide-style Video Overviews, and the steered mind map gave a usable decision tree. Google AI Pro allowed only two Cinematic videos, a failed generation still used a slot, and mind map nodes cannot be dragged into a better order.
What it does badly, with the evidence, and what we could not settle.
Weak
Audio Overviews flatten non-English and non-American material.
Evidence: Jill Walker Rettberg's study (arXiv, revised May 2026; Media, Culture & Society) found the podcasts follow a fixed template, voice texts from other languages in a standardised Midwestern American accent and shift cultural context to a middle-class American default.
Generated outputs are hard to adjust.
Evidence: MakeUseOf found Audio Overview settings must be chosen before generating and a finished overview can only be deleted and regenerated; XDA found mind map nodes cannot be moved by hand.
Grounded answers still contain errors.
Evidence: In the 2025 study by Hagar, Agustianto and Diakopoulos, 13% of NotebookLM outputs contained at least one hallucination, mostly confident readings that the sources did not support.
Usage limits are not published as numbers.
Evidence: Google's help center describes compute-based limits that refresh every 5 hours up to a weekly cap, with AI Plus at 2x, AI Pro at 4x and AI Ultra at 5x or 20x AI Pro, but gives no base figures.
Not available in mainland China, Hong Kong or Macao; people there should not plan on it.
Evidence: None of the three appears on Google's list of supported countries and territories for Gemini Notebook, checked October 17, 2026.
New analysis features reach paid plans first.
Evidence: The cloud computer and new file formats launched on June 8, 2026 for Google AI Ultra and some Workspace business customers only; Google has given free users no date.
Uncertain
Whether every Google AI Pro user has the cloud computer yet.
Why unsure: Google said on July 16, 2026 it would reach all Pro users on the web over the coming weeks; we found no later confirmation from Google.
When notebooks arrive in AI Mode in Search, and how private sources are kept apart there.
Why unsure: Google says only that it is coming soon. PPC Land noted in July 2026 that Google has not explained how notebook content will relate to public results in Search.
How well the public tests describe today's product.
Why unsure: Every test we found ran under the NotebookLM name, before the June 2026 move to Gemini 3.5 and the July rename; nobody has published a test of the cloud computer.
The numbers, each with its source and the date we checked it.
| Spec | Value | Note and source |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Google (Google Labs); launched at Google I/O 2023 as Project Tailwind | Source: blog.googlechecked |
| Rename | NotebookLM became Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026; same standalone product | Source: blog.googlechecked |
| Old address | notebooklm.google.com redirects permanently to notebook.google.com | Redirect checked by GenGrades Source: notebooklm.google.comchecked |
| Notebooks and sources per notebook | Standard (free) 100 and 50; AI Plus 200 and 100; AI Pro 500 and 300; AI Ultra 500 and 500 or 600 | Source: support.google.comchecked |
| Usage limits | Compute-based, refreshing every 5 hours up to a weekly cap; AI Plus 2x and AI Pro 4x standard, AI Ultra 5x or 20x AI Pro | Source: support.google.comchecked |
| Google AI Pro price | 19.99 USD a month in the US | Source: blog.googlechecked |
| Model | Gemini 3.5 since June 8, 2026, per Google | Source: blog.googlechecked |
| Platforms | Web, plus Android and iOS apps | Source: blog.googlechecked |
| Availability | Listed countries and territories, 80+ languages; mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao are not listed | Source: support.google.comchecked |
| Training on your data | Not used to train Gemini Notebook unless you send feedback; Workspace accounts are never reviewed or used for training | Source: support.google.comchecked |
| Website visits, September 2026 (notebook.google.com) | 214 million (+21.4% on August); 8th of 20 on AICPB's AI tools worldwide list | Source: mp.weixin.qq.comchecked |
| Website visits, September 2026 (notebooklm.google.com) | 9.9 million (−24.7% on August); 10th of 20 on AICPB's biggest-decline list | Source: mp.weixin.qq.comchecked |
Answer first, then why, an example, the limits and what to do next.
Yes, Gemini Notebook is NotebookLM under a new name. Google renamed it on July 16, 2026 and says it remains the same standalone research tool; the old notebooklm.google.com address now redirects to notebook.google.com.
Your notebooks, sources, notes and Audio Overviews carried over, with nothing to re-create, according to Chrome Story's August 2026 explainer. Old links redirect to the new address, so the same Google account opens the same notebooks.
Yes, the Standard tier is still free with a Google account, with up to 100 notebooks and 50 sources in each. Paid Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra plans raise those numbers and multiply the usage allowance, and new features such as the cloud computer reach paid plans first.
Two things changed with the rename: each notebook gets a cloud computer that writes and runs code, and notebooks sync with the Gemini app. Google also says notebooks are coming to AI Mode in Search, with no date. The cloud computer started with Google AI Ultra and some Workspace plans, and Google promised it to Pro users on the web within weeks.
Not officially: mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao are missing from Google's list of supported countries and territories for Gemini Notebook. Taiwan is on the list, and Google notes that the mobile app may have different availability.
The one published comparison favours it for staying close to your documents. In a 2025 study over 300 documents, 13% of NotebookLM's outputs had at least one hallucination against about 40% for ChatGPT and Gemini. That test predates the rename, and Gemini app notebooks now sync with Gemini Notebook, so the two Google tools share the same notebooks.
This page is built from what can be checked today: Google's announcements and help center, news coverage of the rename, and public tests by XDA Developers, MakeUseOf and two academic studies. Every test we found ran under the old NotebookLM name, before the rename. Sources were checked on October 17, 2026.
According to AICPB's traffic rankings, notebook.google.com had 214 million visits in September 2026, up 21.4% on August: 8th among AI tools worldwide. The old notebooklm.google.com address had 9.9 million, down 24.7%: 10th on the list of AI tools that lost the most traffic.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Launched at Google I/O as Project Tailwind | |
| June 8, 2026 | Moved to Gemini 3.5; a cloud computer that writes and runs code, plus PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint outputs, for Google AI Ultra and Workspace business customers | Google, Chrome Unboxed |
| July 16, 2026 | NotebookLM renamed Gemini Notebook; the cloud computer promised to Pro users on the web "over the coming weeks" | Google, Free Press Journal |
| September 15, 2026 | Voice conversations in the mobile app, short Video Overviews and new quiz formats |
Google calls Gemini Notebook "the same standalone product". Chrome Story reported that the same team runs it, that notebooks, sources, notes and Audio Overviews all carried over, and that nothing has to be re-created. On October 17, 2026 we checked that notebooklm.google.com redirects permanently to notebook.google.com, so old links still open your notebooks.
What is new: each notebook gets a secure cloud computer that writes and runs code against your sources, notebooks sync with the Gemini app, and Google says notebooks are coming to AI Mode in Search, with no date. Google says more than 30 million people and over 600,000 organizations use the product.
| Plan | Notebooks | Sources per notebook | Usage allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard (free) | 100 | 50 | Standard |
| Google AI Plus | 200 | 100 | 2x standard |
| Google AI Pro | 500 | 300 | 4x standard |
| Google AI Ultra | 500 | 500 or 600 | 5x or 20x AI Pro |
Notebook and source counts come from Google's plans page; the allowance comes from its usage limits page. Limits are compute-based: they depend on the prompt, the model, the chat length and the feature, and refresh every 5 hours until you reach a weekly cap. Google publishes the multipliers, not the base numbers. Google AI Pro costs 19.99 USD a month in the US, per Google's September 15 post.
On data, Google says uploads are not used to train Gemini Notebook unless you send feedback, in which case it may review the whole interaction. Workspace and Workspace for Education accounts are never reviewed by people or used for training.
Nobody has published a test of the cloud computer or of anything added since the rename.
The Hagar study is the only published head-to-head we found, and it favours NotebookLM for staying close to your documents. It ran in 2025, on older versions of all three. Inside Google, the choice matters less than it did: notebooks made in the Gemini app sync with Gemini Notebook, so the same notebooks are available in both.
Sources
Changelog
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Grok is the chatbot from SpaceXSI, the Musk company formerly called xAI and then SpaceXAI, sold since October 13, 2026 in the X Subscription. Since January 2026 it has faced country blocks, investigations and lawsuits over sexualized deepfakes, and Canada's Privacy Commissioner found in June 2026 that X Corp. and xAI broke federal privacy law.
Character.AI is a chatbot app where people talk to characters other users create, made by Character Technologies. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 12, 2026, and Disney bid 20 million USD for a license to some assets; the app runs during the sale and will be wound down if no bid keeps it going.
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