GuideGemini NotebookBeginner

Research your own documents with Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)

Load your reports, papers, web pages and recordings into a notebook, ask questions with answers traced back to the source, then turn the lot into briefings, slides or audio.

Curated by Javier Díaz · Written with Claude from Google’s documentation · Checked 18 October 2026 · 20 min

NotebookLM is Google's research assistant for material you supply yourself. In July 2026 Google renamed it Gemini Notebook; it is the same standalone product, and notebooks can now also be opened from the Gemini app. You give it a set of sources, and its answers are built from those sources rather than from the open web, with citations that take you to the passage each claim came from.

It suits anyone who has to get on top of a pile of reading quickly: an analyst preparing a briefing, a consultant reviewing a client's documents, a policy officer comparing consultation responses. Rather than skimming twenty PDFs, you question them, check the cited passages and pull the useful parts into notes.

Once the reading is under control, the Studio panel can produce something to hand on: a briefing document, a study guide, a mind map, a slide deck, or a podcast-style Audio Overview to listen to on the way to a meeting.

1. 01Create a notebook for one project

   Go to notebook.google.com and sign in with your Google Account. Choose Create new notebook; a window opens asking for your first source, where you can pick Upload a source.

   Keep one notebook per piece of work, such as a single report or a single client. Answers draw on every source you have ticked, so mixing unrelated projects in one notebook muddies the results.

   If you are on a work or school account and the service does not load, your Workspace administrator has probably not enabled it. Some features are also restricted until you have verified that you are over 18 in your Google Account settings.

2. 02Add your sources

   Use Add sources in the Sources panel on the left. The types currently accepted include:

   • Files: PDF, Word (.docx), PowerPoint (.pptx), plain text, Markdown, CSV and ePub
   • Google Docs, Slides and Sheets from your Drive (you need at least view access)
   • Web page URLs, several at once if you separate them with spaces or new lines
   • Public YouTube videos that have captions
   • Audio files such as MP3 or WAV, which are transcribed on import
   • Images in common formats, pasted text, and eligible Google Play Books purchases

   A few behaviours are worth knowing before you rely on a source. For web pages, only the text is imported, and paywalled pages do not work. For YouTube, only the transcript comes in, not the pictures. Copy-protected PDFs are refused. Drive files resync every few minutes, so edits to a Google Doc reach the notebook without re-uploading, but if the original is deleted or your access is removed the source goes inactive and still counts towards your limit.

3. 03Find extra material with Fast or Deep Research

   If your own documents leave gaps, type a research question into the search box in the Sources panel and choose whether to search the Web or your Drive. The quick search returns a list you can tick through before importing.

   For a more thorough sweep, switch on Deep Research alongside Web. It takes a few minutes and returns a larger set of results, which you can import in full or selectively. It is only available to users over 18, and anything you import still counts towards your source limit.

   Treat the results as suggestions. Open a few before importing them, and leave out anything you would not be happy to cite in your own report.

4. 04Ask questions and check the citations

   Type your question into the Chat panel. Answers come with numbered citations; hover over one to see the quoted text, or select it to open the source at that point. If a source is very short, the citation may point to the whole document rather than a specific passage.

   To focus on part of the material, untick the sources you want left out. Some questions that work well on a stack of reports:

   • Which of these documents disagree about the projected cost, and by how much?
   • List every deadline mentioned, with the document each one comes from.
   • What evidence is given for the claim that demand fell in 2025? Is any of it independent?
   • Summarise the risks section of the audit in five bullet points for a non-specialist.

   If the answer is not in your sources, the tool will usually say so rather than guess. That is useful in its own right: it tells you where your evidence runs out.

5. 05Set how the chat responds

   Select the Configure Chat icon in the Chat panel to change its behaviour for this notebook. There are three styles:

   • Default, for general research and brainstorming
   • Learning Guide, which takes a more teaching-oriented approach when you are new to a subject
   • Custom, where you describe a role or tone yourself, for example a sceptical reviewer looking for weak arguments

   You can also choose a response length, then select Save. A custom role is a cheap way to stress-test your own draft: add it as a source and ask the chat to find the gaps.

6. 06Keep the useful answers as notes

   When an answer is worth keeping, select Save to note. The note keeps its tables and clickable citations. You can also write your own with Create note in the Sources panel.

   Notes sit alongside your sources and, when ticked, are used in chat and in generated outputs, so a set of well-chosen notes becomes the backbone of whatever you produce next. To move a note into a document, open its More menu and choose Export to Docs. The export opens as a new Google Doc; later edits there do not flow back into the notebook, and the notebook's sharing settings do not carry over.

7. 07Generate reports, mind maps and slides from Studio

   The Studio panel on the right turns your sources into finished formats. The main ones for report work:

   • Reports: choose Document for a text-only report from a template such as a briefing document, study guide or FAQ, or a format the tool suggests. Choose Interactive for a report that embeds other Studio outputs.
   • Mind Map: started from the chip in the chat rather than from Studio. It lays out the main themes as branches you can expand, and selecting a node asks the chat about that topic. It can be downloaded.
   • Slide Deck: set the format, language, length and which sources to use, describe the deck you want, then generate. It downloads as PDF or PowerPoint. This one is limited to users over 18.
   • Data tables, infographics, flashcards and quizzes are also available.

   Most outputs let you add a prompt before generating, for instance naming the audience or the question the report must answer. A one-line brief usually produces something far closer to what you need.

8. 08Turn your sources into an Audio or Video Overview

   Select Audio Overview in Studio to get a spoken summary. Formats include Deep Dive (two hosts in conversation, the default), The Brief (one speaker, under two minutes), The Critique and The Debate. You can choose the language, a shorter or longer length, and add a prompt to set the focus. It generates in the background in a few minutes.

   In English, a newly generated Audio Overview can be played in interactive mode, where you join in and put a question to the hosts.

   Video Overview works in a similar way, with an Explainer format, a Short one of about a minute, and a Cinematic one that is English only and limited to users over 18. Videos can take more than half an hour to render.

   Both are generated by AI and can get things wrong. Listen or watch before you send one to a colleague, and check any figure against the source.

Written by Claude from the official pages above and checked against them on 18 October 2026. Products change; if a step no longer matches what you see, the sources have the current version. How we work