Yes, the standard version of NotebookLM is free for anyone with a Google account. There is also a paid "NotebookLM for Enterprise" plan for businesses requiring enhanced security and SLA guarantees ($19.99/month/user).

Can NotebookLM summarize YouTube videos?

Yes, if you paste a public YouTube URL, NotebookLM will read the transcript and allow you to ask questions about the video or turn it into a summary podcast.

Is my data private in NotebookLM?

Google states that for personal accounts, your data is private and not used to train their models. For Enterprise and Education users, there are even stricter data protections in place.

What is the "Audio Overview" feature?

It is a feature that takes your text documents and converts them into a 10-15 minute audio conversation between two AI hosts. It sounds like a real radio show, complete with pauses, interruptions, and "human" intonation.

NotebookLM

Turn complexity into clarity with your brain’s new best friend.

From Google Labs

Founder: Raiza Martin (Product Lead) and Jason Spielman (Design Lead)

Education

July 2023

20 Million+

Freemium

Pricing Model

Freemium

Starting Price

$19.99/Month

About This AI

NotebookLM is an AI-first research and note-taking tool developed by Google Labs that grounds its intelligence strictly in the documents you upload.

Unlike standard chatbots that rely on general training data, NotebookLM acts as a “virtual research assistant” that only knows what you show it, virtually eliminating hallucinations.

It became a viral sensation in late 2024/2025 due to its “Audio Overview” feature, which automatically converts boring documents (PDFs, Slides, websites) into a stunningly realistic, two-person podcast where AI hosts banter, joke, and debate the material.

Conversation Note

Pricing

Pricing Model

Freemium

Starting Price

$19.99/Month

Key Features

Audio Overviews: Transforms uploaded sources into an engaging "Deep Dive" podcast with two lifelike AI hosts who summarize and debate the content.
Source Grounding: Answers questions solely based on your uploaded documents, providing inline citations for every claim.
Custom Audio Formats: Includes specific audio modes like "Debate," "Critique," "Brief," and the new "Lecture" mode for different learning styles.
Multimodal Inputs: Accepts PDFs, Google Docs, Slides, text files, copied text, web URLs, YouTube video links, and audio files.
Custom Personas: Users can instruct the AI to adopt specific roles (e.g., "Act as a Ruthless Product Manager" or "PhD Advisor") via a 10,000-character custom prompt field.
Visual Aids: Automatically generates mind maps, timelines, and briefing docs to help visualize connections between sources.

Pros

Hallucination-Free: Because it is "grounded" in your data, it rarely invents facts.
Viral "Podcast" Mode: The Audio Overview is widely considered the best text-to-audio implementation in the industry.
Massive Context: Can handle up to 50 sources per notebook with millions of tokens of context.
Privacy-First: Personal data is not used to train Google's models (especially for Enterprise/EDU users).
Free Access: The core product is completely free for personal use.

Cons

Audio Generation Time: Creating a "Deep Dive" podcast can take several minutes.
Limited Creativity: Since it sticks strictly to sources, it struggles with open-ended creative writing compared to ChatGPT.
Mobile Sync Issues: Some users report that chat history on the mobile app doesn't always sync perfectly with the web version.

Best for Students studying for exams, researchers synthesizing papers, legal professionals reviewing contracts, and content creators looking to repurpose written content into audio.

FAQs

Is NotebookLM free?
Yes, the standard version of NotebookLM is free for anyone with a Google account. There is also a paid “NotebookLM for Enterprise” plan for businesses requiring enhanced security and SLA guarantees ($19.99/month/user).
Can NotebookLM summarize YouTube videos?
Yes, if you paste a public YouTube URL, NotebookLM will read the transcript and allow you to ask questions about the video or turn it into a summary podcast.
Is my data private in NotebookLM?
Google states that for personal accounts, your data is private and not used to train their models. For Enterprise and Education users, there are even stricter data protections in place.
What is the “Audio Overview” feature?
It is a feature that takes your text documents and converts them into a 10-15 minute audio conversation between two AI hosts. It sounds like a real radio show, complete with pauses, interruptions, and “human” intonation.