Google adds a Plus formula to NotebookLM and introduces new features for paid and free users.

Google is giving NotebookLM a big update. The AI ​​Notepad will feature a new user interface that allows for clearer distinction between the three windows: Sources, Chat and Studio. Under the hood is now Gemini 2.0, the brand new version of Gemini.

NotebookLM Plus

NotebookLM has been a free tool since its inception, but that’s changing now. The basic version remains free, but Google is adding a paid NotebookLM Plus formula. The Plus function can process up to 300 sources simultaneously (instead of 50) and offers further options for customizing the notebook. You can share your notebook with your colleagues.

The NotebookLM subscription is part of the Gemini Business (19.20 euros per month) and Gemini Enterprise (28.86 euros per month) packages, but will also be available as a standalone product via Google Cloud. At the beginning of next year, Google will make it available via the paid Google One subscription for 21.99 euros per month. Google guarantees that the data remains within the organization and is not used to train AI models.

Talk show

The most notable feature of NotebookLM is that you can create an “audio summary” based on the content you share. Two artificial moderators then talk about the resources in a podcast style. Google is making this feature more interactive, allowing you to “pause” the hosts during the call.

This way, you can steer the conversation so that the moderators don’t deviate from the topic or ask specific questions. As you listen, the Join button will appear. If you click on it, the moderator will “dial in” to the conversation and can ask you questions. This feature is made available to all users as a beta version.

Google launched NotebookLM last summer. The tool is intended as a research assistant that helps you search different types of sources, from PDF files to audio. Unlike ChatGPT, NotebookLM limits itself to the sources you share to limit the risk of hallucinations. So you don’t ask the tool general knowledge questions, but rather specific questions about a document.