---
title: "How to Use NotebookLM: A Step-by-Step Tutorial for 2026"
description: "How to use NotebookLM step by step: build a notebook, prepare sources, ask cited questions, write better prompts, and study from lecture transcripts."
canonical: "https://transcript.im/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm"
markdown: "https://transcript.im/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm.md"
author: "Leo"
category: "NotebookLM"
datePublished: "2026-10-23T03:20:39.307Z"
dateModified: "2026-10-23T05:28:23.232Z"
---
How to use NotebookLM comes down to five moves: create one notebook per topic, add the sources you trust, ask questions and check each citation, save the answers worth keeping as notes, and turn the notebook into study material in Studio. The tool only answers from what you give it, so the step that decides your results is the first one: preparing good sources. This NotebookLM tutorial walks through every step with the current interface, explains how NotebookLM works under the hood, gives you prompts you can copy, and shows a study workflow for students, including how to turn lecture videos into clean text before they go in.

A naming note first. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026, and its help pages now use the new name. It is the same product with the same notebooks, so this guide keeps the name most people still search for. If you want a verdict on whether the tool is worth your time before you learn it, read our [NotebookLM review](https://transcript.im/blog/notebooklm) first; this article assumes you have decided to try it and want to use NotebookLM well.

## How Does NotebookLM Work?

NotebookLM works by retrieving passages from your sources and writing an answer from them, with numbered citations on each claim. Google's help center describes the order plainly: when a notebook holds many sources, NotebookLM first finds the information most relevant to your question, then builds its response from that information. This pattern is widely known as [retrieval-augmented generation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrieval-augmented_generation), and it explains nearly every tip in this guide on how to use NotebookLM.

Three consequences follow from that design, and they are worth knowing before you click anything:

- **Answers stay inside your sources.** Google says chat responses use data from your sources only. Ask for something your sources do not cover, or for a creative rewrite, and NotebookLM may reply that it can't answer.
- **Retrieval rewards specific questions.** A vague question pulls in vague passages. Naming a source, a term, or a lecture helps NotebookLM find the right text first.
- **Each notebook is an island.** Google notes that NotebookLM can't read across several notebooks at once. Material you want to compare must share one notebook.

The interface has three panels that map onto that flow. **Sources** on the left holds everything you added, with a checkbox beside each item so you can include or exclude it from a question. **Chat**, the middle panel, is where you ask and read cited answers. **Studio** on the right turns the selected sources into formats such as reports, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps and Audio Overviews. Hovering over a citation shows the quoted text; clicking it opens the source at that passage.

## How to Use NotebookLM: The Full NotebookLM Tutorial

This NotebookLM tutorial covers the path from an empty account to a working notebook. Each step below has its own section later on if you need more depth.

![NotebookLM tutorial: the Sources, Chat and Studio panels marked 1, 2 and 3 in the order you use them](/images/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm/notebooklm-tutorial.webp)

The NotebookLM tutorial screen above shows the order you will use the three panels: sources first, chat second, Studio third.

1. **Open NotebookLM and sign in.** Go to [notebook.google.com](https://notebook.google.com/) in a browser and sign in using a personal Google account, or with a work or school account whose admin has turned the tool on. Google requires users of personal accounts to be above the age of consent in a supported country. Notebooks can also be created from the Gemini app, and there is a mobile app that has fewer features.
2. **Create a notebook for one project.** Select Create new notebook. Treat a notebook like a folder for a single course, research question, client or book. Google's guide to [creating a notebook](https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/16206563?hl=en) calls it "a collection of sources for a specific project," which is the right mental model.
3. **Add your sources.** From the pop-up, upload files, pick files from Google Drive, paste links or copied text, or search the web for sources. More on choosing and preparing sources below.
4. **Read the source guide.** Open any source to see an auto-generated summary of it. The Chat panel also shows a generated summary of the whole notebook. Both tell you quickly whether a source imported cleanly.
5. **Ask a specific question.** Type into the chat box, read the answer, and hover over two or three citations to check that the quoted passages say what the answer claims.
6. **Save what you want to keep.** Select Save to note under a good answer. Notes join your sources and can be cited in later answers.
7. **Generate study material in Studio.** Choose a report, flashcards, a quiz, or another format from the Studio panel. Each format has a pencil icon for customizing it before you generate.
8. **Share when it's ready.** Use Share to give classmates or colleagues viewer or editor access.

That is the whole loop. What separates a useful notebook from a frustrating one is what goes in at step 3 and how you ask at step 5.

## Step 1 in Depth: Prepare Your NotebookLM Sources

Your NotebookLM sources set the ceiling on every answer, so when you learn how to use NotebookLM, spend most of your effort here. A source is a copy of a document you import, or an auto-synced version of a Google Drive file. NotebookLM reads only what the source contains, and it reads it as text.

![NotebookLM sources: a PDF, a web URL, a lecture Markdown file and an audio file selected in a notebook using 12 of 50 slots](/images/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm/notebooklm-sources.webp)

According to Google's help page on adding sources, NotebookLM sources can be:

| Source type | What NotebookLM keeps |
| --- | --- |
| PDF, Word (docx), text (txt), Markdown (md), CSV, PowerPoint (pptx), ePub | The text of the file |
| Google Docs, Slides (up to 100 slides), Sheets (up to 100,000 tokens) | The content, re-synced from Drive every few minutes |
| Web URLs | The text of the page only, without images, embedded videos or linked pages; paywalled pages are not supported |
| YouTube URLs of public videos | The caption text only, and only when the video has captions |
| Audio files such as MP3, WAV and M4A | A transcript made at import time |
| Images | The image, though some image types may not work as well |
| Copied text and notes | The pasted text, titled as you choose |

Each source can hold up to 500,000 words or 200 MB for an uploaded file, and the number of sources per notebook depends on your plan. Our guide to [whether NotebookLM is free](https://transcript.im/blog/is-notebooklm-free) covers the per-plan source limits; on the free plan the cap is 50.

Five habits make sources work better:

- **Give every source a clear title.** The title appears on each citation. "Lecture 4 - Supply and Demand" tells you where an answer came from; "transcript (3).txt" does not.
- **Prefer text you have checked.** A clean text file beats a scanned PDF or a page full of navigation menus. If the source is messy, the answers inherit the mess.
- **Keep one topic per notebook.** A notebook built from twelve closely related sources answers better than one with forty loosely related ones.
- **Use the checkboxes.** Unticking sources narrows a question to the documents that matter. Note that unticked sources still count toward the limit.
- **Let NotebookLM label large sets.** Once a notebook has five or more sources, it can group them under automatic labels by topic, which you can rename, delete or rearrange.

If you have no material yet, the search box at the top of the Sources panel can find some. Fast Research pulls in matching pages from the web or files from your Drive. Deep Research, available to users over 18, browses many websites, writes a report, and lets you choose which of its sources to import. Treat discovered sources like any search result: open a few before you build answers on them.

## Turn Lectures and Course Videos Into Text Sources First

Lectures are where most students start, and video is the source type that causes the most trouble. NotebookLM can take a YouTube link, but it keeps only the caption text, rejects videos without captions, may not import uploads younger than 72 hours, and treats every video as one source. Our guide to [NotebookLM YouTube imports](https://transcript.im/blog/notebooklm-youtube) covers each of those errors in detail. For anyone learning how to use NotebookLM for studying, the practical rule is simpler: prepare the lecture as text before it goes into the notebook.

![YouTube lecture transcript: a lecture video turned into timestamped lines and saved as a Markdown file for NotebookLM](/images/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm/youtube-lecture-transcript.webp)

A YouTube lecture transcript you prepare yourself solves the caption problem and gives you timestamps NotebookLM would otherwise drop. Here is how to make one with transcript.im:

1. **Paste the lecture link into the [YouTube transcript](https://transcript.im/) tool.** transcript.im reads the creator's caption track when there is one and transcribes the audio with AI when there is not, so an uncaptioned lecture still comes back as text with a timestamp on every line.
2. **For a whole course, use the playlist link.** The [YouTube playlist transcript](https://transcript.im/youtube-playlist-transcript) page queues every lesson in playlist order and labels each transcript with its video title.
3. **For your own recordings, upload the file.** A class recording saved from a video call or a lecture captured on your phone can be uploaded on the [video to text](https://transcript.im/video-to-text) page, which accepts MP4, MOV, MKV and other common formats.
4. **Fix names and terms.** Search the transcript for the lecturer's technical vocabulary and correct anything misheard. Every citation later carries the spelling you leave here.
5. **Export TXT or Markdown and add it as a source.** Put the lecture title at the top as a heading, and if you merge several lectures into one file, keep one heading per lecture.

A lecture file laid out like this gives NotebookLM clear boundaries and gives you a way back to the video:

```markdown
# Lecture 4 - Supply and Demand
Course: ECON 101, Week 2

[00:00] Today we look at what happens when the price of a good changes.
[12:40] A demand curve slopes downward because buyers substitute cheaper goods.
[25:15] Equilibrium is the price at which quantity demanded equals quantity supplied.
```

When NotebookLM cites line `[12:40]`, you know exactly where to jump in your recording to hear the explanation in full. If the course is taught in a language you are still learning, transcript.im can also translate a transcript while keeping its timestamps, so you can study the translated copy and check the original wording when it matters.

Only transcribe and upload lectures you are allowed to use, such as recordings your course provides to you or public videos you are studying for your own notes, and follow your school's rules on recording.

## Ask Better Questions: NotebookLM Prompts That Work

Good NotebookLM prompts are specific, name their sources, and say what shape the answer should take. Google's own advice points the same way: instead of "Summarize this source," ask "What are the key findings about dog training in the 'Dog Training 101' document?" Mentioning a source's name helps NotebookLM narrow its search when several sources are selected.

![NotebookLM prompts: a chat input with prompt recipe cards for Compare, Quote, Explain and Quiz me](/images/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm/notebooklm-prompts.webp)

These NotebookLM prompts cover the jobs people bring to a notebook most often. Replace the bracketed parts with your own terms.

### To understand material

- "Explain [concept] as it is defined in [source name], then give the example the author uses."
- "List the main ideas of [Lecture 4] in the order they are taught, with one citation for each."
- "Which terms in [source name] would a beginner not know? Define each in one sentence."

### To compare sources

- "Where do [source A] and [source B] disagree about [topic]? Quote each side."
- "Make a table comparing how each lecture defines [term], with the lecture name as the first column."
- "Which sources mention [person or study], and what does each one say about it?"

### To pull out facts

- "Quote every definition given in [Week 3 sources], with its citation."
- "List all dates, figures and named studies in [source name] as a bulleted list."
- "What does [source name] say about [question]? If it says nothing, tell me."

### To study

- "Ask me five questions about [Lecture 6], one at a time, and wait for my answer before you explain."
- "What are the three ideas from this week most likely to be confused with each other? Explain the difference."
- "Turn [Module 2] into a one-page outline with headings and key terms."

A few rules matter more than any single prompt when you use NotebookLM:

- **Ask for quotes when accuracy matters.** "Quote" forces the answer to stay close to the source's wording.
- **Allow "nothing found."** Adding "If the sources don't say, tell me" discourages a stretched answer.
- **Ask for a format.** Tables, numbered lists and outlines are easier to check than paragraphs.
- **Split big questions.** Two focused questions beat one question that covers everything.
- **Stop and redirect.** While an answer is generating, select Stop to revise the prompt or Keep generating to continue.

## Configure the Chat and the Output Language

NotebookLM lets you shape how the chat answers before you type a single prompt. Open the Chat panel, select Configure Chat, and choose a conversational style and a response length. Google lists three styles:

- **Default**, for general research and brainstorming.
- **Learning Guide**, for educational content; Google describes it as helping you grasp new concepts and skills efficiently.
- **Custom**, where you write a style or a role in your own words.

A custom instruction acts like a standing prompt for every question in that notebook. A few that work well:

- "Answer as a patient tutor. Use plain language and end each answer with one question that checks my understanding."
- "Answer like a research assistant. Lead with the direct answer, then list supporting citations."
- "Keep answers under 150 words unless I ask for more detail."

The output language is a separate setting under Settings, then Output Language. It controls the language of generated text, including chat responses, study guides and Audio Overviews, and it defaults to your Google Account language. NotebookLM supports more than 80 languages in a browser, which means you can study an English lecture and ask for explanations in another language, or the reverse.

## Save Answers as Notes and Build on Them

Notes turn a good answer into a reusable part of the notebook. Select Save to note under a chat response, and the note keeps its original format, including tables and clickable citations. You can also write a note from scratch with Create note from the Sources panel, or paste text as a note through Add sources.

The detail that matters: notes now live alongside your uploaded sources. Google says selected notes are used to answer questions and are included when Studio generates outputs, just like any other source, and each note has a checkbox to include or exclude it. That makes notes a way to steer the notebook. A note with your own summary of a confusing lecture, or a list of the exam topics your teacher announced, becomes material the chat can cite.

Two limits are worth knowing. A saved response note becomes editable once its citations are removed. And when you export a note to Google Docs, later edits to that Doc do not flow back into the notebook.

## Use Studio for Study Material

Studio turns the same sources into formats you can review. If you are learning how to use NotebookLM for exams, three Studio tools matter most:

- **Reports.** Choose a study guide, an FAQ, a briefing document, a suggested format, or a custom report. Reports can be exported to Google Docs, and tables to Google Sheets. Data Tables are a separate option for building a table with the rows and columns you describe.
- **Flashcards and quizzes.** Pick a difficulty of easy, medium or hard, and write a prompt to focus the set. While studying, you can ask for an explanation of any card or answer, mark flashcards as got it or missed it, and practice again with only the cards you missed. Flashcards download as a CSV file.
- **Interactive reports.** On the web, a Learning Overview template builds an interactive report that can embed other Studio content.

Every Studio format has a pencil icon for customizing before you generate, and you can open "View custom prompt" later to see what was used. Studio also generates Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, mind maps, slide decks and infographics; our guide to the [NotebookLM Audio Overview](https://transcript.im/blog/notebooklm-audio-overview) and the other Studio formats covers each of those in detail.

## NotebookLM for Students: A Study Workflow That Works

NotebookLM for students works best as a study partner for one course at a time: it organizes the material, tests you on it, and points to the exact passage when you are unsure. Here is how to use NotebookLM for studying one course across a normal semester.

![NotebookLM for students: flashcards with got it and missed it buttons, a quiz, and a calendar counting down to the exam](/images/blog/how-to-use-notebooklm/notebooklm-for-students.webp)

### Set up once

Create one notebook per course. Add the syllabus, the reading list, slides, and your own notes. Set Configure Chat to Learning Guide so answers explain rather than just state.

### Add each week as it happens

After each lecture, turn the recording into a transcript, fix the names and terms, and add it as a source titled with the week and topic. If the course runs to many lectures, merge each module's transcripts into one file with a heading per lecture, so the notebook stays well under its source limit.

### Review in short sessions

After adding a week, ask for an outline of that week's lecture, then ask two or three questions about the parts you found hard. Save the best answers as notes.

### Test yourself, don't just reread

Generate flashcards for the week at medium difficulty, go through them, and then practice again with only the cards you missed. Psychology research on the testing effect is the reason: retrieving an answer from memory strengthens it more than reading the answer again.

### Before the exam, quiz across everything

Select all sources, generate a hard quiz, and ask the chat to explain every question you got wrong with a citation to the lecture where it was taught.

A study plan built on this workflow might look like this:

| When | What to do in NotebookLM | Time |
| --- | --- | --- |
| After each lecture | Add the transcript, ask for an outline, save one note | 15 minutes |
| End of each week | Flashcards on the week's sources, retry missed cards | 20 minutes |
| End of each module | Study guide report for the module, compare it with your notes | 30 minutes |
| Two weeks before the exam | Hard quiz across all sources, explain every wrong answer | 45 minutes |
| Final days | Flashcards on only the cards you keep missing | 20 minutes a day |

A few cautions keep NotebookLM for studying honest. A study guide feels productive but does not replace solving problems yourself. NotebookLM can flatten a nuance or miss an exception, so check citations on anything you will be graded on. And follow your school's academic integrity rules: use the tool to learn the material, not to produce work you hand in as your own. Students with a school account should note that Google makes the tool available to Workspace for Education users of all ages, with data terms that differ from personal accounts.

## Share a Notebook With a Class or Team

Sharing lets a study group question the same sources instead of passing summaries around. Select Share, add people by email, and choose Viewer or Editor. A viewer can read the sources and notes you shared; an editor can add or remove sources and notes and share the notebook further. Personal Gmail accounts can share a notebook with up to 50 people.

You can also set access to "Anyone with a link," which lets anyone signed in to a Google account open the notebook and ask it questions. Chat history stays private to each person. If you want to give a classmate their own version, the Copy option creates a private copy with all Studio content and sources, but without chat history or notes.

## Common Mistakes When Using NotebookLM

If you use NotebookLM and get disappointing results, the cause is usually one of these habits:

- **One giant notebook for everything.** Mixing three courses means every question searches all three. Split by subject.
- **Unchecked auto captions.** A lecture whose caption track misspells every key term gives you citations with the same misspellings. Fix terms before importing.
- **Trusting answers without opening citations.** Citations make answers checkable, not correct. Open them for anything that matters.
- **Asking "summarize everything."** Broad prompts return broad answers. Ask about a named source, a term or a week.
- **Forgetting the source checkboxes.** If an old draft or an unrelated reading is still selected, it can shape the answer.
- **Expecting outside knowledge.** If your sources don't cover a topic, the chat will not fill the gap from the web. Add a source or use Fast Research.

## FAQs

### How do you use NotebookLM?
To use NotebookLM, create a notebook for one topic, add sources such as PDFs, Google Docs, web pages or transcripts, then ask questions in chat and check the numbered citations. Save useful answers as notes, and use Studio to make reports, flashcards and quizzes from the same sources.

### How does NotebookLM work?
NotebookLM works by finding the passages in your sources most relevant to your question and writing an answer from them, citing each claim. It does not answer from the open web, and it can't read across notebooks.

### Is there an official NotebookLM tutorial from Google?
Yes, Google's help center for Gemini Notebook, the new name for NotebookLM, has step-by-step articles on creating notebooks, adding sources, using chat, notes and each Studio format. This NotebookLM tutorial follows those pages and adds prompts and a study workflow.

### What are the best NotebookLM prompts?
The best NotebookLM prompts name a source, ask about something specific, and request a format, for example "Make a table comparing how each lecture defines elasticity." Asking for quotes and allowing "nothing found" makes answers easier to trust.

### Is NotebookLM good for students?
Yes, NotebookLM for students works well for organizing one course, explaining hard ideas from your own materials, and testing yourself with flashcards and quizzes. It works best alongside active practice, not as a replacement for it.

### How do I use NotebookLM with lecture videos?
Yes, but only as text. NotebookLM imports the caption text of public YouTube videos that have captions, and it transcribes uploaded audio files. For lectures without captions, recent uploads or whole courses, transcribe the videos first and upload the transcripts.

### Can NotebookLM search the web for sources?
Yes, the Sources panel search box uses Fast Research to find pages on the web or files in your Drive, and Deep Research, for users over 18, builds a report and a list of sources you can import.

### Can I use NotebookLM on my phone?
Yes, there is a mobile app for Android and iOS, but Google notes that some features are limited there, such as editing notes. The full set of features is available in a browser.

### Does NotebookLM remember other notebooks?
No, each notebook is independent and NotebookLM can't use information from several notebooks at the same time. Put material you want to compare in one notebook.

## The Short Version

To use NotebookLM well, think of it as a reader that only knows what you hand it. Build one notebook per topic, give it clean and clearly titled sources, ask specific questions, and open the citations before you rely on an answer. Save good answers as notes so the notebook gets smarter over the semester, and let Studio turn the material into flashcards and quizzes you actually practice with. For lectures and course videos, the best first step happens outside the notebook: turn the recordings into checked, timestamped text with transcript.im, then give NotebookLM sources it can always read. To pick up where Google's own guides leave off, the [announcement of the Gemini Notebook name](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/products/gemini-notebook/notebooklm-gemini-notebook/) explains how notebooks now connect with the Gemini app.