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NotebookLM: the starter setup and the real free limits 📓

From @techyai_cj. NotebookLM is the one AI that only reads what you give it. Drop in your PDFs, your notes, your links, and it answers from your stuff only and shows you where every answer came from. Google renamed it Gemini Notebook in 2026, same tool, same link. Here is how I set it up and exactly what the free plan gives you.

Open NotebookLM (free, any Google account) →

Is it free?

yes. these are Google's own numbers, checked 3 September 2026

100 notebooks free plan

One notebook per project is the way to use it. A hundred is more than you will fill.

50 sources in each notebook

PDFs, Google Docs, websites, YouTube links, pasted text, audio. Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200MB.

Podcasts and chat run on a usage meter changed 2 September 2026

It used to be a flat 3 Audio Overviews a day. Since 2 September 2026 Google moved to usage based limits: the meter refills every 5 hours up to a weekly cap, and a short question costs far less than a full podcast. If you hit it, wait five hours or schedule the podcast to generate later.

Paid is Google AI Plus, $4.99 a month

Roughly doubles everything above: 200 notebooks, 100 sources each, twice the usage meter. You do not need it to start. Sources: Google's plan page and the usage limits page.

My starter setup

the order I actually do it in

1. Make one notebook per project, not one giant one. Name it what the project is called.

2. Load the sources first, all of them, before you ask anything. Drag in the PDFs, paste the links, add the Google Docs.

3. Ask it what you already have. My first question in every notebook is: “What have I already covered in these files, and what is missing?”

4. Click the little number on any answer. That is the citation, and it jumps to the exact line in your file it came from. If it cannot cite it, it will tell you, instead of making something up.

5. Generate the Audio Overview last, once the sources are all in. Two hosts talk through your documents. Good for a commute.

The whole point: a normal chatbot pulls from the entire internet. This one only pulls from your files. That is why the answers are useful for your own notes, contracts, lecture slides, and scripts.

I’m a software developer and I post what I actually run.
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