Learning & Knowledge ·
A NotebookLM Alternative for Everything You've Ever Saved, Not One Notebook at a Time
NotebookLM, now Gemini Notebook, works one notebook at a time. How Ask Linko, Recall and Mem compare when you want answers from everything you saved.
By Linko team
Linko wrote this page. We make Linko and aren't affiliated with Google; product names belong to their owners.
First, the name. On July 16, 2026 Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. It is the same standalone product (Google's announcement). Many people still search for NotebookLM, so we use both names here.
Gemini Notebook is very good at one thing: you bring a set of sources, and it helps you understand them. This page is for a different need: you want to ask questions of everything you have saved and written over the years, without building a notebook first.
What Gemini Notebook does well
- You upload PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs or Google Slides, and its answers are grounded in them, with in-line citations (Google's help page).
- It turns sources into other forms: Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, and study tools such as quizzes and flashcards. In September 2026 Google began rolling out interactive learning overviews and more quiz formats (Google, Sept 15, 2026).
- It is free to start: up to 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. Google AI plans raise that to between 100 and 600 sources per notebook (Gemini Notebook plans).
For a paper, a course, a client project or a set of documents you were handed, it is a strong choice.
Where one notebook at a time stops
A notebook is a box you fill on purpose. That is its strength, and also its limit.
- The things you learn do not arrive as research packs. They arrive one at a time: an article on Tuesday, a podcast on a walk, a thought in the shower.
- Each notebook answers from its own sources. What you saved last year in another notebook, or never put in one, is not part of the answer.
- Your own thinking is easy to leave out. The sources are other people's words; what you concluded about them often lives somewhere else.
Ask Linko: your whole library, and your own notes
Linko is a notes app. Everything you save and write goes into one library, and Linko files it under topics as you go. There is no notebook to set up.
- Ask Linko answers from your notes and resources, across all of them. Under each answer, Cited lists the notes and resources it used, and you can open each one.
- It answers from what you wrote, not only from what you saved. "What did I conclude about sleep and focus?" is a question about your notes.
- You can ask about a single passage too: select it in an article or in Key points and choose Ask Linko.
- With Linko for AI tools, ChatGPT, Claude and other AI tools can search the same notes while you chat.
What Linko does not do: it does not turn your library into an audio show or video recap, and it is not built for uploading a stack of documents for a one-off research job. For that, Gemini Notebook fits better.
Two more alternatives
Recall saves articles, videos, podcasts and PDFs and writes summaries. Its paid plans add an automatic knowledge graph, spaced-repetition quizzes and chat with your whole library, with answers that cite the saved items they used (Recall pricing, Recall chat docs). See Linko vs Recall.
Mem now calls itself "your AI chief of staff": it searches notes, meetings and connected sources by meaning and keeps track of tasks and projects (Mem). See Linko vs Mem.
| Gemini Notebook (NotebookLM) | Recall | Mem | Linko | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built around | A notebook of sources you add | Saved articles, videos, podcasts and PDFs, with AI summaries | Notes, meetings and tasks, with an AI agent | Your own notes on what you read, watch and think |
| Asks across | One notebook's sources | One saved item or your whole library (paid plans) | Notes, meetings and connected sources | All your notes and resources |
| Brings things back | Quizzes and flashcards | Quizzes on a spaced-repetition schedule (paid plans) | Heads Up shows related notes as you work | Daily review turns your notes into questions; related notes as you save |
| Free plan | 100 notebooks, 50 sources each | 10 AI summaries a month | 25 messages and 25 new notes a month | Yes, for your first notes and resources (see Pricing) |
| Paid plans from | Google AI plans | $10 a month, billed yearly | $9 a month | Pro · Pricing |
Who should pick which
- A bounded research job with documents you already have → Gemini Notebook
- Summaries of everything you save, a knowledge graph and quizzes → Recall
- An AI assistant over your notes, meetings and to-dos → Mem
- Answers from years of your own notes, with the notes it used, and those notes coming back each day → Linko
Linko: free for your first notes and resources, and Pro when you want more. See pricing.
FAQ
Is NotebookLM the same as Gemini Notebook?
Yes. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026, and kept it a standalone product.
Can I chat with all my notes, not one notebook?
Yes, in tools built around a single library. Ask Linko answers across all your notes and resources; Recall's paid plans can chat with your whole library.
Does Ask Linko show where an answer came from?
Yes. Under each answer, Cited lists the notes and resources it used.
Can ChatGPT or Claude use my Linko notes?
Yes. Connect them once on the Linko for AI tools page, and they can search your notes and save new ones. Both Free and Pro include it.
Try it
Write five notes this week, then ask Linko a question you could only answer from them. How Ask Linko works →