Getting Started with NotebookLM

📚 What NotebookLM Is and How It Works

NotebookLM is designed to help you refine and organize your ideas by grounding responses in your uploaded sources. You can ask questions about documents, instruct the model to perform actions and receive citations pointing directly back to the original text.

Since it only uses your sources, NotebookLM reduces hallucinations and allows you to verify every answer. To use NotebookLM you need a Google account; the tool is available worldwide in 180+ regions and supports more than 80 languages.

Workspace for Education users of any age can access it once their administrator turns on the feature.

🔑 Key Points for Beginners

Upload Sources

NotebookLM supports a wide range of files, including PDFs, Word/Docs/Slides/Sheets, text, web URLs and even audio or YouTube transcripts. Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200 MB, and a notebook can include up to 50 sources.

Create separate notebooks – Each notebook is independent; the model cannot access information across notebooks. Use a notebook per unit, course or policy topic.
Chat with your sources – After uploading, you can ask questions and give instructions. Responses include clickable citations; selecting a citation jumps to the exact place in the source. You can choose which sources are active using checkboxes.
Summarize – Ask NotebookLM to summarize an entire source or particular topics. Use specific questions ("What are the key findings in the Dog Training 101 document?") to get focused summaries.
Mobile access – The NotebookLM mobile app lets you ask questions on the go, listen to audio overviews offline and share content from other apps. (Note: some features are limited in the mobile app.)

🛠 Step-by-Step: Creating a Notebook and Adding Sources

Open NotebookLM: Go to notebooklm.google.com and sign in with your SSD Google account.

Create a notebook: Click Create new notebook in the upper-left corner.

Upload or discover sources: In the pop-up window, select Upload a source. You can upload files from your computer, import Google Docs/Slides/Sheets or paste web URLs; you can also use the Add button to search for sources from the web or your Workspace.

Organize sources: Give your sources clear titles. You can select or deselect sources in the Sources panel to control which ones are used when chatting.

Chat and explore: The Chat panel shows a generated summary of all sources. Ask questions or choose from suggested prompts. NotebookLM returns answers with citations and uses only the active sources.

Create notes: In the Studio panel, click Add note to write or paste your own notes or save a chat response as an uneditable note. Notes help capture insights and can later be converted into sources. You can create up to 1,000 notes per notebook.

🏫 Beginner Tips for Teachers

💡 Use NotebookLM as a Lesson Planning Assistant

Upload reading materials, policy memos or curriculum documents and ask the model to summarize key ideas, identify themes or suggest discussion questions. Save helpful answers as notes so you can reference them later.

🔗 Demonstrate Citations to Students

NotebookLM footnotes every response, teaching learners how to trace information back to primary sources. This is an excellent opportunity to model research skills.

🎯 Start Small

For first-time users, begin with a single chapter or policy document. Experiment with the chat to build confidence before moving on to multiple sources.