Updated October 25, 2026

Is NotebookLM free? Limits on sources, uploads and usage

Yes, Gemini Notebook is free with a Google account. Since September 2, 2026 it measures usage by compute instead of daily counts: your allowance refreshes every 5 hours until you reach a weekly limit. On the free plan a notebook holds up to 50 sources and you can have 100 notebooks. Google AI plans raise all of these, from $4.99 a month.

Gemini Notebook is NotebookLM's new name. These limits apply to both.

Limits by plan

Plan	Price a month (US)	Usage	Sources per notebook	Notebooks
Free	$0	Standard	50	100
Google AI Plus	$4.99	2× standard	100	200
Google AI Pro	$19.99	4× standard	300	500
Google AI Ultra	From $99.99	5× to 20× AI Pro	500 or 600	500

From Google's plans page and help center, checked October 22, 2026. Google says these limits may change. The paid plans aren't sold in every country, and prices differ by country. Where each price comes from, and the student offer: NotebookLM pricing. More numbers: Gemini Notebook statistics.

How many sources can you add to NotebookLM?

50 sources per notebook on the free plan; 100 with Google AI Plus, 300 with Google AI Pro, 500 with Google AI Ultra 5× and 600 with Ultra 20×.
A source is one file, link, pasted text or YouTube video, up to 500,000 words or 200 MB. Google Slides files are limited to 100 slides and Google Sheets to about 100,000 tokens. A YouTube video has no length limit unless its captions pass 500,000 words.
The limit is per notebook, not per account: 100 notebooks of 50 sources is 5,000 sources on the free plan. Sharing a notebook doesn't raise its limit for anyone.
When a notebook is full, the slot count is what matters, not the words. Ten short web pages use ten slots; one 400,000-word PDF uses one. KastorFlow's merged playlist import puts up to 100 videos into one source for the same reason. A playlist as one source

Source types and sizes from Google's help page Add or discover new sources for your notebook, read October 22, 2026.

Limits per feature

What	Personal Google accounts	Work and school accounts (standard tier)
File size per source	500,000 words or 200 MB for an upload, with no page limit; Google Slides up to 100 slides, Google Sheets about 100,000 tokens
Chat questions	Shared allowance	50 a day
Audio and Video Overviews	Shared allowance	3 a day
Reports, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps	Shared allowance	10 a day
Deep Research	Shared allowance	10 a month
Infographics and slide decks	Shared allowance	"Limited"; Google gives no number
Resets	Every 5 hours, up to a weekly limit	Daily caps after 24 hours, monthly caps after 30 days

On a personal account there's no separate count for each feature any more: chats and every Studio output draw on one allowance, and heavier work uses more of it.
Work and school accounts keep fixed caps per feature. Their highest tier allows 5,000 chats, 200 Audio or Video Overviews, 1,000 reports, flashcards, quizzes or mind maps, and 200 Deep Research runs a day.
Google's help doesn't publish a limit on how long a chat question can be.

From Google's help pages Add or discover new sources, Gemini Notebook FAQ, Gemini Notebook for work and school, Learn about Gemini Notebook's plans and Manage your usage limits, all read October 25, 2026.

How usage is counted since September 2, 2026

Usage is measured by compute, not by a fixed number of chats or Audio Overviews. A long chat, a complex question or a heavy Studio generation uses more.
Your allowance refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit.
Studio shows how much a generation will use before you start. When you run out, the chat says when everything is available again.
Before September 2 the free plan counted per day, for example 3 Audio or Video Overviews a day.

From Google's help page Manage your Gemini Notebook usage limits.

When you hit a limit

Wait for the next refresh. It comes every 5 hours until your weekly limit is reached.
On the web, choose Generate later to have a Studio generation run on its own, usually within a couple of hours.
Or upgrade to a Google AI plan for 2× to 80× the free allowance.

Make room in a full notebook

Delete sources you no longer need, several at a time. How to delete sources
Find duplicate sources first. KastorFlow's source tools find them, free.
Add a YouTube playlist as one source instead of one per video (KastorFlow: once a month on Free, 50 a month on Pro). YouTube to NotebookLM

KastorFlow doesn't change Gemini Notebook's limits. Its own plans are separate: KastorFlow pricing.

Delete in bulk, find duplicates and see every notebook in one library. Free to install, no account needed.

Add to Chrome

Questions

Is NotebookLM still free now that it's Gemini Notebook?

Yes. The rename in July 2026 didn't change the free plan. You need only a Google account.

How many sources can you add to NotebookLM?

50 sources per notebook on the free plan, 100 with Google AI Plus, 300 with Google AI Pro and 500 or 600 with Google AI Ultra. Each source can hold up to 500,000 words or 200 MB, so a long document or a whole YouTube playlist merged into one source counts as one. Sharing a notebook doesn't change the limit for anyone you share it with.

What is NotebookLM's file size limit?

200 MB per uploaded file, or 500,000 words per source, whichever comes first. There is no page limit. Google Slides files can have up to 100 slides and Google Sheets about 100,000 tokens.

How many notebooks can I have?

100 on the free plan, 200 with Google AI Plus, and 500 with Google AI Pro or Google AI Ultra.

When do NotebookLM limits reset?

On a personal Google account your allowance refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit. Work and school accounts have daily caps that reset after 24 hours and monthly caps that reset after 30 days. Limits per feature

Does KastorFlow raise Gemini Notebook's limits?

No. Gemini Notebook's limits come from your Google plan. KastorFlow helps you use the room you have: it deletes sources in bulk, finds duplicates, and can add a whole YouTube playlist as one source.