Verdict: 7.5/10 (provisional)
Gemini Notebook is the best free place for a beginner to make sense of their own business documents. It doesn't do tasks for you, though. It helps you understand, summarise and present what you give it.
| Criterion | Score |
|---|---|
| Ease for beginners | 9 |
| Value for money | 9 |
| Usefulness for building a business | 6 |
| Reliability | 8 (provisional, not yet tested) |
| Privacy and data handling | 7 |
| Support | 6 |
| Overall (average) | 7.5 |
- Who it's for: anyone researching a business idea, learning a new market or drowning in PDFs, from supplier terms and grant guidance to competitor brochures.
- Who should skip it: people who want an agent to act on their behalf, such as building a site or sending emails. Try Manus, Lovable or Gumloop for that.
- Best thing: answers are grounded in the sources you upload, with references back to them.
- Biggest worry: usage limits now depend on how much computing each request uses, so they're harder to predict. Deleted notebooks can't be recovered.
- Bottom line: Start free today. Most beginners won't need to pay.
What it does, in plain English
You create a "notebook", add sources (documents, links and notes), then ask questions. Gemini Notebook answers from your material rather than the whole internet. It can also turn your sources into podcast-style Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, mind maps, reports, flashcards, quizzes, data tables, infographics and slide decks. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook in July 2026 and says it's the same product, with existing notebooks unchanged.
For a new business, it helps with things like turning your notes into a one-page plan, quizzing yourself on the regulations for your trade, or making a short slide deck from your research.
Pricing
Checked 26 Oct 2026. Google sets UK prices in pounds, so for Google AI Pro we show the UK price, with the US price and its conversion at £0.7492 per US$1 (ECB reference rates, 26 Oct 2026) for comparison.
| Plan | Price | Gemini Notebook limits |
|---|---|---|
| Free (any Google account) | £0 | Standard limits. Google's table lists 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. |
| Google AI Plus | UK price unverified (US $4.99 ≈ £3.74) | 2× standard limits |
| Google AI Pro | £18.99/month in the UK (from third-party UK sources; not confirmed on Google's page today) (US $19.99 ≈ £14.98) | 4× standard limits, 500 notebooks, 300 sources each |
| Google AI Ultra | £79.99/month (confirmed on Google's UK page) | 5× or 20× AI Pro limits |
Since 2 September 2026, limits are "compute-based" and reset every five hours, up to a weekly cap. Google AI plans also bundle Gemini, extra storage and more. What it really costs a beginner: £0 for most people.
Pros and cons
Pros
- The free plan is genuinely useful.
- Answers stick to your sources, which Google says reduces made-up answers.
- Audio Overviews make dense documents easy to take in on a dog walk.
- There's no setup: if you have a Google account, you're in.
Cons
- It's a research assistant, not an agent that takes action.
- Compute-based limits are harder to predict than simple daily counts.
- Deleted notebooks can't be recovered.
- Business-grade guarantees need a paid Workspace plan.
Ease for beginners
It's about as easy as AI gets: upload, ask, read. There's nothing to configure, and Google provides public example notebooks to learn from. Support for free users is mainly the help centre, Discord and Reddit.
Privacy and data handling
- Personal accounts: Google says your content "is not used for training unless you share feedback". If you do send feedback, the full content may be reviewed, so avoid giving feedback on sensitive notebooks.
- Workspace (business) accounts: uploads, queries and responses aren't used to train AI models, even when you give feedback.
- Sharing: Google says Gemini Notebook doesn't share your data with third parties.
- Deletion: there's no recovery option for deleted notebooks.
How to start in 15 minutes
- (1 min) Go to Gemini Notebook (at notebook.google) and sign in with your Google account.
- (4 min) Create a notebook and add three sources about your idea, such as a competitor's website, a government guidance page and your own notes.
- (5 min) Ask: "What are the three biggest risks for my idea, according to these sources?" Click the citations to check them.
- (5 min) Generate an Audio Overview and listen to it while you make a cuppa.
Sources
- Gemini Notebook home page and FAQ: https://notebook.google/ (the old notebooklm.google address redirects here)
- Upgrade Gemini Notebook (plan limits): https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16206866?hl=en
- Manage Gemini Notebook usage limits: https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/17670842
- 9to5Google on compute-based limits: https://9to5google.com/2026/08/28/gemini-notebook-usage-limits/
- Google AI plans (US prices): https://one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans/
- Google AI plans, UK page: https://gemini.google/gb/subscriptions/?hl=en-GB
- Third-party UK price source for Google AI Pro: https://evalu8.co.uk/tools/google-ai-pro/
- Google Workspace affiliate programme (not joined): https://workspace.google.com/affiliate-program/
- Google Cloud affiliate programme (not joined): https://cloud.google.com/affiliate-program
- ECB euro reference rates: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html