If you keep research, course notes or project files in Google’s Gemini Notebook, you no longer have to switch apps to use them: in a normal Gemini chat, type @Gemini Notebook and ask Gemini to create a notebook, add a source, list what’s in a notebook, or answer a question from it. Google turned this on for personal accounts and Workspace users on October 23, 2026. For most people outside Europe it’s already switched on, so the only setup is checking one setting. This guide covers where to click, what to type, which plan limits apply, and the gotchas that Google’s announcement leaves out. The biggest one: Google’s own example prompt, “add a copy of this chat to my notebook,” is something the help center says Gemini can’t do through this connection.

Key facts (checked against Google’s official pages on October 26, 2026):

• What launched: Gemini Notebook is now a Connected App in the Gemini app. You can type @Gemini Notebook to create, edit or delete notebooks, add or remove sources, list notebooks and sources, and ask questions grounded in a notebook. Gemini can also pick the app automatically when your prompt is relevant (Google Workspace Updates, Oct 23, 2026).
• Who gets it: all Google Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers and personal Google accounts. It’s on by default everywhere except the European Economic Area, where it’s off by default.
• Where it works: the Gemini web app at gemini.google.com and the Gemini mobile app. The Gemini app on Mac shows notebooks but doesn’t have the Gemini Notebook connected app yet (Gemini Apps Help).
• Limits: a free account can have 100 notebooks with up to 50 sources each. Paid Google AI plans raise that to as many as 500 notebooks and 600 sources per notebook (Gemini Notebook Help).

What Gemini Notebook is, and what changed

Gemini Notebook is Google’s source-grounded research notebook. It used to be called NotebookLM, and the old notebooklm.google.com address now redirects to notebook.google.com. A notebook is a collection of sources for one project: PDFs, Google Docs, websites, YouTube links, audio files, pasted text and more. Inside Gemini Notebook, answers come only from those sources (Gemini Notebook Help). (Our June news piece on the Gemini 3.5 upgrade covers what the notebook app itself can now do.)

Notebooks already showed up in the Gemini app’s sidebar before this update, and the two apps keep them in sync. If you rename a notebook, add sources or change its custom instructions in one app, the change appears in the other (Gemini Notebook Help: Notebooks in Gemini Apps).

What’s new is the Connected App. Gemini Notebook now sits in the same list as Gmail, Google Drive and Photos, so you can manage notebooks by asking in plain language, without opening the sidebar. Google’s announcement gives four kinds of request (Workspace Updates):

You want to…	Google’s example prompt
Create, edit or delete a notebook	”Create a Gemini Notebook about solar farm market trends”
Add, update or delete sources	”Add a copy of this chat to my notebook about Bio 101 course”
List notebooks and their sources	”Show me a list of all the sources in my notebook about US National Parks”
Ask questions using a notebook	”What do my Gemini Notebooks say about butterfly migration?”

There’s a catch with the second row, covered under gotchas below.

Before you start: what you need

Check these first. Most “it’s not working” problems come from one of them.

1. A signed-in Google account. Connected Apps don’t work signed out (Gemini Apps Help: Connected Apps).
2. The right app. Use gemini.google.com in a browser, or the Gemini mobile app. On the Gemini Mac app you can open and chat with notebooks from the sidebar, but @Gemini Notebook isn’t available there yet.
3. Your region. Outside the EEA the connection is on by default. In the EEA you have to connect it yourself (steps below).
4. Work or school accounts: your admin controls access. You get the connected app only if your account sits in a group or organizational unit where both Gemini and Gemini Notebook are set to On. Google says admin access is on by default (Workspace Updates).
5. Patience with rollout. Google’s Workspace post says it’s “available now,” but the Gemini help page still says “We’re gradually making this feature available, so it might not be available to you just yet.”

You don’t need a paid plan. Free accounts get the standard limits (see the limits table).

Step 1: Check that Gemini Notebook is connected

On the web:

1. Go to gemini.google.com and sign in.
2. In the sidebar, click Customize. If you don’t see it, click More first.
3. At the top, click Connectors. This is your Connected Apps page, which Google’s announcement calls Settings > Connected Apps.
4. Find Gemini Notebook. If it isn’t connected, click Add and follow the prompts. To turn it off later, click More options > Disconnect (Gemini Apps Help).

Click the app’s entry to open its details page. Google lists the supported and unsupported actions and some example prompts there, which is the quickest way to see what your account allows.

The shortcut (works in the EEA too): just ask. In any chat, type a prompt that includes @Gemini Notebook, for example “@Gemini Notebook create a notebook called Kitchen renovation.” If the app isn’t connected, Gemini offers to connect it; follow the on-screen instructions (Gemini Apps Help). Google’s help page says you must include @Gemini Notebook for this connect prompt to appear.

Step 2: Create a notebook

You can do this two ways. Both end up in the same place.

Option A: ask in chat. Type @ in the message box, pick Gemini Notebook, and describe what you want:

@Gemini Notebook Create a notebook called “Japan trip, April” for planning my itinerary.

Option B: use the sidebar (Gemini Apps Help):

1. On gemini.google.com (or the Mac app), click Open sidebar.
2. Under Notebooks, click New notebook.
3. Name the notebook. A clear name helps later, when you ask Gemini to find it by topic.
4. Type a first prompt. To attach files right away, click Add sources.

The sidebar also has two special notebook types if you leave Keep Activity on. Study and learn builds a study notebook with diagnostic quizzes, short lessons and progress tracking. Business notebooks are for people who’ve connected a Google Business Profile. Study notebooks currently work on gemini.google.com but not in the Mac app, and you can’t change a study notebook’s goal once it’s set. Start a new one instead.

Step 3: Add sources

In the Gemini app, a notebook can take (Gemini Apps Help):

• files from your device: PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, images, audio, text files and .md files
• files from Google Drive
• websites and URLs
• copied text

Gemini Notebook itself takes even more: Google Slides (up to 100 slides), Google Sheets (currently up to 100k tokens), Word, PowerPoint, CSV, ePub, public YouTube videos and eligible Play Books ebooks. Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200 MB (Gemini Notebook Help: sources). Play Books ebooks only work in Gemini Notebook, not in the Gemini app.

To add a source through the connected app, name the notebook and the source:

@Gemini Notebook Add this page as a source in my “Japan trip, April” notebook: [paste the link]

Then check it worked:

@Gemini Notebook List all the sources in my “Japan trip, April” notebook.

Two rules from Google’s help pages to keep in mind:

• A notebook can’t use another notebook as a source. If you want to combine two projects, add the original files to one notebook instead.
• Inside Gemini Notebook, each notebook stands alone. Gemini Notebook “can’t access information across multiple notebooks at the same time” (Gemini Notebook Help). Google’s announcement does show Gemini answering “What do my Gemini Notebooks say about butterfly migration?”, which suggests the Gemini side can look across notebooks. If you get a thin answer, name the notebook explicitly.

Step 4: Give the notebook instructions

Each notebook has one set of custom instructions, shared by both apps. On the web:

1. Open the sidebar. Under Notebooks, click All notebooks.
2. Click the notebook.
3. At the top, click More > Notebook settings.
4. Add your instructions, then click Save.

In the Mac app, right-click the notebook and choose Settings instead.

Useful instructions are short and specific, for example:

• “Answer in bullet points. Always say which source a fact came from.”
• “I’m a beginner. Explain jargon the first time it appears.”
• “When sources disagree, show both views instead of picking one.”

Because the instructions sync, they apply whether you’re chatting in Gemini or in Gemini Notebook (Gemini Notebook Help).

Step 5: Ask questions, the right way

You can chat with a notebook from its page in the sidebar, or call it from any chat with @Gemini Notebook. The most important difference to understand is grounding (Gemini Notebook Help):

• In Gemini Notebook, answers are grounded only in your notebook’s sources.
• In Gemini, answers are grounded in your sources but may also include web search and other tools.

That makes Gemini better for “use my notes, then fill the gaps” questions, and Gemini Notebook better when you need to know that every claim came from your own files. If you’re in Gemini and want a strict answer, say so:

@Gemini Notebook Using only the sources in my “Bio 101” notebook, summarize what they say about mitosis. Don’t use the web. If the sources don’t cover something, say so.

A few prompt patterns that suit the connected app (our suggestions, built on the actions Google lists):

Goal	What to type
Find a forgotten notebook	”@Gemini Notebook Which of my notebooks mention invoices?”
Quick audit	”@Gemini Notebook List my notebooks and how many sources each has.”
Clean up	”@Gemini Notebook Delete the source called ‘draft v1’ from my ‘Grant proposal’ notebook.”
Start a project from a chat	”@Gemini Notebook Create a notebook called ‘Laptop shopping’ and add these three review links: …”
Ask across work	”@Gemini Notebook What do my notebooks say about our Q3 budget assumptions?”

Be precise with delete requests. Google warns that deleting a notebook in Gemini also deletes the sources and chats you added to it, so name the exact notebook or source.

Gotchas Google doesn’t put in the announcement

1. “Add a copy of this chat to my notebook” may not work. It’s one of Google’s own example prompts, but the Gemini help center says: “Even with Keep Activity on, Gemini cannot add chats to notebooks using the Gemini Notebook connected app” (Gemini Apps Help). The reliable way is manual. Open the sidebar, find the chat, click More > Add to notebook, and pick the notebook. (In the Mac app, right-click the chat.) If you really want the chat’s content as a source, copy the useful parts and ask Gemini to add them as pasted text.

2. Keep Activity changes what notebooks can do. The connected app is one of the few that still works with Keep Activity off. Google’s activity help lists only Device assistance, Gemini Notebook, Messages, Phone and WhatsApp as available in that case (Gemini Apps Help: activity). But with Keep Activity off, notebooks lose a lot:

• new chats aren’t auto-saved into the notebook
• notebook memory is off, so Gemini won’t use past notebook chats when it answers
• you can’t add existing chats from the sidebar
• you can’t add Google Drive files as sources
• study and business notebooks aren’t available

You can check the setting at gemini.google.com under Settings & help > Activity.

3. Shared notebooks are invisible in Gemini. Any notebook that’s been shared, even one you own, doesn’t appear in the Gemini app sidebar. Gemini can still link to it in an answer, and the link opens in Gemini Notebook. Also, a notebook that contains Gemini chats is private and can’t be shared (Gemini Notebook Help). If you plan to share a notebook with classmates or colleagues, don’t add your Gemini chats to it.

4. No Audio Overviews, slides or infographics from the Gemini side. Gemini can’t generate anything from the Gemini Notebook Studio panel. That includes Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, infographics and slide decks. For those, open the notebook in Gemini Notebook.

5. Deleting behaves differently in each app. The Gemini help page warns that if you delete a notebook in Gemini, the sources and chats you added to it are deleted too. The Gemini Notebook help page says that deleting a notebook in Gemini Notebook removes the notebook and its sources, but the Gemini conversations go back to your main Gemini chat list. If you care about the chats, delete from Gemini Notebook, or copy what you need first.

6. Turning off Keep Activity doesn’t erase notebook data. Google notes that turning off Keep Activity or deleting Gemini Apps activity “does not delete data in Gemini Notebook.” Delete sources or notebooks directly if you want them gone.

Plans and limits

Gemini Notebook limits depend on your Google AI plan. For personal accounts, Google’s plan page lists (Gemini Notebook Help: plans):

Plan	Notebooks	Sources per notebook
Standard (free)	100	50
Google AI Plus	200	100
Google AI Pro	500	300
Google AI Ultra (20 TB plan)	500	500
Google AI Ultra (30 TB plan)	500	600

That’s where the Gemini help page’s “up to 600 sources” comes from. Sharing a notebook doesn’t change any collaborator’s source limit.

Chat and feature use is compute-based. Google says the limits factor in “the complexity of your prompt, the models and features you use, the length of your chat.” If you hit the limit, quota “refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit.” Compared with standard limits, AI Plus gets 2×, AI Pro 4×, and AI Ultra 5× or 20× the AI Pro level depending on the subscription. To check where you stand, open Gemini Notebook and go to Settings > Usage (Gemini Notebook Help: usage limits). Google says these limits may change.

Work and school accounts follow a separate table based on your Workspace edition. For example, standard access gets 50 chats a day and 3 Audio Overviews a day, and the highest tier gets 5,000 chats and 200 Audio Overviews a day (Google Workspace Admin Help). Ask your admin which tier you’re on.

Privacy: what’s stored where

Two sets of rules apply, and it helps to keep them apart (Gemini Notebook Help):

• Files you add to notebooks and chats inside Gemini Notebook “will not be used directly to train our foundational generative AI models, unless you provide feedback.”
• Chats with your notebook in the Gemini app are saved according to your Keep Activity setting and handled under the Gemini Apps Privacy Hub. Google’s Connected Apps help says that Gemini Apps activity “is used to improve Google services for everyone, including by training generative AI models, if your Keep Activity setting is on” (Gemini Apps Help).

In plain terms, sensitive material is safer if you query it inside Gemini Notebook than through a Gemini chat with Keep Activity on. Workspace and Workspace for Education accounts get stronger terms. Google says their Gemini Notebook uploads, queries and responses aren’t reviewed by humans or used to train AI models (Gemini Notebook Help: plans).

If you’ve been reviewing what Gemini can see across your Google account, our guide to switching off Personal Intelligence for Gmail and Photos covers the other Connected Apps worth checking on the same Connectors page.

Troubleshooting

“@Gemini Notebook” doesn’t show up when I type @. Check that you’re on gemini.google.com or the Gemini mobile app, not the Mac app. Then check Customize > Connectors. In the EEA, connect it manually there or with an @Gemini Notebook prompt. On a work account, ask your admin to confirm that both Gemini and Gemini Notebook are on for your group. If all of that checks out, you may simply not have the rollout yet.

Connected Apps are missing entirely on the web or iPhone. Google says that with Keep Activity off, Connected Apps aren’t available on gemini.google.com or iOS, apart from the short list above, which includes Gemini Notebook. If Gemini Notebook is the only app you see, that’s expected.

My notebook isn’t in the Gemini sidebar. It’s probably shared. Shared notebooks don’t appear in Gemini. Open it in Gemini Notebook, or ask Gemini for a link to it.

I renamed a notebook or added a source, but the other app doesn’t show it. Google says changes sync both ways. “If you do not see your updates right away, try refreshing.”

Gemini says it added my chat, but nothing changed. Use More > Add to notebook from the sidebar. Google says the connected app can’t add chats (see gotcha 1).

I can’t add a Google Drive file. Drive sources need Keep Activity on in the Gemini app. As an alternative, open the notebook in Gemini Notebook and add the file there.

“Limit reached.” Gemini Notebook shows messages like “You’re almost at your AI usage limit” or “Limit reached. All features are available after 3:00 PM.” Quota refreshes every 5 hours until the weekly cap. Check Settings > Usage in Gemini Notebook.

I disconnected Gemini Notebook but notebooks still show on my phone. Google lists this exact case under “Fix a problem” on its notebooks help page. Check that section for Google’s current fix, and confirm the status under Connectors.

FAQ

Is this free? Yes. Free personal accounts get the standard limits of 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. Paid Google AI plans raise those limits.

Do I still need the separate Gemini Notebook app? For everyday questions and organizing, no. You still need it for Studio outputs (Audio and Video Overviews, slide decks, infographics, flashcards, reports), for Play Books sources, for sharing, and for answers grounded strictly in your sources.

Does Gemini search the web when I ask about my notebook? It can. In Gemini, responses are grounded in your sources “but may also include web search and other tools.” Tell it to use only the notebook if that matters.

Does it work on my phone? Yes, in the Gemini mobile app. Google lists the web app and the mobile app as the two places the connected app works today.

Is it on for my company? By default, yes, if your admin has both Gemini and Gemini Notebook turned on for you. Google says it’s available now on both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains.

Why does my notebook have a different name than NotebookLM? NotebookLM is now called Gemini Notebook. Google’s help pages use the new name, and notebooklm.google.com redirects to notebook.google.com.

Bottom line

If you already use Gemini Notebook, spend two minutes on this. Open Customize > Connectors on gemini.google.com and confirm Gemini Notebook is connected. Give your main notebooks clear names and short custom instructions. Then use @Gemini Notebook for quick lookups and housekeeping. Keep three things in mind: add chats from the sidebar, not by asking; keep notebooks you plan to share free of Gemini chats; and do Audio Overviews and source-only answers in Gemini Notebook itself. For more no-code AI guides, see the 7minai homepage, or read how to use Gemini 3.6 Flash to see which model is behind your Gemini chats.