Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)

Gemini Notebook is Google's research tool that answers only from the sources you give it, with a citation on every claim. Until July 16, 2026 it was called NotebookLM; Google says only the name changed. The old address, notebooklm.google.com, now forwards to notebook.google.com.

For shluchim its main job is Torah: the group's best-known notebook holds the Rebbe's sichos, maamarim and igros, and members use it to find where the Rebbe said something.

What it costs and how much it holds (checked October 2026)

It is free with a Google account. Paid Google AI plans raise the limits (Google's plan page):

Plan	Notebooks	Sources per notebook
Free	100	50
Google AI Plus	200	100
Google AI Pro	500	300
Google AI Ultra	500	500 to 600

Each source can be up to 500,000 words or a 200 MB file. Google says these limits can change and announced changes from September 2, 2026, so check the page if you plan a large notebook. Chabad Houses on Google Workspace for Nonprofits get Gemini Notebook at no cost; see Gemini.

What it makes

• Answers with citations. Click a citation to see the passage it came from.
• Audio Overview. A two-host, podcast-style discussion of your sources. You can ask for it longer, shorter or focused, and use "Interrupt" to ask the hosts a question.
• Video Overview. The same idea with pictures. Since September 2026 there are short (about 60-second) versions too. A member's tip: give it your own copy in the prompt, or it defaults to a summary of the sources.
• Slides, quizzes, flashcards and reports.
• Code (new, July 2026). Each notebook now has its own cloud computer that can run code, for AI Ultra first and rolling out to Pro.

Notebooks now also open inside the Gemini app and stay in sync both ways.

The Rebbe's Torah notebooks

From early 2026 members built and shared notebooks of the Rebbe's Torah: Likkutei Sichos, maamarim, igros, reshimos and hisvaaduyos. The main one answers only from those texts and gives citations. Its link is pinned in the group's description; it opens only for someone signed in to a Google account, which is why it is not linked here.

What members found:

• It finds real sources. In February 2026 a member checked two surprising claims it made and found both were accurate to real sichos.
• Answers are short and the sources are Hebrew. Fine for a shliach; harder for a mekurav reading on their own.
• It holds back. A shliach said the notebook "limits my output a lot" and he had to "twist its arm" with a fixed answer format (May 2026).
• It still misses things. In October 2026 the group admin said AI "will often miss things in NotebookLM" because large PDFs are heavy and not prepared for search, and compared it with Daiah, whose library is plain text. Members split on which works better.
• It adds its own lessons. In July 2026 a member asked for an Audio Overview of a Yiddish Likkutei Sichos PDF. The summary was good, but the hosts added a "modern takeaway" about AI that the sicha does not say, and that was not even about the parsha.

Always open the cited passage before you quote the Rebbe. See AI and Torah Accuracy and Chassidus Copyright and Access.

Other community notebooks: Kinus AI sessions, a set of halachic Pesach guides, Chabad stories, and the group's own chat history. Note that uploading a group chat and sharing the notebook shares everyone's messages.

Getting more than ten sources

Members found that a big notebook (250 sefarim) pulls only 10 to 12 sources per answer. The fix a member posted in March 2026: ask for enough that a short answer cannot cover it.

"Structure the prompt so that the minimal viable response will include the level of variety that you're looking for. I just searched for 100 insights into the yomtov of pesach and it provided from 109 different sources."

Ask for 10 insights and you get 10; ask for 100 and it has to reach further. Several smaller notebooks also beat one giant one, and clearing the chat history gives a clean start.

A newer tip (October 14, 2026, one member, untested by others): open the Gemini app, choose Gemini 4 Argon with high thinking, and attach your notebook to the chat.

Other uses

• Shiur prep from Hebrew sichos. See Shiur Prep and the Shiur Prep guide.
• Voice notes. Share a long WhatsApp voice note to the notebook, get a transcript, then ask it to make it coherent without changing the content.
• Phone calls. A member records Android calls with the built-in recorder and uploads them: "not the greatest but it usually does the job."
• Cataloging shiurim. A free way to title and sort a backlog of recorded classes.
• Book to podcast. Upload a book and generate an Audio Overview.

What to watch out for

• Hebrew in videos. Narration is fine, but on-screen Hebrew in Video Overviews comes out garbled (March 2026). See Hebrew in AI images.
• Slide decks. Members found them hard to edit and branded with a logo (January and April 2026). Gemini's own decks export to Google Slides more cleanly.
• Research reports. A member said it cannot match Claude or Perplexity for a broad research report, because it stays inside your sources. That is the point of the tool.
• Sharing. People you share a notebook with cannot see each other's chats, and what they generate is private to them (member observation, August 2026).

Related

• Daiah, the text-only Chassidus search tool members compare it with.
• Gemini
• Shiur Prep
• AI and Torah Accuracy
• maamorim.app and Dach.dev
• Transcription
• Kinus AI Day
• Toolbox