# How to Use Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) in the Gemini App
> How to use NotebookLM in Gemini: Gemini Notebook is a connected app inside Gemini. Type @Gemini Notebook to ask notebooks, create them and add sources.
By Juli · Published Oct 26, 2026 · https://www.kortex-notebooklm.com/blog/gemini-notebook-in-gemini-app
Where is NotebookLM in Gemini? It's one @ away. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is a Connected App in Gemini. Type @Gemini Notebook in any Gemini chat to ask your notebooks a question, start a notebook, add sources or list what a notebook holds ([Google Workspace Updates](https://workspaceupdates.googleblog.com/2026/10/take-actions-on-your-notebooks-from-Gemini-Notebook-directly-in-the-Gemini-app.html), 2026). It's on by default almost everywhere, with one big exception: the European Economic Area. Here's how to use Gemini Notebook in the Gemini app, how to switch it on or off, what it can't do, and how to get the same thing in Claude or ChatGPT.
People search for it in several ways. When we pulled Google autocomplete on October 26, 2026, "notebooklm in gemini" completed to "app", "chat" and "pro", and "how to use notebooklm in gemini" sat next to "how to access notebooklm in gemini". "Where is notebooklm in gemini" came up as its own search. This site's Search Console shows the same confusion from another side, with searches like "what is a notebook in gemini" and "gemini chat vs notebook" in the four weeks to October 25.
> **Key Takeaways**
> - Gemini Notebook is a Connected App inside Gemini: type @Gemini Notebook in a chat (Google Workspace Updates, 2026).
> - It creates, edits and deletes notebooks, adds or deletes sources, lists them and answers from them.
> - It's on by default outside the European Economic Area. Inside it, you connect it yourself.
> - Studio outputs such as Audio Overviews live only in Gemini Notebook itself.
## Where is NotebookLM in Gemini?
In two places. The first is the **Notebooks** section of the Gemini sidebar. Notebooks you create in Gemini Notebook show up there automatically, and renames, sources and custom instructions sync both ways ([Gemini Notebook Help](https://support.google.com/gemininotebook/answer/17003757?hl=en), 2026). The second is the connected app. The **Gemini Notebook connected app** is a tool Gemini can call from any chat, so you can work with your notebooks without opening one first. Think of the sidebar as the filing cabinet, and the connected app as the colleague you ask to fetch something from it.
**Connected Apps** are Google's name for the services Gemini can use on your behalf, such as Google Workspace, YouTube and Google Maps. You pick one by typing @ in the prompt box and selecting it ([Gemini Apps Help](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13695044?hl=en), 2026). Gemini Notebook itself stays a separate app, at notebook.google.com and in its own mobile app. If the names blur together, our guide to [Notebooks in Gemini vs Gemini Notebook](/blog/gemini-notebook-vs-notebooks-in-gemini) sorts out notebooks, Gems and plain chats. This post is about the connected app.
## What can the Gemini Notebook connected app do?
It manages your notebooks and answers from them, all in plain words. Google's Workspace Updates post lists four kinds of action (Google Workspace Updates, 2026):
- Create, edit or delete a notebook.
- Add, update or delete sources in a notebook.
- List notebooks and their sources.
- Answer questions using context from your notebooks.
Google's own example prompts show the range. One says "Create a Gemini Notebook about solar farm market trends". Another asks "What do my Gemini Notebooks say about butterfly migration?". 9to5Google summed it up as a way to "manage and query notebooks directly within your chats using natural language" ([9to5Google](https://9to5google.com/2026/10/23/gemini-notebook-connected-app/), 2026). As for sources, Google's help center lists files from your device (PDFs, documents, spreadsheets, images, audio, text and .md files), plus Google Drive files, websites and copied text ([Gemini Apps Help](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16972047?hl=en), 2026).
One difference matters more than it looks. In Gemini Notebook, Google says, "Responses are grounded exclusively in your notebook sources." In the Gemini app, by contrast, responses are grounded in your notebook sources "but may also include web search and other tools" (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). So a notebook answer inside Gemini can mix in the web. That's handy when you're exploring. It's less handy when you need to know which sentence came from which PDF.
## How do you turn on Gemini Notebook in the Gemini app?
Outside the European Economic Area, you probably don't have to. It's on by default for users globally, except in the EEA, where it starts off (Google Workspace Updates, 2026). There's no staged access, so every eligible account gets it ([Android Authority](https://www.androidauthority.com/gemini-notebook-connected-app-3727634/), 2026). To use it:
1. Open gemini.google.com, or the Gemini app on Android or iPhone, signed in with the Google account that owns your notebooks.
2. In the prompt box, type **@** and pick **Gemini Notebook**.
3. Ask for what you want, for example "list my notebooks".
If it isn't connected yet, Gemini offers to connect it, and you follow the steps on screen (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). To connect or disconnect it by hand, Google's help center gives this path: **Menu > Customize > Connectors**, then **Add** to connect, or **More options > Disconnect** to remove it (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). However, Google's Workspace Updates post calls the same place **Settings > Connected Apps**. The two pages use different names, so if you can't find one, look for the other. Disconnected, but still seeing notebooks in the mobile sidebar? Google's fix is to update the app.
### Do you need Keep Activity on?
For the connected app, yes. Google's Connected Apps page says that with Keep Activity off, Connected Apps aren't available on gemini.google.com or iOS devices, and on Android only a handful of phone apps remain (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). Notebooks in the sidebar still work without it, with gaps. For example, Gemini can't auto-save new chats in a notebook, can't use notebook memory, and can't add Google Drive files as sources (Gemini Apps Help, 2026).
### Who can use it?
Google's pages agree on most of this, but not all of it.
| | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Accounts | Personal Google Accounts, aged 18 or over, in Google's Connected Apps table. Google's Workspace Updates post also names Workspace customers and Workspace Individual subscribers. |
| Work and school | On by default, but only where an admin has both the Gemini app and Gemini Notebook set to On. |
| Apps | Gemini on the web and the Gemini mobile app. The table also lists the Gemini app for Windows. Not the Mac app. |
| Regions | Countries where both Gemini Apps and Gemini Notebook are supported. Off by default in the EEA. |
| Languages | Every language the Gemini web app supports. |
Sources: [Gemini Apps Help](https://support.google.com/gemini/table/17434654), 2026; Google Workspace Updates, 2026; Gemini Apps Help, 2026.
The gap is work accounts. The Workspace Updates post says the connected app is available to all Workspace customers, Workspace Individual subscribers and personal accounts. The availability table, on the other hand, says "Personal Google Account only" (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). Google's [work and school Connected Apps page](https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/14959807?hl=en) doesn't mention Gemini Notebook either. On a work account, therefore, just try @Gemini Notebook. If it doesn't appear, ask your admin, and see our [Gemini Notebook troubleshooting guide](/blog/gemini-notebook-not-working) for the usual account mix-ups.
## How do you use @Gemini Notebook? Prompts that work
Name the job, then name the notebook. Google's help says "You must add @Gemini Notebook to your prompt" for notebook actions (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). The Workspace Updates post, meanwhile, says Gemini can also pick the app by itself when a prompt fits. Typing it takes a second and removes the guesswork, so type it. Here are five everyday jobs, written the way Google's own examples are.
### Ask what your notebooks say
```
@Gemini Notebook What does my "Q3 customer interviews" notebook say about onboarding problems? Tell me which sources you used.
```
Asking which sources it used is your quick check on the web-search point above. If an answer leans on something that isn't in the notebook, ask the same question in Gemini Notebook, where answers come only from your sources, with inline citations.
### Start a notebook from a chat topic
```
@Gemini Notebook Create a notebook called "Solar farm market 2026" and add these three links as sources: [link 1] [link 2] [link 3]
```
### Add sources to a notebook you already have
```
@Gemini Notebook Add the "Week 6 lecture slides" file from my Drive to my Bio 101 notebook.
```
Drive files need Keep Activity on. Links and copied text work too.
### Check what a notebook holds
```
@Gemini Notebook List all the sources in my notebook about US National Parks.
```
### Tidy up, carefully
Renames, edits and deletes all work from chat, and deletes are real. Google says deleting a notebook "removes the notebook and its sources" (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). So list first, then delete one notebook at a time:
```
@Gemini Notebook List my notebooks with "draft" in the name. Don't change or delete anything yet.
```
### What about saving this chat to a notebook?
Here Google's two pages disagree. The Workspace Updates post's example prompt is "Add a copy of this chat to my notebook about Bio 101 course". The help center, however, says "Even with Keep Activity on, Gemini cannot add chats to notebooks using the Gemini Notebook connected app" (Gemini Apps Help, 2026). The documented route goes through the sidebar. On the web, open the sidebar, select **More** next to the chat, choose **Add to notebook** and pick the notebook. That route needs Keep Activity on as well.
## How does Gemini find the right notebook when you have dozens?
Mostly by the name you give it. Every Google example names a notebook by its topic, like "my notebook about Bio 101 course", so Gemini has to match your words to a notebook title. That's easy with eight notebooks. With 80, however, it's a guessing game, especially when three of them are called "Research" and one is still "Untitled notebook".
Big libraries are common among people who lean on notebooks. When we analyzed the Kortex MCP waitlist survey (776 respondents, Sep-Oct 2026), 327 respondents, or 42%, said they kept more than 50 notebooks, and 86 kept more than 200. Tidying the library was also the second most requested job, asked for by 121 of the 776. One respondent described the search problem exactly: "Using Ctrl+F, but notebook names change unpredictably, forcing me to review hundreds of them one by one."
Respondents by number of notebooks, out of 776 (22 didn't say). The 327 with more than 50 notebooks are in bold. Source: Kortex MCP waitlist survey, Sep 19 to Oct 1, 2026.
So the cheapest upgrade to the connected app isn't a better prompt. It's better names. A few habits help Gemini pick correctly:
- **Give each notebook one clear, unique name**, such as "Bio 101 lectures, fall 2026" instead of "Bio".
- **List before you act.** Ask @Gemini Notebook to list notebooks matching a word, then point at the exact one.
- **Merge near-duplicates.** Two half-full notebooks on one topic split your sources, and your answers with them.
To be clear, Gemini can't see Kortex tags or collections. It only sees your notebooks. What Kortex adds is the view you need to clean them up. Specifically, you get one table of every notebook with its source count, tags and collections, one search box across notebooks, sources and notes, and, on Pro, compare and merge for the duplicates (Kortex features, 2026). Our system for [organizing 50+ Gemini notebooks](/blog/organize-notebooklm-notebooks) walks through naming, tagging and archiving.
See every notebook before Gemini has to guess
Kortex lists your whole library in one table, with source counts, tags and collections, so the vague names and duplicates that trip up @Gemini Notebook stand out. Free on Chrome.
## What can't the Gemini Notebook connected app do?
Quite a lot of the things that make Gemini Notebook worth opening. Here's what's missing, going by Google's help pages:
- **No Studio outputs.** Google says "Gemini will not have the ability to generate items from the Gemini Notebook Studio panel". Audio and Video Overviews, Infographics and Slide Decks are only available in Gemini Notebook (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026).
- **No shared notebooks in the list.** Shared notebooks aren't listed in Gemini, even ones you own. Gemini can link to them, though, and the link opens Gemini Notebook (Gemini Apps Help, 2026).
- **No Mac app.** You can use notebooks in the Gemini app on Mac, but the connected app isn't there.
- **No notebooks inside notebooks.** A notebook can't use another notebook as a source.
- **No source-only answers.** As above, Gemini may add web search to a notebook answer.
- **No use outside Gemini.** Claude, ChatGPT and your code editor get nothing from it.
That first gap has a workaround outside Google's app. Kortex MCP can start Audio Overviews, slide decks and quizzes from a chat, as our guide to [Gemini Notebook Studio from Claude or ChatGPT](/blog/gemini-notebook-studio-from-chat) shows. To see how Claude Duet, ChatGPT dots and other always-on agents reach your notebooks, read [always-on AI agents compared](/blog/always-on-ai-agents-compared).
## Gemini app or Gemini Notebook: which should you open?
Open Gemini for quick work across notebooks, and Gemini Notebook for anything you'll cite. The accuracy gap is real. In a 2025 study on a 300-document corpus, NotebookLM hallucinated in 13% of outputs, versus about 40% for Gemini and ChatGPT ([Hagar, Agustianto & Diakopoulos](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.25498), 2025). The test used 2025 versions of both apps, so treat the numbers as a snapshot. The design difference behind them holds, though: one answers only from your sources, the other can reach further.
| If you want to... | Open |
|---|---|
| Ask a quick question across your notebooks | Gemini, with @Gemini Notebook |
| File links or Drive files into a notebook mid-chat | Gemini, with @Gemini Notebook |
| Get answers only from your sources, cited inline | Gemini Notebook |
| Make an Audio Overview, Video Overview or Slide Deck | Gemini Notebook |
| Share a notebook with a classmate or client | Gemini Notebook |
Our full [Gemini Notebook vs Gemini comparison](/blog/gemini-notebook-vs-gemini) covers files, limits and Deep Research.
## Can Claude and ChatGPT use your notebooks the same way?
Not through Google. The connected app lives inside Gemini, and Google offers no public consumer API for Gemini Notebook that other assistants could call. That's the gap we built Kortex MCP to fill. **Kortex MCP** is a bridge between your AI client and your own Chrome: Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex CLI, Antigravity and other MCP clients call one URL, and each call runs through the Kortex extension in your own Chrome. The extension then asks Gemini Notebook with the Google session you're already signed into ([Kortex MCP docs](/docs/mcp-server), 2026). It's included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime.
Among people who asked for their notebooks inside an assistant, Gemini isn't the usual pick. In the same waitlist survey, Gemini was the third most named assistant, with 61 mentions, behind Claude (126) and ChatGPT (69). In other words, Google's door opens for one assistant, while the two most named ones still need a bridge.
| | Gemini Notebook connected app | Kortex MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | Gemini on the web and mobile | Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI, Antigravity and more |
| How you call it | Type @Gemini Notebook | Ask in plain words; the client calls Kortex tools |
| Answers | Notebook context, may add web search | Gemini Notebook's own answer and citations |
| Picks notebooks by | The name or topic you mention | Id, name, Kortex tag, collection or library search |
| Studio outputs | No; open Gemini Notebook | Audio Overviews, slides, quizzes and more |
| Needs | Personal account, 18+ (Google's table), Keep Activity on | Kortex Pro or Lifetime, Chrome open with Kortex signed in |
Here's where Kortex tags finally pay off. The `ask_library` tool asks the same question across up to three notebooks, chosen by id, Kortex tag, collection or library search, and returns each answer separately with its own citations (Kortex MCP docs, 2026). As a result, a prompt like this works as written:
```
Ask my notebooks tagged "competitors" how each vendor prices its team plan. Show each notebook's answer separately with its citations.
```
The bridge runs the other way, too. Your assistant reads what it can reach, such as Gmail through its own connector, and Kortex MCP carries it into a notebook. Kortex itself never opens your inbox, as our [Gmail to Gemini Notebook guide](/blog/gmail-to-gemini-notebook) explains. To set it up, follow [how to connect Gemini Notebook to Claude and ChatGPT](/blog/gemini-notebook-in-claude). It's one URL and a sign-in.
In short: inside Gemini, type @Gemini Notebook. Everywhere else, Kortex MCP does the same job, with the citations intact.
Use your notebooks from Claude and ChatGPT too
Kortex MCP lets Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients ask any notebook, add sources and start Audio Overviews, with Gemini Notebook's citations intact. It's included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime.
## Frequently asked questions
### Where is NotebookLM in the Gemini app?
In two places. Notebooks you make in Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) appear under Notebooks in the Gemini sidebar. You can also type @Gemini Notebook in any chat to ask your notebooks, create one, add sources or list them. Gemini Notebook itself lives at notebook.google.com.
### How do I use NotebookLM in Gemini?
Type @ in the Gemini prompt box, pick Gemini Notebook, then ask, for example "What do my notebooks say about butterfly migration?" Google's help says to include @Gemini Notebook for any notebook action. If the app isn't connected yet, Gemini offers to connect it first.
### Why don't I see Gemini Notebook in my Gemini app?
Check five things. In the European Economic Area it's off by default, so connect it under Customize, then Connectors. Keep Activity must be on. Google's table lists personal accounts aged 18 or over. Work accounts need an admin to turn on both Gemini and Gemini Notebook. And the Mac app doesn't have it.
### Can Gemini make an Audio Overview from my notebook?
No. Google says Gemini can't generate items from the Gemini Notebook Studio panel, and Audio Overviews, Video Overviews, Infographics and Slide Decks are only available in Gemini Notebook. Open the notebook there, or start Studio outputs from Claude or ChatGPT with Kortex MCP, included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime.
### How do I turn off the Gemini Notebook connected app?
In the Gemini app, open Menu, then Customize, then Connectors. Find Gemini Notebook and choose More options, then Disconnect. Google's Workspace Updates post calls the same screen Settings, then Connected Apps. If notebooks still show in the mobile sidebar afterwards, Google's fix is to update the app.
### Are notebook answers in Gemini as reliable as in Gemini Notebook?
Not quite the same. Google says Gemini Notebook answers are grounded exclusively in your notebook sources, while Gemini's answers may also include web search and other tools. For quotes and citations you will rely on, ask in Gemini Notebook, which cites its sources inline.
### Can I use my notebooks in Claude or ChatGPT the same way?
Not through Google, because the connected app only works inside Gemini. Kortex MCP does the same job in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex CLI and other MCP clients: ask notebooks with citations, add sources and start Studio outputs. It's included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime.
---
*Editorial note: fact-checked against the official help pages and docs linked above on October 26, 2026. Spotted something out of date? [Contact us](/support) and we will fix it, or read more [about Kortex](/about).*