Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) Templates: 10 Setups

Every new project starts the same way: a blank notebook, a pile of sources and a feeling you’ve done this before. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) doesn’t ship notebook templates, but it can copy a notebook you own. So build the setup once. These 10 recipes show you how, and each lists sources, prompts, Studio outputs and a naming convention. Pick one, and as a result a new notebook takes minutes.

Key Takeaways

• You can copy a notebook you own, but notes and chat history stay behind.
• Reports are the only output with built-in templates.
• Each of the 10 setups fits a free notebook’s 50-source cap (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026).
• Save your prompts once and reuse them.

Does Gemini Notebook have built-in templates?

Only for reports. Reports offers a Learning Overview template for interactive reports, and templates or suggested formats for documents (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). Google’s help center describes no notebook templates. That said, two native features come close. The first is featured notebooks. The second is a Copy option that duplicates any notebook you own, sources and Studio outputs included. In other words, the template is something you build yourself. A template notebook is simply a master notebook you keep clean, with the sources, prompts and settings a project type needs, and copy each time that project comes round again. For example, a teacher might keep one per course and a consultant one per client type. The rest of this guide gives you 10 of those masters, ready to build.

Featured notebooks are curated, pre-loaded notebooks from authors, researchers, publications and nonprofits, such as The Economist’s World Ahead report (Google, 2025). Viewers can read and question them. However, they can’t add sources or generate their own outputs (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026).

Are there slide and infographic templates?

Not as files, but both outputs take settings that work like a template. A Slide Deck comes as a Detailed Deck for reading or as Presenter Slides for talking over, and it downloads as PDF or PowerPoint (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). Infographics let you pick a level of detail, an orientation and a visual style, such as Sketch Note, Kawaii or Professional (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). However, the style picker is for adults only. Notably, both also take a prompt, for instance “Use a blue color theme and highlight the 3 key stats”, which is Google’s own example. Therefore the closest thing to a reusable slide or infographic template is a saved prompt plus a note of the settings you chose. Keep both in your master notebook, and every copy produces the same look. We found these searches were common: when we analyzed 1,451 Google autocomplete suggestions in October 2026, people typing “notebooklm templates” also asked for slide, presentation and infographic templates, and for templates on GitHub.

The Copy option is the real template tool. Open a notebook you own and select Copy, then Create. All sources and Studio content come along, but chat history and notes don’t (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). Google’s announcement adds that generation prompts and chat settings come along too (Google Workspace Updates, 2026). As a result, a copy keeps the chat style and the custom prompts behind each Audio Overview or quiz, which is most of what a template needs. Notes, however, are the gap. Hence, keep each master’s prompt list as a source, not a note. Put the list in a Google Doc or a text file, add it as a source, and it survives every copy. That saves the prompts. Nevertheless, every other note a copy drops, such as a project brief or a checklist, has to be rebuilt by hand, and that gets old by the third copy.

How do you set up a master template notebook?

Every setup has four parts: sources to add, prompts to ask, outputs to generate and a name. Source counts stay under 50, the free tier’s cap, so any account can use them (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). In contrast, Plus raises the cap to 100 sources per notebook and Pro to 300.

Working with a team? Share the master and tick Allow copies. As a result, everyone you share it with can make their own copy, sources and artifacts included. Importantly, copying is on by default for shared notebooks, so turn it off if a master shouldn’t spread.

Name every notebook TYPE · Topic · Date, and file it in a Collection for its type. One notebook can sit in several collections (Android Authority, 2026). Inside a notebook, meanwhile, source labels do the sorting. With 5 or more sources, Gemini Notebook can create them automatically.

Two native settings make a recipe repeatable. Configure Chat sets a style per notebook: Default, Learning Guide or Custom (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). Specifically, Custom takes a style or role, like “Respond like a PhD student”. Similarly, View custom prompt shows the prompt behind any report, quiz or overview, so a winning prompt is easy to copy.

Need more prompts? Our 30 best Gemini Notebook prompts fill the gaps, and our system for organizing 50+ notebooks extends the naming rules. Here are all 10 setups at a glance:

Setup	Sources to add	Outputs to generate	Name prefix
Literature review	20 to 40 papers, one review, your question	Data Table, Mind Map, briefing doc	LIT
Competitor analysis	Pricing pages, demo videos, analyst PDFs	Data Table, Infographic, briefing doc	COMP
Grant writing	Funder call, past proposals, CVs, data	Compliance checklist, reviewer FAQ	GRANT
Exam prep	Slides, notes, syllabus, past papers	Flashcards, Quiz, Brief audio	EXAM
Course design	Chapters, outcomes, last year’s slides	Slide Deck, Quiz, study guide, video	COURSE
Book notes	ePub or Play Books title, reviews	Mind Map, Debate audio	BOOK
Meeting notes	Recordings, agendas, Docs notes	Action-item table, briefing doc	MEET
Onboarding	Handbook, process docs, walkthroughs	FAQ, Deep Dive audio, short video	ONBOARD
Contract review	Contract, standard terms, policies	Clause table, Critique audio	CONTRACT
Podcast prep	Guest interviews, articles, talks	Briefing doc, Debate audio, Mind Map	POD

Which Gemini Notebook templates work best for research?

The best research templates are a literature review, a competitor analysis and a grant-writing notebook. Research setups, in particular, lean on grounded answers and web discovery. In fact, Google reports a 78.2% win rate in advanced web research and source discovery for its research upgrade (Google, 2026).

1. Literature review

• Add: 20 to 40 papers as PDFs, one recent review and your research question as pasted text.
• Ask:
  • Build a table of each paper’s method, sample and main finding.
  • Where do these papers disagree, and why?
• Generate: a Data Table you can export to Sheets, a Mind Map and a briefing document.
• Name: LIT · Sleep and memory · 2026-09. Labels: Methods, Findings, Reviews.

2. Competitor analysis

• Add: rivals’ pricing and feature pages as links, demo videos from YouTube and analyst PDFs.
• Ask:
  • Compare pricing tiers across these companies in a table.
  • What does each one claim as its main advantage?
• Generate: a Data Table, an Infographic and a briefing document.
• Name: COMP · Note apps · 2026-Q3. One label per competitor.

3. Grant writing

• Add: the funder’s call and guidelines, past proposals as Google Docs, CVs and supporting data.
• Ask:
  • List every eligibility rule and scoring criterion.
  • Outline a proposal that maps each section to a criterion.
• Generate: a Create your own report as a compliance checklist, plus an FAQ of likely reviewer questions.
• Name: GRANT · Funder · Deadline. Labels: Guidelines, Past proposals, Evidence.

Drafting in Google Docs? Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can type @ in Docs to ground Gemini’s drafts in a notebook (Google Workspace Updates, 2026). Some Workspace plans, such as Business Standard and Education Plus, get it too. Our research workflow guide covers the analysis side.

Notably, each recipe’s Ask prompts are the part you’ll reuse most, so save them where the chat can reach them.

Which templates help students and teachers?

Exam prep, course design and book notes help students and teachers most, because study setups get the most out of Studio. Quizzes come in short answer, multiple choice and fill in the blank formats (Google Workspace Updates, 2026). In addition, the mobile app has an audio recorder for lectures. So why reread when the notebook can quiz you? Learning research backs the habit. In a well-known study, students who took practice tests on prose passages recalled much more a week later than students who reread them, even though rereading made them feel more confident (Roediger and Karpicke, Psychological Science, 2006). Consequently, the exam prep template below puts quizzes and flashcards first and the summary last. Copy it once per course, swap in that course’s slides and past papers, and the prompts and quiz settings travel with the copy.

4. Exam prep

• Add: lecture slides, your notes, the syllabus, past papers and lecture recordings.
• Ask:
  • Which topics appear in both the syllabus and the past papers?
  • Explain this topic as if I missed the lecture, then quiz me.
• Generate: hard Flashcards, a Quiz and a Brief Audio Overview for the bus.
• Name: EXAM · Course code · Exam date. One label per week, and set the chat to Learning Guide.

5. Course design

• Add: textbook chapters, the learning outcomes, last year’s slides and your reading list.
• Ask:
  • Map each learning outcome to the chapters that cover it.
  • Draft a 10-week plan with one reading and one activity a week.
• Generate: a Slide Deck in Presenter Slides mode, a Quiz, a study guide and an Explainer Video Overview.
• Name: COURSE · Title · Term. Labels: Outcomes, Readings, Assessments.

More classroom ideas live in our guide to Gemini Notebook for teachers.

6. Book notes

• Add: the book as an ePub or eligible Play Books ebook, plus reviews and author interviews.
• Ask:
  • Summarize each chapter in five bullets, with a quote from each.
  • What are the strongest arguments against the author’s main claim?
• Generate: a Mind Map and a Debate Audio Overview.
• Name: BOOK · Title · Author. With a Play Books source, some outputs may not download.

Which templates work for meetings and everyday work?

Meeting notes, onboarding, contract review and podcast prep cover everyday work, and all four depend on sources that change. Files imported from Google Drive are auto-updated and sync every few minutes (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). Thus a living document, for example a running meeting log in Google Docs, keeps the notebook current without a re-upload. Similarly, audio files are transcribed at import, which makes recorded meetings searchable by what people said. Meanwhile, the copy rule still applies: a copied master keeps its Drive sources, so a new team’s notebook starts with the same handbook or standard terms. Prefer a morning summary? Kortex MCP, included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime, can run a scheduled daily briefing on a notebook like this. You set the schedule from your AI assistant, and Kortex saves each answer as a note while Chrome is open.

7. Meeting notes

• Add: meeting recordings as audio files, plus agendas and notes from Google Docs.
• Ask:
  • List every decision, owner and deadline, with the meeting it came from.
  • What did we agree last month that this contradicts?
• Generate: a Data Table of action items for Sheets and a briefing document.
• Name: MEET · Team · Quarter. One label per month, and ask permission before you record anyone.

8. Onboarding

• Add: the handbook, process docs and org chart from Google Drive, plus recorded walkthroughs.
• Ask:
  • What should a new hire do in their first week, in order?
  • Which questions will a new hire ask most?
• Generate: an FAQ report, a Deep Dive Audio Overview and a Short Video Overview of about 60 seconds.
• Name: ONBOARD · Role · Version. Share it with each new hire.

9. Contract review

• Add: the contract as a PDF or Word file, your standard terms and relevant policies. Copy-protected PDFs won’t import.
• Ask:
  • List every obligation, deadline and renewal term.
  • Where does this contract differ from our standard terms?
• Generate: a Data Table of clauses and a Critique Audio Overview.
• Name: CONTRACT · Counterparty · Date. Google says to “always consult a qualified professional” for legal advice (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026), so treat answers as a first pass for a lawyer.

10. Podcast prep

• Add: the guest’s past interviews from YouTube, their articles and their book or talks.
• Ask:
  • Which topics does this guest return to most?
  • Suggest 10 questions these sources don’t already answer.
• Generate: a briefing document, a Debate Audio Overview to rehearse with and a Mind Map.
• Name: POD · Guest · Recording date.

One habit makes every template better. Notebooks can’t read each other; therefore, finish each project by exporting your notes to a Google Doc. Next time, add that Doc as a source. Your past conclusions come with you, and the Doc keeps syncing as you edit it.

Do people really want templated outputs? From our research, yes. We analyzed 776 answers to the Kortex MCP waitlist survey, collected in September and October 2026. Of those, 91 people asked to make audio, slides or quizzes straight from their AI chat, and one put the template wish plainly: “generate template-based audio summaries, video summaries, written summaries, infographics”. Another 128 people wanted notebook jobs to run on a schedule or a trigger, which is what a template becomes once it runs itself. Additionally, 244 of the 776 (31%) described a manual copy-paste workaround they rely on. That pattern, importantly, matches the gap this guide keeps hitting. Gemini Notebook copies sources and outputs well. However, the notes, tags and filing around a project still take hand work every time.

How does Kortex turn these setups into reusable templates?

Kortex is a free Chrome extension that fills the gaps a native copy leaves, starting with notes. We built four template types into it, one for each part of a setup that Gemini Notebook doesn’t carry over on its own. Its prompt library keeps 10 prompts free and unlimited on Pro, which costs $9.99 a month or $4.92 a month billed yearly (Kortex pricing, 2026).

• Notebook templates. Apply a recipe’s tags and collection to a new notebook.
• Source templates. File new sources under the right tags and folder.
• Note templates. Recreate the notes a copy drops, with {{placeholder}} variables like {{course}} or {{deadline}}.
• Prompt library. Save the prompts above in folders, with favorites and tags.

On Pro, every automation is included, the Template Engine among them. For instance, file a notebook in a course collection and it gets that course’s starter notes. Our Kortex automation workflows show ready-made rules, for example one that routes new links to a notebook. Working from Claude or ChatGPT? Kortex MCP, included with Kortex Pro and Lifetime, can save a whole recipe as a workflow your assistant reruns by name.

Build one master per recipe, keep its prompts as a source, and let templates rebuild what a copy leaves behind.

Frequently asked questions

Does Gemini Notebook have templates?

Only for reports, which offer a Learning Overview template and suggested document formats. For whole notebooks, the closest thing is copying: select Copy, then Create, on a notebook you own to get its sources and Studio outputs, but not its notes. Featured notebooks offer curated examples.

How do you duplicate a notebook in Gemini Notebook?

Open a notebook you own, or one shared with Allow copies turned on, and select Copy, then Create. All sources and Studio content are copied, while chat history and notes are not. For shared notebooks, copying is on by default unless the owner turns it off.

What are featured notebooks in Gemini Notebook?

They’re curated notebooks from authors, researchers, publications and nonprofits. Google’s examples include The Economist’s World Ahead report and the complete works of Shakespeare. You can read their sources, ask questions and play ready-made Audio Overviews, but you can’t add sources or generate your own outputs.

How many sources should a template notebook have?

Stay under your plan’s cap with room to spare. A free notebook holds 50 sources, Plus 100 and Pro 300 (Gemini Notebook Help, 2026). The literature review setup here uses 20 to 40, which leaves space for notes you turn into sources later. Once a notebook has 5 or more sources, Gemini Notebook can label them by topic automatically.

Can I save prompts in Gemini Notebook?

Google’s help center describes no saved-prompt library. You can set a lasting chat style with Configure Chat, and View custom prompt shows the prompt behind reports, quizzes, flashcards and overviews. For templates, keep your prompt list as a source rather than a note, because a copied notebook keeps its sources and Studio content but drops notes.

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Editorial note: fact-checked against the official help pages and docs linked above on October 26, 2026. Spotted something out of date? Contact us and we will fix it, or read more about Kortex.