If you’ve been using NotebookLM only at your desk, you’ve been missing half the experience. For roughly two years, Google’s AI research tool lived exclusively inside a browser tab. That changed in May 2025, when official mobile apps arrived for iPhone and Android. Now you can download an Audio Overview, pop in your earbuds, and learn from your own research notes during a walk. This guide covers everything: whether a true desktop app exists, how to install the mobile and web versions, and which features only work on your phone.
Key Takeaways
- Google launched the official NotebookLM mobile apps for iOS and Android on May 19, 2025, after two years of web-only access (Google, 2025).
- There is no native desktop app. The desktop version is the web app, which installs as a PWA via Chrome or Edge.
- The app requires iOS 17+ or Android 10+ and is free to download.
- Mobile-only features include offline Audio Overview downloads, background playback, and share-sheet source capture.
- Free users keep their full quota on mobile: 100 notebooks, 50 sources each, and 3 daily audio generations.
Is there a NotebookLM app, and when did it launch?
Yes, there’s a real app now. Google launched the official standalone NotebookLM mobile apps for iOS and Android on May 19, 2025, one day before Google I/O (Google, 2025). Before that date, going back to its 2023 debut, NotebookLM ran only in a desktop or mobile web browser.
The launch closed a long-standing gap. Users had been asking for a native mobile experience since the tool went viral in late 2024. The web app worked on phones, but it felt cramped, and audio playback stopped the moment you switched apps or locked your screen. That single limitation frustrated commuters and students who wanted a podcast-style study companion.
So why did it take so long? Audio Overviews, the podcast-style feature that made NotebookLM famous, only arrived in September 2024 (Google, 2024). The app’s headline value is portable audio, so the feature had to mature first. Once millions of people were generating these overviews, a dedicated mobile app made obvious sense.
New to the tool? Our NotebookLM workflow for students walks through setting up your first notebook before you go mobile.
Is there a NotebookLM desktop app or just the website?
There’s no native desktop app, and there likely won’t be one. Google does not ship a downloadable Windows or macOS program for NotebookLM. The desktop experience is the web app at notebooklm.google.com, which you can install as a Progressive Web App through Chrome or Edge (9to5Google, 2025).
A PWA isn’t a compromise. When you install it, the site opens in its own window without browser tabs, address bars, or bookmark clutter. You get a proper icon on your taskbar, Start menu, or dock. It behaves like a standalone program while staying automatically up to date, since it’s still the live website underneath.
How do you install NotebookLM as a desktop PWA?
Open notebooklm.google.com in Chrome or Edge. Look for the small install icon in the address bar, usually a monitor with a downward arrow. Click it, confirm, and a desktop shortcut appears. In Chrome you can also use the three-dot menu, then “Cast, save, and share,” then “Install page as app.”
The PWA gives you the full feature set: Mind Maps, Reports, Flashcards, Quizzes, and the new Learning Guide tutoring mode. Because it’s the complete web app, nothing is stripped out. For deep research sessions with lots of sources, this remains the best way to work.
How do you download and set up the NotebookLM mobile app?
Setup takes under a minute. The NotebookLM mobile app requires iOS 17 or later on iPhone and iPad, and Android 10 or later on phones and tablets (Google, 2025). Search “NotebookLM” on the App Store or Google Play, install it, and sign in with the same Google account you use on the web.
Everything syncs instantly. Your notebooks, sources, saved notes, and generated Audio Overviews all appear on your phone the moment you log in. There’s nothing to migrate or export. The app and the web version read from the same account, so a note you write on your laptop shows up on your phone seconds later.
One detail catches people off guard: the app uses your existing free quota, not a separate one. The same 3 daily Audio Overviews and 50 chat queries are shared across web and mobile. Generate two overviews on your laptop in the morning, and you’ll only have one left on your phone that afternoon. Plan your generations accordingly.
Running a lot of notebooks across both devices? Our guide to organizing 50+ NotebookLM notebooks keeps the sync tidy.
Web PWA vs mobile app at a glance
| Capability | Web app (PWA) | Mobile app |
|---|---|---|
| Full editing, Mind Maps, Reports, Quizzes | Yes | Limited |
| Offline Audio Overview downloads | No | Yes |
| Background audio playback | No | Yes |
| Interactive “Join” mode | No | Yes |
| Share-sheet source capture | No | Yes |
| Best for | Deep research and writing | Listening and capturing on the go |
What can the NotebookLM mobile app do that the website can’t?
The mobile app adds four features the web version lacks. You can download Audio Overviews for offline playback, keep them playing in the background while multi-tasking, tap “Join” to ask the AI hosts questions live, and add sources from any app through the system share sheet (Google, 2025). These turn NotebookLM into a true on-the-go learning tool.
Offline and background audio playback
This is the feature commuters love most. Download an Audio Overview while you’re on Wi-Fi, then listen during a flight, a subway ride, or a run with no signal. The audio also keeps playing when you switch to another app or lock your screen. The web version always paused the second you left the tab, which made long listens impractical.
Interactive “Join” mode and the share sheet
Tap “Join” during an Audio Overview and you can interrupt the two AI hosts to ask a follow-up question out loud. They respond, then continue the conversation. The share-sheet integration is just as practical. Reading an article in Safari or watching a YouTube video? Tap Share, pick NotebookLM, and that page or video becomes a source in seconds.
In our testing, the share sheet changed how we collect sources. Instead of emailing links to ourselves to add later from a laptop, we capture them the instant we find them. A YouTube lecture, a long PDF, a research blog post, all saved in two taps. The friction of “I’ll add it later” mostly disappears.
What are the free limits on the NotebookLM app?
Mobile users get the full free tier, no downgrade. Free NotebookLM users get 100 notebooks, up to 50 sources per notebook, and up to 500,000 words per source, plus daily limits of 50 chat queries and 3 audio generations (Google Help, 2026). These limits apply identically across the app and the website.
Each source can be sizeable. A single PDF, Google Doc, web page, or YouTube transcript can run up to 500,000 words or 200MB (Google Help, 2026). With 50 of those per notebook, even a free account holds an enormous research library. Most people never hit the ceiling.
What does NotebookLM Plus add?
NotebookLM Plus roughly doubles the core limits. It raises you to 200 notebooks and 6 audio generations per day, up from 100 notebooks and 3 audio generations on the free tier, and increases the per-notebook source and daily chat allowances as well (Google Help, 2026). Plus is available through Google One AI Premium and works the same on mobile and web.
Is Plus worth it for app users specifically? If you generate Audio Overviews daily for commutes, the jump from 3 to 6 per day matters. Otherwise, the free tier covers most casual and student use comfortably. Want to see how the free tier holds up in practice? Our NotebookLM study workflow shows what you can do without paying.
How do you get the most out of Audio Overviews on mobile?
Audio Overviews are the reason most people install the app. The feature generates a podcast-style Deep Dive conversation between two AI hosts from your uploaded sources, and it launched in September 2024 (Google, 2024). On mobile, you can download these for offline listening and tap “Join” to interrupt with questions.
Beyond the standard Deep Dive, NotebookLM now offers Brief, Critique, and Debate formats. A Brief gives you a quick summary for a short commute. A Debate stages two opposing viewpoints, which is genuinely useful for studying contested topics. Pick the format that matches how long you’ll be listening and what you want to learn.
| Audio Overview format | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Dive | Full podcast-style conversation between two hosts | Learning a topic end to end |
| Brief | Short summary of your sources | Quick reviews and short commutes |
| Critique | Analytical breakdown of strengths and gaps | Pressure-testing an argument |
| Debate | Two hosts argue opposing views | Studying contested or nuanced topics |
Language support is broad, too. Audio Overviews work in more than 50 languages, controlled through an “Output Language” setting Google announced in April 2025 (Google, 2025). You can feed English sources and generate a Spanish or Japanese overview, which makes the app a quiet language-learning aid.
To get sharper, more useful overviews, start from strong prompts. Our 30 best NotebookLM prompts give you tested starting points.
How does Kortex extend NotebookLM beyond the app?
The mobile app fixes portability, but it doesn’t fix export. NotebookLM still has no native way to get your content out as a clean file, on any platform. That’s the gap Kortex fills. Kortex is a free Chrome extension that adds export, a saved prompt library, web-clipping, and automation to the NotebookLM web app, where most heavy research happens.
Here’s the honest framing: Kortex enhances NotebookLM, it doesn’t replace it. The mobile app is where you listen and capture sources on the go. The desktop web app, plus Kortex, is where you do the serious writing and exporting. They work together. You clip sources from your phone via the share sheet, then export your finished notes to Markdown or Docx from your laptop.
The saved prompt library is the time-saver. Instead of retyping the same research prompts, you store and reuse your best ones with a click. Pair that with our 10 Kortex automation workflows, and the desktop experience becomes far faster than tapping prompts on a phone keyboard. For the full picture of what’s missing natively, read Kortex vs NotebookLM.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a NotebookLM app for iPhone and Android?
Yes. Google launched standalone NotebookLM apps for iOS and Android on May 19, 2025 (Google, 2025). They’re free to download. The app requires iOS 17 or higher and Android 10 or higher.
Is there a NotebookLM desktop app?
No native desktop app exists. The desktop experience is the web app at notebooklm.google.com. You can install it as a Progressive Web App through Chrome or Edge to get a standalone window and a Start-menu or dock icon (9to5Google, 2025).
Can I listen to NotebookLM Audio Overviews offline?
Yes, on the mobile app. You can download Audio Overviews for offline playback and keep them running in the background while multi-tasking (Google, 2025). This is a mobile-only feature not available in the web version.
How much does the NotebookLM app cost?
The app is free. Free users get 100 notebooks, 50 sources each, plus 3 daily audio generations (Google Help, 2026). NotebookLM Plus roughly doubles those limits and is available through Google One AI Premium.
Can I add sources to NotebookLM from other apps on my phone?
Yes. The mobile app integrates with your system share sheet. From a browser, PDF viewer, or YouTube, tap Share and select NotebookLM to add a website, document, or video as a source (Google, 2025).
What can the app do that the website can’t?
The app adds offline audio downloads, background playback, share-sheet source capture, and a “Join” button to ask AI hosts questions live during an Audio Overview (Google, 2025). The web app stays better for heavy editing and reading.
The NotebookLM app finally lets your research travel with you, but the desktop web app is still where deep work gets done. Kortex bridges the two by adding the export, prompt library, and clipping that NotebookLM leaves out, so your notes don’t stay locked inside a notebook. Want a smoother research workflow across phone and laptop? Install Kortex →