GoKawiilShimul Sood / Android Authority
I personally love NotebookLM, though it’s far from the only tool I’ve used for summarizing information or extracting research data. It is arguably the very best, though, as pretty much every alternative is closer to a supplement than a true replacement. That said, there is one that gets very close.
Open Notebook is virtually a clone of NotebookLLM’s core functionality, including stand-out features like audio summaries, the ability to ask questions about your research sources, and so much more. Of course, nothing is perfect, and it isn’t without catches. Below, I’ll dive into what I love about Open Notebook, what is less ideal about it, and how to give it a try for yourself.
Would you consider Open Notebook over NotebookLM? 20 votes Yes, I'm certainly interested in trying it out. 80 % I'm already using it and highly recommend it. 5 % No, this looks too complicated. 10 % I've already tried it and wasn't a fan. 5 %
Here’s where Open Notebook shines
The core features are pretty much the same as NotebookLLM. You upload sources from PDFs to YouTube videos and everything in between, and then it synthesizes this information into audio, quizzes, or you can just chat with it.
Let’s start with what really sets Open Notebook apart from NotebookLLM: it’s an open-source project you must configure yourself. This comes with some downsides, which we’ll get into a bit later. It also means that your data is truly secure in a way that NotebookLLM isn’t. You even have greater flexibility and customization options than what Google offers.
You can run Open Notebook locally using a model like Ollama, or connect it to your favorite cloud-based AI models, including GPT, Gemini Pro, Opus, and more. It’s also easy enough to switch between models, so you don’t necessarily have to lock down just one choice here either.
Even better, there are no limits to how many notebooks you create, as well as how many sources you utilize. Meanwhile, the free version of NotebookLM limits you to 100 notebooks with no more than 50 sources each. That said, using Open Notebook will still burn up token limits if you’re using a cloud-based model, and so that’s worth keeping in mind.
What’s not so great
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