Notebooks: your research workspaces in NotebookLM

Notebooks are the core organizational unit in NotebookLM. Learn how they work, how to create and name them, and how to manage multiple notebooks.

A notebook is a self-contained workspace that pairs your sources with a dedicated AI assistant. Everything you add to a notebook—documents, links, notes—stays together, and the AI you chat with in that notebook reads only those sources. This means you can maintain separate, focused research spaces for different projects without sources from one bleeding into another.

What’s inside a notebook

Each notebook contains two main things:

• Sources — the documents, files, and URLs you’ve added (up to 50 per notebook)
• AI chat — a conversational assistant that reads and reasons over only those sources

The AI chat is specific to the notebook. Ask it a question and it searches your sources, synthesizes an answer, and links back to the exact passages it used.

Create a notebook

1. Open NotebookLM

   Go to notebooklm.google.com and sign in with your Google account.

2. Click New notebook

   On the home screen, select New notebook. A blank notebook opens immediately.

3. Name your notebook

   Click the default title at the top of the page and type a descriptive name. A clear name helps you find the right notebook later, especially when you have several.

Rename or delete a notebook

To rename a notebook, click the notebook title anywhere it appears and type a new name.

To delete a notebook, open the notebook, select the menu icon (three dots) in the top-right corner, and choose Delete notebook. Deletion is permanent and removes all sources and conversation history inside it.

Navigate between notebooks

All your notebooks appear on the NotebookLM home screen. Select any notebook card to open it. The home screen shows the notebook name, the number of sources it contains, and when it was last updated, so you can orient yourself quickly.

Limits

Item	Limit
Sources per notebook	50

For details on source types and sizes, see Sources and Supported formats.

Best practices

One topic per notebook

Keep each notebook focused on a single project or research question. The more focused your sources, the more precise the AI’s answers.

Use descriptive names

Names like “Q3 Competitive Analysis” or “Thesis — Chapter 2 Sources” are easier to find than “Research 1” or “New notebook.”

Add sources before asking

The AI can only answer from what’s in the notebook. Add all relevant sources before starting a research session.

Separate unrelated topics

If you’re working on two unrelated projects, use two notebooks. Mixing sources leads to less relevant answers.

Keep each notebook focused on a single topic or project. A notebook about climate policy and one about quarterly earnings will each give you sharper, more relevant answers than a single notebook that combines both.