Google has expanded NotebookLM Plus, a paid version of its AI-powered note-taking and research assistant, to individual users subscribed to the Google One AI Premium plan. This expansion comes nearly two months after its initial release for enterprises via Google Cloud and Google Workspace.
First unveiled in December, following an earlier pilot, NotebookLM Plus provides users with higher usage limits and premium features compared to the free version of NotebookLM. These features include 5 times more usage, 500 notebooks, 300 sources per notebook, up to 500 chat queries, and 20 audio generations per day.
Now, individual users can access all of these premium features by subscribing to the Google One AI Premium plan, priced at $20 a month. For U.S. students above the age of 18, a special 50% discount is available, bringing the subscription cost down to $9.99 per month.
Kelly Schaefer, director of product and domain lead at Google Labs, shared, “We’ve always wanted to get NotebookLM Plus out to enterprises and consumers, and have seen really a ton of interest from consumers, and in particular students from the beginning.”
Launched as a project in 2023, NotebookLM gained attention after introducing its Audio Overviews feature in September. This service allows users to generate podcast-like audio content based on the material they upload. It quickly caught the attention of companies like ElevenLabs and Meta, who replicated the feature. Google has continued to update its service regularly, adding features like the ability to guide AI-generated audio conversations.
Google is also planning to expand the reach of Audio Overviews by supporting additional languages beyond English. Schaefer noted that they are focusing on prioritizing languages to ensure the generated audio sounds natural and seamless, much like the existing English-language feature.
Although Schaefer did not disclose the specific Gemini AI models used for NotebookLM, she mentioned that both the free and paid versions rely on the same underlying model. Google Labs frequently experiments with different variants of Gemini, ensuring that they use the most suitable model for each specific task.
In terms of mobile compatibility, Schaefer revealed that the team is working on bringing NotebookLM to mobile devices via a dedicated app, but no specific timeline was provided. The goal is to make the mobile experience similar to the desktop version while tailoring it to the use cases most common for mobile users.
Additionally, the company is exploring how NotebookLM could benefit from emerging reasoning models to enhance the experience with more advanced thinking and reasoning capabilities.
While NotebookLM Plus is now available for individual subscribers of the Google One AI Premium plan — which also provides access to Gemini Advanced, Gemini features in Gmail, Docs, and 2TB of cloud storage — Google will continue to support free users as well. Schaefer emphasized that the team is committed to providing an excellent experience for both free and paid users, with a focus on enhancing the Plus version without diminishing the free version.
Although Google has not shared exact user numbers or the size of the NotebookLM team, data from market intelligence provider Similarweb shows that the AI assistant has garnered 28.18 million visits in the past three months, with almost 9 million in January alone.
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