An honest comparison · November 2026
The NotebookLM alternative
for lectures you watch.
NotebookLM (renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026) reads files, links and YouTube videos that have captions. NoteAlong listens to a browser tab you share, puts the lecture's slides into your notes, and exports to Anki and Obsidian for free.
Updated
What's a good NotebookLM alternative for lecture videos?
NotebookLM, now called Gemini Notebook, is a free research tool for files, links and YouTube videos with captions. NoteAlong is built for lectures you watch: it listens to a browser tab you share, works without captions, and puts the slides in your notes. It also makes notes from a PDF or slide deck, with page citations. To research across dozens of sources at once, NotebookLM is the better pick. Free plan: 120 minutes and 5 notes a month.
Side by side
NoteAlong and NotebookLM, row by row
| NoteAlong | NotebookLM | |
|---|---|---|
| A lecture playing in a browser tab | Yes. Share the tab in Chrome or Edge, nothing to install | No live tab listening. Add files or links afterwards |
| YouTube videos | Paste the link or share the tab; works with or without captions | Public videos with captions only; videos uploaded in the last 72 hours may not import |
| Slides from the video, placed in the notes | Yes, from a shared tab: slides and code screens land where they were discussed, plus Snap (3 per note on Free) | No. Google says only the text transcript of a YouTube video is imported. You can add your own screenshots as image sources |
| Udemy, Coursera, LMS players | Yes, for courses you're enrolled in, if it plays in a tab | Only through files you add yourself; Google says paywalled pages aren't supported |
| A lecture in the room | Record with your microphone in the browser on a computer | Audio recorder in the Android and iOS app, rolling out since September 2026 |
| Audio and video files | mp3, m4a, wav, mp4, mov and more, up to 4 h per file, converted in your browser | Yes: MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4 and many more, up to 200 MB per file |
| PDFs, slides and Word files | Yes: one note from PDFs, PowerPoint or Word files, or photos of handwritten notes, with page citations that open the page and figures placed in the note | Yes: PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Google Slides as sources, plus photos of handwritten notes. Google says some types of images may not work as well |
| Page limits | Free: 30 pages a note, 50 a month. Pro: up to 300 pages a note, unlimited pages a month | Wins: free, with no page limit; each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200 MB |
| Checking a point against the lecture | Quotes kept word for word; points link to the second they were said | Citations open the quoted text in your sources. Audio and video are cited as transcript text; Google documents no timestamps |
| Note editing | Full editor: tables, code, diagrams, images | Notes you write are editable; a saved chat response becomes editable once its citations are removed |
| Flashcards, quizzes and review | Flashcards, quizzes and spaced review on a schedule (SM-2) | Flashcards and quizzes with Got it / Missed it progress and retakes; Google documents no spaced-review schedule |
| Anki and Obsidian | Free: an Anki deck that updates in place, Obsidian plugin and vault sync | Flashcards download as CSV, which you can import into Anki by hand; no Obsidian export found |
| Other exports | Markdown free; Notion sync and PDF included in Pro | Notes export to Google Docs |
| Many sources at once | One lecture per note; one document note can combine several files | Wins: up to 50 sources per notebook on the free plan, answered together |
| Phone app | No mobile app; works in the browser on a computer, and PDFs and photos also upload from a phone's browser | Wins: apps for Android and iOS |
Compared 2026-11-03 against Google's own help pages and announcements. NotebookLM changes often; check both sites for current details.
The difference that matters
What changes when your source is a lecture
It can hear
On a computer, NotebookLM needs a file, a link or a caption track to exist first. NoteAlong listens to whatever your tab is playing, including the live lecture with no transcript yet and the Udemy course you're enrolled in.
It sees the slides
When you share the tab, NoteAlong keeps the slides and code screens that help and puts each one in the note next to what the lecturer said about it. Snap adds any frame you pick.
Sources you can follow back
Every lecture note traces to a timestamped transcript of what was said, and a note from a PDF cites its pages. When a claim matters, before an exam or in a paper, you can check it against the source in two clicks.
Built for the exam, too
Quizzes, flashcards and spaced review come from your notes and drill you on a schedule. If you study in Anki or Obsidian, the export is free and keeps up with your edits.
Where NotebookLM is better
When NotebookLM is actually the better choice.
Straight answer: if you want to research across a pile of PDFs, papers and Docs at once, use NotebookLM. It answers across many sources at once very well, and it's free with no page limit. NoteAlong makes one set of study notes from the files you give it, up to 30 pages a note on Free. That's PDF to notes with the pages kept, not a research tool. Its Audio and Video Overviews have no NoteAlong equivalent, it has phone apps (now with a lecture recorder), and it sits right inside Google Workspace.
They also combine well: take notes on the lecture with NoteAlong while it plays, then add the Markdown export to NotebookLM as one more source next to your readings. Using one doesn't rule out the other.
FAQ
NotebookLM questions
Is NotebookLM the same as Gemini Notebook?
Yes. Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026. It's the same product with the same notebooks. This page uses the old name because that's what most people still search for.
Is NotebookLM free?
Yes. NotebookLM has a free tier, and paid plans raise the limits. NoteAlong's free plan is 120 minutes and 5 notes a month, no card required. Budget isn't the reason to pick one; your source is.
Can NotebookLM take notes from a YouTube video without captions?
No. Google's help page says YouTube sources need captions, uploaded or auto-generated. NoteAlong turns the audio itself into text, so captions don't matter.
Can NotebookLM take notes from Udemy or Coursera?
Not directly. Course platforms sit behind a login, and NotebookLM only reads what you add to it. NoteAlong listens to the tab of a course you're enrolled in.
Does NoteAlong hallucinate less than NotebookLM?
We won't claim a benchmark we haven't published. What we can describe is the design: NoteAlong keeps the full timestamped transcript, keeps quotes word for word, and cites the note in chat answers, so you can check anything that matters against what was said.
Can I use both?
Yes, and it's a good pairing: NoteAlong for what plays in a tab (lectures, courses, webinars) and for study notes from a deck or chapter, NotebookLM for research across many documents. NoteAlong's Markdown export makes a clean NotebookLM source.
Can NotebookLM read handwriting or the images in a PDF?
Partly. Google says you can upload photos of handwritten notes, and that certain types of images may not work as well. Its citations take you to the quoted text. NoteAlong reads scans, photos, math and drawings as images, keeps an image of each page with the note, and a citation like (p. 12) opens that page.
If it plays in a tab, NoteAlong can take notes on it.
Free plan · no card required. NoteAlong is an independent tool, not affiliated with Google, NotebookLM or Gemini Notebook.