NotebookLM and Flipa

NotebookLM for business, when the whole team asks

If you're weighing NotebookLM for business (Google now calls it Gemini Notebook), you probably like the same thing we do: it answers from your sources and tells you which ones. That's the good idea. The question comes up when the notebook stops being one person's and becomes eight people's.

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Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on July 16, 2026, per its official blog. We use the current name and remind you of the old one. The example is Northgate Advisory, a made-up consulting firm of eight. Flipa's app interface is in Spanish today.

What rate do we use for an assessment for a small town?

The public-sector one: it's quoted by the day, with a six-day minimum, and travel is billed separately. The small-town discount has to be approved by a partner.

2026 Rates.xlsxProposal guidelines

Side by side

Where they're alike and where they aren't

They share the good idea: answering from what's yours. The rest changes quite a bit.

	Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)	Flipa
Who it's built for	Its help describes it as an AI research assistant. It's also in Google Workspace plans, per Google's site	A company's team: asking about how the company does things and drafting text
Where it answers from	From each notebook's sources: PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs and Google Slides	From one shared knowledge for the whole company: documents, your website and what the team tells it
Sources	Answers with in-line citations to your sources, per its help	A list of sources consulted under the answer. No numbered citations and no exact sentence
Teamwork and roles	Each notebook is shared by email with two roles: viewer, who can only look, and editor, who adds and removes sources	Two roles for the whole account: admins upload, approve and invite; everyone else asks, rates and corrects
Agents	Not stated on the pages we checked	Yes, created by talking
Audio overviews	Yes, in 80+ languages, per its help	No
Source limits	On the standard tier, 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook. Paid tiers raise them	Up to 40 files at a time and up to 80 pages of your website
App language	Help pages in English	App interface in Spanish only today. It answers in the language you write in
Price	The standard tier is at no charge with a Gmail account, per its help. Higher tiers come with Google subscriptions: see “NotebookLM for small business,” below	From $99/mo per account, with 3 seats and 20,000 credits a month, plus applicable taxes. Bought by card on its site, cancel anytime
Signing up	Right away, with a Google account	On its site, by card; you sign in with email and password

Gemini Notebook: checked on November 12, 2026, on Google's official help and on the Google Workspace page; links under “Sources,” further down. Flipa's price is per account, with several seats included in each plan; Gemini Notebook's standard tier goes with each person's Google account.

The shift

From one person to a team of eight

Switch views and click a face. At Northgate Advisory today each consultant has their own notebook; this is what it would look like with one knowledge for everyone.

Eight people, one shared knowledge

Role	Who	What they can do
Admin	Erin and Marcus	Everything the rest can do, and they also upload documents, create agents, invite people and approve corrections.
Asks	The other six	They ask, open the sources behind each answer, rate answers and suggest corrections.

Asked, and it didn't know

Per diem on out-of-state projects3 times
Report template for public-sector clients2 times
What happens if the client cancels midway1 time

This list only exists when a team is asking: these are the company's gaps, not one person's. An admin fills them in.

Everyone asks the same knowledge: in Flipa there are no documents for only some people.

A mock-up with a made-up consulting firm. The one-person view is a general idea of how you work with a notebook of sources, not a screenshot of any product. In Flipa's app, these labels are in Spanish today.

When to use each

You don't have to pick a side

Four things we'd keep using Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM, for, and four where we'd look at Flipa.

Stay with Gemini Notebook to study a topic

One notebook, its sources and answers with citations. That's what it's made for.

Compare these nine reports on rural broadband for me

Stay with Gemini Notebook to listen instead of read

Flipa has nothing like it.

Make me an audio overview for the drive

Stay with Gemini Notebook for personal use

If you're the only one asking, a team setup is more than you need.

My MBA class notes

Stay with Gemini Notebook to start right now

With your Google account, you're in. Flipa needs an invitation.

I want to try it today

Look at Flipa for how-we-do-it questions

Eight people ask the same knowledge and get the same answer.

Do we bill travel to Duluth?

Look at Flipa to write in the company's voice

In your tone and within your limits. A person sends it.

Draft the email that goes with the final report

Look at Flipa to have agents

You explain the job and test it before saving.

One that checks proposals before they go out

Look at Flipa to know what still isn't written down

The company's gaps, by topic and with how many times they've come up.

What were you asked that wasn't there?

When Gemini Notebook is the better choice

Let's start with what NotebookLM, now Gemini Notebook, does and Flipa doesn't. What follows comes from Google's official help.

Audio overviews. It turns your sources into an audio discussion between AI hosts, in 80+ languages. Google's help also covers video overviews. Flipa generates neither audio nor video.
Citations to your sources. Its help says answers come with clear in-line citations. Flipa shows the documents it consulted under the answer and lets you open them, but it doesn't number citations or point to the exact sentence.
Instant signup, and no charge to start. Your Google account is enough, and the standard tier is at no charge, per its help. In Flipa you sign in with email and password, the Trial is free with no card but it's 2,000 credits one time, and its paid plans start at $99/mo.
You work in Google. It accepts Google Docs and Google Slides as sources, and it's included in Google Workspace plans. In Flipa, Google Drive is only listed as “coming soon.”
Videos and audio as sources. It accepts YouTube videos and audio files. Flipa takes in neither video nor audio.
An interface in English. Flipa answers in the language you write in, but its menus and buttons are in Spanish only today.

Here's the rest of what Flipa doesn't have today. Nearly all of its integrations with other tools are in testing. The Chrome extension isn't in Google's extension store, so you install it by hand. There are no certifications. And it's a young product, still being used in testing.

What Flipa does differently

It writes in the company's voice. Besides answering, it drafts emails, proposals and replies in your tone and within your limits. If you ask for something that clashes with them, it tells you.
It has agents. The same assistant with a standing job, which you create by explaining it and test before saving.
It measures how much it knows. A meter shows which company topics are covered and which are missing. It's explained on the knowledge page.
It assigns roles. Some people administer and others ask, and what gets corrected once holds for everyone.

NotebookLM for small business and for teams

It exists, and it's the first thing to look at if you work in Google. Per Google's Workspace page, Gemini Notebook is available in every Google Workspace plan, and notebooks can be shared with coworkers as viewers or as editors. Google says there that the data you upload is never used to train models. The setup is the same as for one person: a notebook per topic, which someone creates and shares. If you're on Microsoft instead of Google, the comparison you want is the Copilot one.

On price: the standard tier is at no charge with a Gmail account, per Google's help. Checked on November 12, 2026. Higher limits come with paid Google AI plans or qualifying Workspace plans. When we loaded Google Workspace's pricing page it showed amounts in euros, not US dollars, so we don't quote one: see their pricing page.

So the best NotebookLM alternative depends on who's asking. For studying a topic in depth, none: stay with it. For eight people asking the same knowledge, with roles and a memory of what's missing, look at Flipa, if a Spanish-language app works for your team. If you'd first like to understand how something like that gets built, read the internal chatbot guide. The other options are in all comparisons.

Sources

Checked on November 12, 2026, on Google's official pages: the rename announcement, dated July 16, 2026, the product's help, its limits, how a notebook is shared, audio overviews and the Google Workspace page. Limits change often: check them there. “Not stated” means we didn't find it on those pages. NotebookLM, Gemini Notebook, Gemini, Google Workspace, Google Docs, Google Slides and YouTube are trademarks of Google LLC. Flipa is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google.

When something changes

“From now on…”: update it once and it holds for everyone

With eight notebooks, a change in policy has to be carried to eight places. In Flipa, an admin says it in the chat and Flipa proposes the change with a before and an after. Nothing is saved until you press the update button (labeled “Actualizar” in today's Spanish interface), it's recorded who approved it, and it can be undone.

It works for brand documents and text notes, not for a PDF or a page of your website.
Things that only apply for a few days are saved with their dates.

From now on, assessments for towns have an eight-day minimum, not six

Here's the change I'd make in “Proposal guidelines.” I won't save anything until you press the update button:

Before: six-day minimum. After: eight-day minimum on assessments for towns.

Proposal guidelines

Frequently asked questions

What people who already use NotebookLM ask

Which is better, NotebookLM or ChatGPT?

They're for different things. NotebookLM, now Gemini Notebook, answers from the sources you give it and cites them, per its help; ChatGPT is a general assistant that, per its plans page, creates images, talks by voice and analyzes data. For studying your documents, the first. For everything else, the second. More in ChatGPT and Flipa.

Can you use NotebookLM for business?

Yes. Per Google's site, it's included, under the name Gemini Notebook, in every Google Workspace plan, and a notebook can be shared with coworkers as viewers or as editors. It's organized by notebooks: someone creates each one, adds its sources and shares it.

Is Gemini Notebook the same as NotebookLM?

Yes. Google announced on its official blog, in a post dated July 16, 2026, that it was renaming NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook. Many people still search for it by the old name, so we use both.

Does Flipa make audio overviews like NotebookLM?

No. Flipa doesn't generate audio or video, and it doesn't accept them as sources either. If that's what you use most in NotebookLM, don't switch.

What NotebookLM alternative is there for teams?

The first is Google's own product, Gemini Notebook, inside Workspace. If you're on Microsoft, Copilot. And if you want one shared knowledge for the whole company, with roles, agents and a list of what still needs writing down, Flipa. Its app is in Spanish today, which for many US teams decides it.

Does Flipa also answer only from my sources?

For anything specific to your company, it searches your documents and is instructed not to fill in with general knowledge. Under each answer it leaves the sources it consulted. When it can't find something, it says so and logs it. It can be wrong: treat it as a draft.

When the notebook belongs to the whole team

If that's where you are, start free and try it with your documents.

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