Scholarly vs NotebookLM: A More Customizable Study Platform

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is Google's polished source-grounded notebook: cited chat, Audio and Video Overviews, slides, flashcards, and quizzes, locked to Gemini. Scholarly gives you the same source-grounded answers — and lets you switch between GPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude, with a full study system built on top: SM-2 spaced repetition, graded practice exams, 45-minute video lectures, and 60-minute podcasts.

Try Scholarly Free

Same notebook idea — with model choice and a real study system on top

Sign Up Free

Already have an account? Log in

Scholarly vs NotebookLM: Feature Comparison

An honest look at how the two platforms compare.

Switch between AI models (GPT, Gemini, Grok, Claude)

Scholarly
7+ models
NotebookLM
Gemini only

Toggle deep thinking per query

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Custom instructions on every generation

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Per-output prompts

Audio overviews / podcasts

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Pick the podcast host voice

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Podcast length, tone & style presets

Scholarly
NotebookLM
4 formats + length

Narrated video lectures up to 45 min in 5 teaching styles

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Short Video Overviews

AI slide deck generation

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Mind maps

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Study guide / briefing doc

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Real spaced repetition (SRS)

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Editable flashcards + Anki / PDF export

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Flashcards, no export

Practice exams with grading

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Quizzes, no graded exam

Study schedule generator

Scholarly
NotebookLM

AI Meeting Notes & live transcription

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Lab report & essay writer

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Deep research mode

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Math solver with step-by-step working

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Limited

Source-grounded answers with citations

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Ask questions beyond your sources

Scholarly
NotebookLM
Via Deep Research

Free plan

Scholarly
NotebookLM

Looking for a NotebookLM alternative?

The direct answer: Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is free and excellent at cited Q&A, Audio and Video Overviews, slides, flashcards, and quizzes. You only need an alternative when you want those same sources to power a real study or training system.

Cited answers from your uploaded sources

Better pick
Either
Why
Both tools ground answers in your sources with citations — Gemini Notebook's Standard tier is free, and Scholarly's free plan covers this too.

Audio overviews / podcasts

Better pick
Either
Why
Gemini Notebook's Audio Overviews are polished, with four formats in 80+ languages; Scholarly adds guest voices, three speakers, episodes up to 60 minutes, page citations, and custom instructions.

Flashcards with spaced repetition

Better pick
Scholarly
Why
Scholarly generates editable decks and schedules review with SM-2 and exports to Anki; Gemini Notebook's flashcards are flip-and-retake with no schedule or export.

Quizzes and graded practice exams

Better pick
Scholarly
Why
Scholarly builds timed, graded practice exams with feedback; Gemini Notebook's quizzes are a self-check, not an exam mode.

Full-length video lectures

Better pick
Scholarly
Why
Scholarly turns the same sources into narrated, chaptered lectures up to 45 minutes in five teaching styles; Video Overviews are short summaries.

Choosing which AI model runs

Better pick
Scholarly
Why
Swap between GPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude models; Gemini Notebook is locked to Gemini.

That's the honest split. Gemini Notebook is a synthesis tool — it helps you understand a stack of sources, makes overviews and study aids from them, and stops there. Scholarly treats the same source-grounded core as the start of a study workflow: the PDF you uploaded becomes flashcards on a review schedule, a graded practice exam, a 60-minute podcast for the commute, and a 45-minute video lecture, without re-uploading anything.

Compare video lectures specifically·Turn a PDF into flashcards free

When Gemini Notebook is enough — and when it isn't

Keep Gemini Notebook if your workflow ends at understanding. Summarizing a course pack, interrogating a stack of papers, generating an Audio or Video Overview of a textbook chapter, building a slide deck or a quick quiz — it does all of that for free, with strict citations and very few hallucinations. For that job there's no reason to pay anyone anything.

Switch — or add Scholarly alongside it — when understanding is the halfway point. Exams and certifications reward retrieval, not recognition, and Gemini Notebook's study aids stop short of that: flashcards with no spaced-repetition schedule, quizzes with no graded exam, no study plan, no live recording, no long-form lecture. Scholarly generates those from the same uploads, keeps answers cited to your sources, shares them with a team, and lets you pick the model doing the generating.

The bottom line: Gemini Notebook is the best free tool for source-grounded Q&A and overviews. Scholarly is the alternative when you want the same sources to also produce flashcards on an SM-2 schedule, graded exams, 45-minute video lectures, and 60-minute podcasts — a study system rather than a notebook.

Comparing tools for a whole team?

Scholarly Teams puts your team, class, lab, or company on one Premium or Laureate plan — the chosen access for every member, all built from your shared material.

Where NotebookLM Still Shines

NotebookLM is a great tool with real strengths worth acknowledging.

Gold-Standard Source Grounding

NotebookLM was the product that made source-grounded AI mainstream, and Gemini Notebook keeps that core. Citations on every answer, strict adherence to your uploaded sources, and very few hallucinations. If you only ever want answers from your specific sources, it's excellent.

A Broad Studio Panel, Free

Google popularized the two-host AI podcast format, and Audio Overviews now come in Deep Dive, Brief, Critique, and Debate formats in 80+ languages. The Studio panel also makes Video Overviews, slide decks, infographics, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes, reports, and exportable Data Tables — and the free Standard tier includes a daily allowance of all of it.

Tight Google Workspace Integration

If your life lives in Google Docs, Slides, and Drive, Gemini Notebook picks up your files natively, ships native Android and iOS apps, and is included in Google Workspace business and education editions. No re-uploading, no format conversion.

Why Students Switch to Scholarly

Switch Models Whenever You Want

Gemini Notebook only runs on Gemini. Scholarly lets you pick the model: Gemini 3.8 Flash for source-heavy work, Grok 4.6 for fast iteration, GPT 5.6 Terra for balanced reasoning, GLM 5.3 Flash, Kimi K3, or Muse Spark 1.3. You can swap models per chat, per video lecture, per slide deck — never locked into one provider's strengths and weaknesses. Scholarly's catalog spans eight labs — OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Mistral AI, Z.ai, Moonshot AI, and Meta — including open-source models, with EU-hosted options for teams that need them.

Customization on Every Output

Every generation in Scholarly accepts custom instructions: focus on chapters 3–5, keep it beginner-friendly, emphasize the proof, write like a tutor. Pick podcast presets, guest voices, a target length up to 60 minutes, and any of 70+ languages. Tune video lectures by mode, narrator, and focus areas. Gemini Notebook gives each Studio output a steering prompt and a length toggle — Scholarly gives you knobs on everything, including which model does the work.

A Real Study System, Not Just a Notebook

Gemini Notebook is a synthesis tool — it makes overviews, slides, flashcards, and quizzes and stops there. Scholarly adds the actual study layer: SM-2 spaced repetition that schedules every card, practice exams with grading and feedback, study schedules, lab report and essay writing, and a math solver. The notebook is one feature, not the whole product.

Flashcards on a Schedule That Export Anywhere

Gemini Notebook generates flashcards you flip through and mark 'Got it' or 'Missed it', but there is no spaced-repetition schedule and no export to Anki or Quizlet. Scholarly's flashcards are first-class: edit, tag, review on an SM-2 schedule that decides what to show tomorrow, and export to Anki.

Thinking On / Off Per Query

Need a quick answer? Leave thinking off. Working through a tricky proof or a multi-step problem? Toggle thinking on and the model reasons before responding. Gemini Notebook doesn't expose this control — Scholarly puts it in the model picker.

Lectures, AI Meeting Notes, and Long-Form Artifacts

Record a live lecture or meeting and Scholarly transcribes it and turns it into notes and flashcards — Gemini Notebook accepts audio uploads but has no record-from-mic workflow. Then go long: narrated, chaptered video lectures up to 45 minutes in five teaching styles, and three-speaker podcasts up to 60 minutes with citations back to the page, where Video Overviews stay short.

How Scholarly Works

Step 1: Add Your Content

Upload PDFs, paste notes, add images, or link YouTube videos. Any study material works.

Step 2: AI Builds Your Study Materials

Our AI reads your material and turns it into grounded answers, flashcards, quizzes, summaries, and more.

Step 3: Study Your Way

Review with spaced repetition, listen as a podcast, watch as a video lecture, or export to Anki or PDF.

Scholarly vs NotebookLM: A Closer Look

Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM — Google renamed it in July 2026; same product, same free tier) is the most polished example of source-grounded AI. The product is built around a strict idea: only answer from the sources I uploaded, cite every claim, never hallucinate from world knowledge. Its Studio panel has grown a lot: Audio Overviews in four formats and 80+ languages, Video Overviews, slide decks, infographics, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes, Data Tables that export to Sheets, and a cloud code runtime for data analysis. For synthesizing a stack of papers or summarizing a course pack, it's genuinely excellent.

But the strict philosophy is still its ceiling. You can't pick a model. You can't toggle thinking. The flashcards have no spaced-repetition schedule and no export; the quizzes aren't a graded, timed exam; there's no study schedule, no live recording, no essay or lab-report writer, and no team library — sharing is still per notebook. Video Overviews are short summaries, not a 45-minute lecture. Once you move from "understand what I uploaded" to "get me through this exam, this certification, or this training rollout," you have to leave the tool.

Scholarly takes the same source-grounded core — upload a PDF, get accurate answers with citations, generate an audio overview — and treats it as one feature inside a full study platform. You can swap between GPT, Gemini, Grok, and Claude. You can tune every generation with custom instructions and presets. And once the AI has helped you understand the material, you keep going: SM-2 spaced repetition, graded practice exams, chaptered video lectures up to 45 minutes, three-speaker podcasts up to 60 minutes, and a shared team library. Same notebook idea, with a much bigger ceiling.

Keep exploring

Related Pages

Scholarly vs Notion

Compared with Notion for studying.

Scholarly vs Quizlet

Quizlet alternative for AI flashcards.

Scholarly vs Anki

Spaced repetition without Anki's setup.

Scholarly Podcasts

Generate audio overviews with custom voices.

AI Video Lectures

Turn your sources into a narrated video lecture.

PDF to Flashcards

Turn any PDF into a flashcard deck.

Study Schedule Generator

Build a study plan in seconds.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Scholarly a NotebookLM alternative?

Yes. Scholarly does everything the Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) core loop does — upload sources, get cited answers, generate audio overviews, mind maps, slides, flashcards, quizzes, and study guides — and adds model switching, deep customization, SM-2 spaced repetition, graded practice exams, study schedules, long-form video lectures, and team libraries around it.

Can I switch AI models on Scholarly?

Yes. Scholarly supports GPT 5.6, Claude, Gemini, Grok, Mistral, GLM 5.3 Flash, Kimi K3, and Muse Spark 1.3. You can pick a different plan-available model for chat, research, video lectures, and AI slides. Gemini Notebook is locked to Gemini. Across plans, Scholarly's catalog spans eight labs, including open-source models from Mistral, Z.ai, and Moonshot AI, so your work never depends on a single AI company.

Does Scholarly have audio overviews like Gemini Notebook?

Yes. Scholarly generates three-speaker, podcast-style episodes from your sources with chapters, a transcript, and citations. You can pick guest voices, set a target length up to 60 minutes on paid plans, choose from 70+ languages, apply style presets, and add custom instructions to focus on specific chapters or angles. Gemini Notebook's Audio Overviews offer four formats (Deep Dive, Brief, Critique, Debate), a length toggle, and 80+ languages — polished, but shorter and without voice choice.

Does Scholarly have spaced repetition?

Yes — a proper SM-2-based SRS, with editable flashcards and export to Anki. Gemini Notebook generates flashcards, but it has no spaced-repetition schedule and no export.

Will Scholarly cite its sources like NotebookLM?

Yes. When you ground a chat in your uploaded materials, Scholarly cites the source pages it pulled from, just like Gemini Notebook. Unlike Gemini Notebook, you can also choose to ask questions beyond your sources when you need broader help, and pick which model answers.

Is Scholarly free?

There is a free plan that lets you try the core workflows: chat, source-grounded answers, audio overviews, flashcards, and study guides. Premium unlocks ongoing use, more Standard model choices, longer videos and podcasts, deeper research, and higher generation limits. Gemini Notebook's free Standard tier is also genuinely usable; see Google's plans page for its current daily allowances.

Can I use both Scholarly and NotebookLM?

Absolutely. Many people use Gemini Notebook for its source-grounded synthesis and Scholarly for everything that comes after — spaced-repetition flashcards, graded exams, schedules, long-form lectures and podcasts, team libraries, and model flexibility.

Can I use NotebookLM for my team at work?

You can — Gemini Notebook is included in Google Workspace business and education editions and is strong for individual work, but sharing is per notebook, with no shared team library. Scholarly Teams adds shared source libraries with Owner, Admin, and Member roles, team activity reporting, central per-seat billing ($35 per seat/month for Premium or $110 per seat/month for Laureate, self-serve for 1–29 seats), and a free trial with up to 3 seats. The whole artifact set — video lectures, slide decks, podcasts, flashcards, practice exams, Deep Research reports, AI Meeting Notes — is generated from the team's shared sources.

Ready for a Notebook That Bends to Your Workflow?

Pick your model, tune your outputs, and study the way that works for you.

Free

See what it does with one of your own sources.

$0

/month

Free forever

No card required.

Get Started

  • 3 lifetime AI Chat messages

  • 1 free AI creation total

  • 2-minute podcasts and video lectures

  • 1 free file upload total (8MB)

  • 5 lifetime quiz questions

  • 1 completed practice exam total

  • 15 lifetime voice minutes

  • 32-page PDF to flashcards

  • 500 lifetime autocomplete words

Use it to generate flashcards, improve a deck, or create a podcast, video lecture, slides, infographic, mind map, study guide, worksheet, spreadsheet, story book, timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline — or run Deep Research or turn a recording into AI Meeting Notes.

Premium

Most Popular

Steady weekly output from the material you already have.

$12

/month

Billed yearly at $144 · save $216

Get Premium

  • Everything in Free, plus:

  • 10 AI creations per week

  • Unlimited AI chat & autocomplete

  • Podcasts up to 60 minutes, videos up to 45 minutes

  • Unlimited file uploads (up to 300MB)

  • Unlimited study sessions

  • Unlimited exams & quizzes

  • 1000-page PDF to flashcards

  • Combine up to 10 sources per creation

  • Export to Anki

  • Priority support

Laureate

For work where being right matters more than the price.

$99

/month

billed monthly · cancel anytime

For frontier models & 8x more AI Creations

Our most advanced and most expensive tier.

Get Laureate

  • Everything in Premium, plus:

  • 80 weighted AI creation credits every week

  • 80 AI creations per week

  • Podcasts up to 60 minutes, videos up to 45 minutes

  • Unlimited uploads up to 1 GB, plus 3,000-page PDFs

  • Combine up to 20 sources per creation

  • 12 hours of voice mode per day

  • Priority support and early access to new Frontier models

Pricing shown in USD by default. Local currency may be available in app or at checkout.

Compare plans

AI chat

Premium and Laureate include unlimited AI chat. GPT 5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 5 are reserved for credit-metered AI creations.

Free
3 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

AI creations

AI creations share one credit balance across every creation tool. Most models use 1 credit, Sonnet and Kimi use 2, and Frontier models Sol and Opus use 3.

Free
1 total
Premium
10/week
Laureate
80/week

Podcast length

Free episodes are fixed at 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target length up to 60 minutes.

Free
2 minutes
Premium
Up to 60 minutes
Laureate
Up to 60 minutes

Video lecture length

Free lectures with a length control are fixed at 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target up to 45 minutes. Short uses its own short video format.

Free
2 minutes
Premium
Up to 45 minutes
Laureate
Up to 45 minutes

File uploads

Free
1 total (8MB)
Premium
Unlimited (300MB)
Laureate
Unlimited (1 GB each)

PDF to flashcards

Free
32 pages
Premium
1000 pages
Laureate
3000 pages

Sources per creation

Free
Up to 1
Premium
Up to 10
Laureate
Up to 20

Practice questions

Free
5 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Practice exams

Free
1 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Voice mode

Free
15 min total
Premium
2 hr/day
Laureate
12 hr/day

Autocomplete

Free
500 words total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited

Export to Anki

Free
—
Premium
Included
Laureate
Included

Support

Free
Standard
Premium
Priority
Laureate
Priority

What customers say

Scholarly has enhanced the quality of notes and questions I administer to my tutees. Insightful, to the point.

TD Georgas

TD Georgas

Tutor

I have very good experience with Scholarly it summarize me scientific text in hovel academic level with citation. I use this for any therapeutic area . It is great and useful tool.

Diana

Diana

Scholarly user

Scholarly has been a valuable tool for my studies. The AI-generated flashcards and intuitive features make organizing and retaining information much easier.

Briana

Briana

Scholarly user

This app is great for studying for big test. Drop your PDF's in the system and it'll do the trick. You can organize it specifically for your needs.

Kelvin

Kelvin

Scholarly user

Your questions, answered

Is Scholarly free to use?

Yes! The free plan includes core study tools with lifetime allowances: 3 AI Chat messages, 500 autocomplete words, 5 quiz questions, 15 voice minutes, 1 practice exam, one free AI creation total, and 1 file upload. These allowances do not reset. Upgrade to Premium for 10 AI creations per week and unlimited uploads.

What uses my free AI creations?

Generating flashcards, improving a flashcard deck, making a podcast, creating a video lecture or infographic, building slides, a spreadsheet, or a story book, making a mind map, study guide, or worksheet, having an AI Agent create a timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline, running Deep Research, or processing a recording uses your free AI creation. It is a lifetime free credit and does not reset. AI Chat, autocomplete, quiz practice, voice, exams, and file uploads have separate lifetime allowances.

Can I cancel anytime?

Absolutely. There are no contracts or commitments. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings, and you'll keep access until the end of your billing period.

What payment methods do you accept?

We accept all major credit and debit cards through Stripe. Pricing is displayed in USD by default, but local currency is available in the app.

Can I use Scholarly with a class or school?

Yes. For a school or organization-wide rollout, contact us at hello@scholarly.so and we'll help you find the right setup.

What happens when I hit a free plan limit?

You'll see a prompt to upgrade. Your existing work is never lost — limits only apply to new actions. Free-plan allowances are lifetime credits and do not reset. Premium includes 10 AI creations per week, podcasts up to 60 minutes, video lectures up to 45 minutes, unlimited uploads, chat, autocomplete, quizzes, and exams, plus more daily voice time.