NotebookLM (Now Gemini Notebook) vs Coursity: Reading a Stack of Sources vs Studying for a Lecture Course

If you went looking for NotebookLM this fall and found something called Gemini Notebook, it's the same tool. Google renamed it in July 2026, notebooklm.google now forwards to notebook.google, and Google's FAQ calls it "the same product you know and love." I build Coursity, which competes with it.

I used NotebookLM for my own classes. It made study materials for me, and then the studying was on me. What I wanted was a tutor that would walk me through the material and work out where my gaps were.

Which one fits depends on how the course is graded. A reading course, where you work through a stack of sources and quote from them, is what Gemini Notebook is good at: its free version holds 50 sources per notebook, each up to 500,000 words, and can turn them into audio you listen to. Coursity is aimed at the lecture course with exams, where the hard part is knowing which topics you'd still get wrong, and it keeps track of those topics for you all semester.

Checked October 1, 2026, against Google's own pages, which are listed at the bottom. I didn't set up a test of the two for this post.

Gemini Notebook needs the files first, and Coursity can import from supported course sites

Where your course files live decides most of this. If the class runs on Google Classroom, Gemini Notebook plugs straight in: since April 2026, college students 18 and older can create a notebook for a Classroom course that starts with the materials their professor posted. That's as quick as Coursity. For any other course site, you get the files off it first and then add them as sources: upload them, pick one or several from Google Drive, or paste web and YouTube links, up to 50 per notebook on the free plan.

Coursity's Chrome extension, Coursity Capture, skips the download. You install it yourself, with nothing for your school to set up, open your course's Content page, click the Coursity button, then click Import. The files, pages and links there come over together, though a file here and there may still need uploading by hand, and the syllabus is used to draft the course's structure.

The extension works on course sites at the vendors' own addresses (Canvas at instructure.com, Brightspace, Moodle at moodlecloud.com, Blackboard, Google Classroom, Schoology and itslearning), so if your school's course site has its own address, like canvas.yourschool.edu, you upload the files directly for now. On a supported site, it's fewer steps than downloading the files from your course site and uploading them to a notebook.

Gemini Notebook takes audio and YouTube as sources

Google says Gemini Notebook's chat responses "only use data from your sources," and clicking a citation takes you to the quoted passage. It accepts PDFs, Office files, Google Docs, Slides and Sheets, web pages, images, ePubs, YouTube links and audio. Audio is transcribed on import, so a recording you already have can become a source. YouTube brings in the transcript only, so whatever a professor writes on the board without saying it won't come through.

Coursity answers from the materials you upload and cites the slide or page it used. It doesn't accept audio uploads, and its extension saves a YouTube link into a course without the video's content.

For a stack of readings, Gemini Notebook has audio, video and mind maps

Audio Overviews are the big one. Gemini Notebook turns your sources into what is usually a conversation between AI hosts, in four formats (Deep Dive, Brief, Critique and Debate) and more than 80 languages, and in English you can join in and ask the hosts questions. It also makes narrated Video Overviews. On the web it draws mind maps and writes study guides and briefing docs, flashcards export as a CSV, and there are Android and iPhone apps, though Google recommends the desktop version for the full experience.

Coursity has none of that: no audio or video overviews, no mind maps, no flashcards, no phone app, and it's English only. It's also new and small, and there are no public reviews of it yet.

Coursity keeps score by topic across the whole course

Gemini Notebook makes flashcards and quizzes from your sources at easy, medium or hard. You can mark a card "Got it!" or "Missed it!" and retake only the ones you missed, and a flashcard deck remembers where you left off. Its Learning Guide chat style is, in Google's words, "best for educational content, helping you grasp new concepts and skills efficiently." That's its tutoring mode.

Google's help pages don't mention anything that keeps score by topic across decks or across a course, or any spaced repetition. Each notebook is also walled off: Google says it "can't access information across multiple notebooks at the same time." (Google's student page does advertise a "Performance Tracker," but that page is about the Gemini app, which can open your notebooks but is a separate app.)

Coursity quizzes you as part of the tutoring and keeps a topic-by-topic map of the whole course: which topics you have and which you don't, across every week of slides. Miss something and it explains it again. Topics you leave alone for a while fade on that map and come back up for review.

Coursity puts your syllabus due dates on your calendar

Gemini Notebook will answer questions about a syllabus you upload. Coursity reads the due dates out of it and adds them to your Google, Apple or Outlook calendar as one subscription. The evening before something is due, you get an email and a text, on the free plan as well as Pro.

Is Gemini Notebook free for college students?

Yes. The standard version comes with any Google account, and Google says you can sign up "free of charge by using your gmail account." If your university uses Google Workspace for Education, Gemini Notebook is a "core service" there, like Gmail and Docs, so your school account may already have it.

Eligible US college students 18 and older can also get Google AI Pro free for a year, which includes Gemini Notebook's Pro tier (four times the standard limits, up to 300 sources per notebook). Google asks for a payment method at sign-up, and "unless cancelled earlier, Google AI Pro will automatically charge $19.99/month after the trial ends." Eligibility is checked yearly, the offer must be redeemed by December 31, 2026, and the offer terms require a personal Google account, not a school-issued one.

Google's own pages disagree on limits: since September 2, 2026, Gemini Notebook has used compute-based limits where "the quota refreshes every 5 hours until you reach your weekly limit," but the Upgrade page still shows an older per-day table. I'd go by the newer page.

Coursity has no student offer and no Pro trial. It's free to start without a card, with the whole tutor for 14 days and unlimited courses, then about 20 tutor replies a week. Plus and Pro raise that to about 150 and 300 a week. Monthly plans renew until you cancel; semester plans are one payment for 4 months and don't renew. Once you cancel, it runs to the end of the period you paid for and drops back to free with your courses intact, and Coursity's terms don't mention refunds.

Google AI Pro and Coursity Pro both cost $19.99 a month

Google's paid plans also include the Gemini app and storage, so the same $19.99 buys more there. Prices on October 1, 2026, are from Google One and Coursity's pricing page, with notebook limits from Gemini Notebook's plans page.

Seminar reading belongs in Gemini Notebook

If the course is a seminar with a few hundred pages a week and a paper at the end, use Gemini Notebook. Audio Overviews let you listen to a reading instead of sitting down with it, and the citations take you to the passage you'd quote.

Coursity is for the lecture course where you can follow every slide and still miss the question on the test. If that's the class you're worried about this semester, put its syllabus into Coursity.