NotebookLM tutorial — your first notebook

The AI research notebook is built around a simple loop: upload material, ask questions, save what matters, share the results. This tutorial walks that loop in full for a first-time user. No prior experience with AI tools is assumed. By the end of step ten you will have a working notebook, at least one saved note, and a generated audio overview ready to play or download.

Before you begin

Gather one or two PDFs or a public web URL on a subject you know reasonably well. Familiarity with the source material lets you judge whether the citation tool is citing accurately. Have a Google account ready. The product page loads in any modern browser — no extension, app, or plugin is required for this walkthrough.

The 10 steps

Step 1 — Sign in

Open the product home page and click "Sign in with Google." Choose any personal or Workspace Google account. The home screen shows your existing notebooks (empty on a fresh account) and a prominent "New notebook" button.

Step 2 — Create a new notebook

Click "New notebook." A blank workspace opens. The layout has three zones: a source panel on the left, a chat pane in the centre, and a notes panel on the right. At this point all three zones are empty.

Step 3 — Name the notebook

Click the default title at the top of the page and type a descriptive name — something like "Tutorial run — April 2026." Naming takes five seconds but pays dividends once you have a dozen notebooks. Press Enter to confirm.

Step 4 — Add your first source

In the left panel, click "Add source." A dialog offers several input types: Upload file, Google Drive, Paste text, and Link (URL or YouTube). Select "Upload file" and choose the PDF you prepared. The source appears in the panel with a pulsing status indicator while it indexes.

Step 5 — Watch indexing complete

Indexing a typical PDF takes 15–30 seconds. When the status indicator clears, the source is fully embedded and ready for retrieval. A small word-count badge appears next to the source title. If you uploaded a very large document, indexing may take up to two minutes.

Step 6 — Ask your first question

In the chat pane, type: "Summarise the main argument of this document in three bullet points." Press Enter. Within a few seconds the assistant returns a bulleted response. Each bullet carries a citation marker — a small superscript number. Click any number to jump to the exact passage in the source panel where that claim originates. This is the grounding mechanism that makes the tool trustworthy for research use.

Step 7 — Ask a follow-up question

Continue the conversation: "What evidence does the author provide for the second point?" The assistant draws on the same indexed corpus and cites the relevant section. Notice that it does not invent evidence — if the document does not address a point, it says so rather than fabricating an answer.

Step 8 — Pin a response to notes

Hover over any chat response and click the pin icon that appears in the top-right corner of the response card. The response is immediately copied to the notes panel on the right. You can edit the pinned note directly: click into the text, make any changes, and the edits save automatically.

Step 9 — Generate an audio overview

At the top of the left panel, find the "Generate" button. Click it and select "Audio overview." The model processes your source corpus and, within two to four minutes, returns a conversational two-host dialogue that summarises the material. Click play to listen in the browser, or click the download icon to save the MP3. This feature is available on the free tier with a daily generation cap. The overview typically runs 8–14 minutes for a single-source notebook. See the Stanford AI portal for broader context on how generative audio tools are evaluated in research settings.

Step 10 — Export your notes

In the notes panel, click the three-dot menu and select "Export to Google Docs." A new Doc opens in your Drive containing all your pinned notes in order. This is the standard handoff path for anyone who needs to share the output with a supervisor, editor, or colleague who does not have access to the notebook itself.

Step	Click / action	Expected result
1 — Sign in	Sign in with Google	Home screen with New notebook button
2 — Create notebook	New notebook	Blank 3-panel workspace
3 — Name	Click title, type name	Custom title saved
4 — Upload source	Add source › Upload file	Source appears in left panel
5 — Indexing	Wait for status clear	Word-count badge appears
6 — First question	Type prompt, Enter	Bulleted answer with citations
7 — Follow-up	Continue conversation	Source-cited follow-up answer
8 — Pin note	Hover response, click pin	Response copied to notes panel
9 — Audio overview	Generate › Audio overview	Playable MP3 dialogue
10 — Export	Notes menu › Export to Google Docs	New Google Doc in Drive

What to try next

Once you are comfortable with the single-source flow, add a second source and ask the assistant to compare the two documents. Then try the briefing document and study guide templates from the Generate menu. Each template applies a different prompt structure to the same corpus, so the outputs are complementary rather than redundant.

Leander C. Tveitmoen, Consulting Analyst at Stonegate Research Partners in Trondheim, uses the tutorial flow as a 15-minute onboarding exercise for new analysts: "We run every new researcher through steps one to ten on their first afternoon. By step six they understand the citation model. After that the tool sells itself."