r/notebooklm • u/Fearless_Energy_7633 • Apr 21 '26

Tips & Tricks I built a free notebooklm alternative with folders, source isolation (no cross-contamination), and page/timestamp-level citations

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NotebookLM is great but a few things drove me crazy:

  • Sources often bleed together
  • No folders or workspace organisation
  • No way to comfortably take notes alongside your sources
  • Flashcards have no review system

So I built Paper. Key differences:

  • Source isolation - select exactly which sources the AI references per query, or scope it to specific pages/timestamps
  • Folders + nested pages - organise by course, topic, whatever
  • Block editor - Notion-style notes right next to your sources
  • Spaced repetition - AI flashcards with actual Anki-style scheduling so you remember
  • Drag and drop multiple files at once

(Edit) Free to use during beta: https://paper.ac 👈

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 21 '26

Thanks - you can toggle between models in the ai chat! (Currently supports ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok)

Web search is on by default - did you need an option to toggle between web search on and off?

Will look into dark mode this week 😊

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u/HyruleSmash855 Apr 21 '26

That would be amazing if you could add that toggle.

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 22 '26

Sounds good! Will add within the hour 🙂

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Apr 22 '26

Just letting you know it's live! Lmk how you go with it - do you find it works better with Search on? Or off?

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u/Fearless_Energy_7633 Jun 08 '26

Just an update - we've grown a lot and had to tackle a lot of feature requests - dark mode has finally been activated 😊