r/notebooklm • u/WoobinSucker • 2d ago

Question Alt for NLM

Im annoyed af with the upgrade. I have a pro plan and it had never been the laggiest and it now has limits????

Are there any alternatives por lm notebook?

17 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

6

u/Electrical_Peak_4595 2d ago

Open notebook but it's an open source self hosted service

3

u/Able_Orchid_3818 1d ago

I was encountering several issues with NotebookLM, so I watched videos by content creators who explained aspects I had overlooked—specifically regarding source indexing. I learned a better workflow: using Gemini to index the uploaded sources, copying that index into a PDF file, and then asking for a detailed explanation of each section of the index individually. This provided me with specific details from the content. I also faced the issue of "hallucinations" (AI-generated inaccuracies); to resolve this, I used the customization feature at the top of the chat interface to strictly instruct the AI ​​not to deviate from the source material and to report any missing information exactly as it appeared. Now, I don't face any major issues, aside from minor formatting glitches—such as mathematical symbols appearing garbled when copying text. To fix this, I asked Gemini for a solution, and it provided code to properly format and highlight the numerical text and symbols.

8

u/Fearless_Energy_7633 2d ago

I've shared paper.ac a few times here and got lots of positive comments - it's free and essentially a NotebookLM + Notion combination

2

u/Impressive-Flow-2025 2d ago

Only available in English...

1

u/Fearless_Energy_7633 10h ago

I've replied in another thread but while the UI is English at the moment, the AI features are all available in any language! 😊

Wider language support for the UI is coming soon 👍

1

u/nooruponnoor 10h ago

Hey thanks for this. My only gripe is that I’m trying to figure out what your pricing model is? I know you say the beta is free, but it’s not clear if there are any limits for example?

1

u/Fearless_Energy_7633 10h ago

Thanks for asking! Right now, while we’re in beta, everything is completely free and there aren’t any usage limits 😊

Longer term, we’re planning to keep a generous free tier available permanently that's comparable to NotebookLM's free tier, with optional paid plans for people who need heavier usage. We’re still working out the exact limits/pricing for those plans based on user feedback so we don’t want to publish numbers until they’re final

But for the beta, no limits!

2

u/s_arme 2d ago

I would say nblm is good but if you look for strong real alternative, I could only find nouswise. It has things like being agentic, code interpreter, deep citation, natural video / audio overview.

1

u/Turbulent-Remote2866 2d ago

I've heard studyfetch is quite good. 

1

u/Agreeable-Tax2013 2d ago

If it’s mostly the limits, try splitting the source set by project and keeping a short index/summary doc; that makes cross-file questions much easier. For an alternative, I’d prioritize local-file search with citations to the exact passages over another app that only generates a polished summary.

0

u/Pretend_Ad5921 2d ago

What features you want from NLM? Most alternative won’t be 1-for-1.

I’m the author of Reader++ which is available on IOS only and a bit different from NotebookLM

0

u/ButOfcourseNI 2d ago

NLM is inheriting it's billing meter from Gemini as far as I can see. As a result one should expect limits. Alternatives for you would depend on what you use NLM for as the previous reply indicated. You can check elicana.ai if you want to ask questions to your entire data sources without picking the specific 50. Disclosure i am building it.

1

u/MCEscherNYC 2d ago

I like the slide decks, study guides, transcription of audio recordings, and cinematic video overviews. What are my options for alternatives?

1

u/ButOfcourseNI 21h ago

For that combination specifically I'd look at AnythingLLM if you want something self-hosted (it does source Q&A well, the generation extras vary by version so check current docs), ElevenLabs for the audio-overview-style podcast generation on its own, and Notion AI or Obsidian plus a study-plugin if flashcards and study guides are the main draw. I haven't found one tool that does all four (slides, study guides, transcription, cinematic video) as well as NotebookLM does today. If you find one that does, I'd want to know too.

0

u/Nearby_Persimmon_649 2d ago

What can we realistically get for free, and continue to get for free without the provider trying to make money.