cheaptonersucks Posted January 23 Posted January 23 Hi All, Anyone aware of any good free alternatives to Google NotebookLM? Preferable something that does all the same stuff! Thanks! 😁
dhicks Posted January 23 Posted January 23 2 hours ago, cheaptonersucks said: Anyone aware of any good free alternatives to Google NotebookLM? My guess is that you are unlikely to find a free / reputable tool similar to NotebookLM that includes free back-end processing, as AI computation can get expensive, and in the case of a school, you'll want to be sure you know where any data you put into the system is going and how it's being used. However, if you are able to host your own AI models (if you have on-site or otherwise servers somewhere) you could probably do the back-end bit on those. Hugging Face is the place to find self-hostable AI models: https://huggingface.co/ 1
dmj Posted January 23 Posted January 23 4 minutes ago, dhicks said: Hugging Face is the place to find self-hostable AI models: https://huggingface.co/ ollama has quite a low barrier to entry for local LLM's too. There is this :A private, multi-model, 100% local, full-featured alternative to Notebook LM which looks interesting. 2
cheaptonersucks Posted January 23 Author Posted January 23 Thanks for the recommendations! I agree regarding the cost of AI but as the school budget is tight to say the least, we are asked to find free alternatives to everything these days! 🙄
DavR Posted January 23 Posted January 23 12 minutes ago, cheaptonersucks said: Thanks for the recommendations! I agree regarding the cost of AI but as the school budget is tight to say the least, we are asked to find free alternatives to everything these days! 🙄 I thought NotebookLM was included as a core product in all Google Education suites (i.e., already free), unless I've missed something? It's on Education Fundamentals at least, which is the free version. 1 1
paulkerton Posted January 23 Posted January 23 (edited) NotebookLM is already free if you've got Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals (which is free). It is also a core product, and doesn't use EDU data to train (So little Jimmy's EHCP isn't uploaded into it for the world to see) Edited January 23 by paulkerton 2 1
cheaptonersucks Posted January 23 Author Posted January 23 Thanks for the heads up guys. We don't use any Google stuff like Google Workspace for Education but it sounds like we should if NotebookLM is free!!!
paulkerton Posted January 23 Posted January 23 26 minutes ago, cheaptonersucks said: Thanks for the recommendations! I agree regarding the cost of AI but as the school budget is tight to say the least, we are asked to find free alternatives to everything these days! 🙄 Almost any AI that is completely free (Google is "freemium" being the idea is that you'll like what you get for free that much, you'll pay for an upgrade) is going to be using your data for training purposes. Do not give up your student and staff data privacy for convenience. If you upload a student behaviour record into a public LLM, that thing could follow them around for life - particuarly if a future employer decides to look them up using an LLM. 1
cheaptonersucks Posted January 23 Author Posted January 23 (edited) Really good points Paul. I totally agree with you. The only problem is there is 'no money' to spend on anything other than essential stuff. Although, I don't think there I have ever hear anything other than 'there is no money' since working in education! I just looked on the Google Workspace page but there are only pricing plans. Sorry if I am missing something as we only do Microsoft here but it doesn't mention any free versions? Edited January 23 by cheaptonersucks
paulkerton Posted January 23 Posted January 23 6 minutes ago, cheaptonersucks said: Really good points Paul. I totally agree with you. The only problem is there is 'no money' to spend on anything other than essential stuff. Although, I don't think there I have ever hear anything other than 'there is no money' since working in education! I just looked on the Google Workspace page but there are only pricing plans. Sorry if I am missing something as we only do Microsoft here but it doesn't mention any free versions? Yes, this is the commerical pricing. You're far better off reaching out to a Google Workspace Partner that'll help - trying to do this yourself at the moment can be slow and time consuming! Google Workspace for Education Editions And as for partners you've got Getech Canopy C-Learning Vitalize Wavenet Vital York 1
DavR Posted January 23 Posted January 23 42 minutes ago, paulkerton said: Almost any AI that is completely free (Google is "freemium" being the idea is that you'll like what you get for free that much, you'll pay for an upgrade) is going to be using your data for training purposes. Do not give up your student and staff data privacy for convenience. If you upload a student behaviour record into a public LLM, that thing could follow them around for life - particuarly if a future employer decides to look them up using an LLM. Whilst I agree this is a sensible approach in principle, in the case of Notebook LM, Google explicitly state they don't use your data to train their models - https://workspace.google.com/products/notebooklm/ I think this is the same for Gemini, as long as you're using the Education licensed version. The regular version does use your data though. 1 1
Zoom7000 Posted January 25 Posted January 25 On 23/01/2026 at 16:08, paulkerton said: Yes, this is the commerical pricing. You're far better off reaching out to a Google Workspace Partner that'll help - trying to do this yourself at the moment can be slow and time consuming! Google Workspace for Education Editions And as for partners you've got Getech Canopy C-Learning Vitalize Wavenet Vital York Adding to what Paul mentioned, you should only use NotebookLM through Google Workspace for Education. NotebookLM is available as part of Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, which is completely free for schools. Using NotebookLM via Education accounts ensures that your data stays within your organisation and is not used by Google to train public models. Edit: Notice that Paul said this earlier! 🙈 2 1
cheaptonersucks Posted January 26 Author Posted January 26 Thanks guys. Never used Google Workspace at any schools. Sorry for the ignorance but no exposure to Google Workspace. Do the Google Workspace Partners charge for setup? If they don't... what's in it for them? (Apologies for ignorance)
paulkerton Posted January 27 Posted January 27 18 hours ago, cheaptonersucks said: Thanks guys. Never used Google Workspace at any schools. Sorry for the ignorance but no exposure to Google Workspace. Do the Google Workspace Partners charge for setup? If they don't... what's in it for them? (Apologies for ignorance) Some will. Some won't. There's backend benefits for them (without going into that detail!) and then longer term you're likely to go to them if you need support etc. 1
cheaptonersucks Posted January 29 Author Posted January 29 Thanks Paul. I will look into this. They told me that they are just using the free version but I can't see a free version without using Google Workspace??
DGardiner Posted January 29 Posted January 29 Google workspace is free anyway, if theyre using it - sign up for the basic edu thing then youre atleast covered under the edu data not being used for training the model 1
dhicks Posted January 29 Posted January 29 3 hours ago, cheaptonersucks said: They told me that they are just using the free version but I can't see a free version without using Google Workspace?? There's a free version of NotebookLM available for users with a personal Google account - it sounds like your users are probably using their personal Google accounts to create NotebookLM notebooks. You probably don't want to allow that to happen for your school's data as you don't know where that data is going to go - it might get used as further training data for Google's AI models. Interestingly, you can make personal NotebookLM's public so that anyone can come along an interrogate your data, which could be a useful feature for something like a set of policies on a website, but not available for the Google Workspace version of NotebookLM. 2
cheaptonersucks Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 Yes, I assume that they are using personal accounts. I dread to think what some of them are pumping into AI inside and outside of school!! 😱 That's interesting that you can make NotebookLM's public! How do you do that?
dhicks Posted January 30 Posted January 30 25 minutes ago, cheaptonersucks said: That's interesting that you can make NotebookLM's public! How do you do that? I think there was just a "publish" option within NotebookLM somewhere. It's not available on Google Workspace Education, only on personal accounts. 1
Spookyville Posted May 1 Posted May 1 A NotebookLM related question. We have google workspace for education fundamentals and in admin portal LM is allowed for everyone. However when logged into school account a staff member cannot see the slide deck and infographics options in the studio panel. However if they log into their own personal google account (just a standard free one not pro) these options appear. Any ideas?
dmj Posted May 1 Posted May 1 I asked Notebook-LM as I though it was appropriate for the question. The missing "Slide Deck" and "Infographics" options come down to a strict Age-Based Access restriction within Google Workspace for Education, rather than a paid-tier limitation. Here is exactly why this discrepancy is happening and how your IT administrator can fix it. The Core Issue: 18+ Age Gating for Generative Visuals NotebookLM recently updated its "Studio" panel to include Slide Decks and Infographics. Because these features rely on Google's generative AI models to create visual images and layouts, Google has strictly gated them so they are only available to users designated as 18 years of age or older. Your Personal Account: Your standard, free Google account has a birthdate attached to it that marks you as a legal adult. Therefore, NotebookLM automatically unlocks the full suite of visual generation tools for you. Your School Account: In Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals, domains are designed with student safety in mind. By default, Google often categorizes user accounts as "Under 18" unless the IT administrator specifically tells the system otherwise. Even though you are a staff member and NotebookLM is enabled for everyone, if your account's Organizational Unit (OU) in the admin console is still sitting on the default "Under 18" setting, Google will quietly hide those visual features from your Studio panel. How to Fix This (For the Google Workspace Admin) To get the Slide Deck and Infographics options to appear for teachers and staff, your Google Workspace Administrator needs to update the age settings specifically for the staff groups. Here is what the admin needs to do in the Google Admin Console: Go to Menu > Account > Account settings > Age-based access settings. On the left side, select the specific Organizational Unit (OU) or group that contains the staff and teachers (ensure students are not in this group). Change the setting for this group to "Some or all users are 18 or older". Click Save. 1
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