FAQ
Questions about Notebook OS and Gemini Notebook
Notebook OS is a Chrome extension that adds recipes, voice dictation, editable slides and library tools to Gemini Notebook. It runs in desktop Chromium browsers, and most of it is free. The answers below cover what it does, what it costs and what happens to your data.
What is Notebook OS?
Notebook OS is a free Chrome extension that adds a workflow layer to Gemini Notebook: Skills (a way of working saved once and applied to a notebook as a source), Studio Recipes (99 ready instructions for audio, decks, reports, quizzes and more), Voice Dictation into the chat box, Editable Deck (.pptx with real text boxes), Term Drill, Diagram Studio, Academic and YouTube search from a side panel, and a cleaner notebook library. It runs inside the Gemini Notebook page you already have open and replaces nothing Gemini Notebook does well.
Is it really free?
Yes. Most of Notebook OS is free with no limits — Note Studio, all 99 Studio Recipes and 9 artifact types, Editable Deck, 25 built-in Skills plus up to 3 of your own, the YouTube tools, the Prompt Library, folders and tags. Some features are free up to a monthly allowance, counted per calendar month: Voice Dictation 20, YouTube Search 10, Academic Search 10, Concept Map 5, Diagram Studio 5, Term Drill 3 generated lists (replaying a saved drill is always free), 3 AI-drafted Skills, Voice Brain Dump 10, Web Snip 10. Pro removes those allowances and adds Premium Deck View, Artifact Shelf, Library Map, Library Hygiene and editing of any Skill. No core feature will ever be paywalled.
Do I need a Gemini Notebook account?
Yes — Notebook OS works with your existing Gemini Notebook account. It reads your notebooks via the Gemini Notebook interface in Chrome. There's no separate Notebook OS login or account.
Can Notebook OS bypass Gemini Notebook account limits?
No. Notebook OS cannot bypass, raise, or unlock limits on your Gemini Notebook account. Studio Recipes and other workflow tools still rely on Gemini Notebook's native generators, so Gemini Notebook limits and availability still apply: slide deck counts, video previews, artifact generation quotas, source limits, rate limits, plan restrictions, and any temporary errors from Gemini Notebook. If Gemini Notebook blocks or delays an artifact (due to quota limit), Notebook OS has to respect that.
Does it send my notebook data anywhere?
No. Notebook OS reads the Gemini Notebook page to enable its features — for example, reading your chat to write a Studio Recipe prompt. It does not transmit your notebook content to any external server. Everything runs locally in your browser. Your data goes only between your browser and Google's Gemini Notebook.
Where does my voice go when I use Voice Dictation or Term Drill?
Voice Dictation uses the browser's Web Speech API: Chrome sends the microphone audio to Google's speech-recognition service and returns text, which Notebook OS places in the chat box. Notebook OS never receives, stores or forwards the audio, and the text is not sent to Gemini Notebook until you press send. Term Drill goes the other way — the browser's own text-to-speech reads the terms aloud; nothing is recorded during the pause. Voice Brain Dump, in the side panel, is different: it records an audio file and uploads it to Gemini Notebook as a source, exactly as you would drag in a recording.
How editable is an Editable Deck .pptx?
The title and every bullet on each slide are real text boxes, so you can retype, restyle, translate or spell-check them in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides. The background and any picture Gemini Notebook rendered stay as one image layer per slide. Layout is a fixed set of 16:9 arrangements, so moving a text box works but the picture behind it does not reflow. A deck generated before this feature cannot be converted; run the Presentation recipe again with Editable Deck on.
Do I need an API key or my own model?
No. Notebook OS has no model of its own and asks for no API key. Every answer, artifact, plan and diagram spec is generated by Gemini Notebook itself, inside your own Google account. Notebook OS writes the instruction, triggers the generator and reads the result from the page.
What do Gemini Notebook's compute limits mean for Notebook OS?
Everything Notebook OS generates goes through Gemini Notebook, so it spends your Gemini Notebook quota, not a Notebook OS one. A long deck is several generations, an Editable Deck is one chat question plus one deck render, a Term Drill or a diagram is one chat question. When Gemini Notebook pauses you for the day, Notebook OS waits too; it cannot raise or bypass the limit.
Is Notebook OS only for medicine?
No. The recipe and Skill libraries started with research, teaching and clinical work, and v2.7 added 29 recipes and 10 Skills for office and knowledge work — meeting minutes, decision memos, project status, onboarding guides, policy digests, market briefs. Every list in the extension is filtered by persona: Work & business, Research, Study & exams, Clinical.
notebook.google.com or notebooklm.google.com — which one does it work on?
Both. Google moved NotebookLM to notebook.google.com under the Gemini Notebook name in 2026; the old address still redirects. Since v2.6.0 Notebook OS runs on either domain with the same features.
How is this different from other Gemini Notebook extensions?
Other Gemini Notebook extensions organise your inputs — library management, bulk source import, tag systems. Notebook OS works on your outputs: Skills and Studio Recipes write the instruction and trigger the generator, Editable Deck turns the slides into a .pptx you can edit, Voice Dictation puts spoken text into the chat box, Term Drill and Diagram Studio turn sources into a spoken drill or a diagram. The side panel also works on any Chrome page, not only on Gemini Notebook.
What exactly are Studio Recipes?
Studio Recipes are one-click workflows that turn a Gemini Notebook conversation into a structured artifact. You pick a type (Report, Slides, Flashcards, etc.), Notebook OS reads your chat and notebook sources, writes a customized prompt, and automatically triggers Gemini Notebook's native artifact generator. The result appears in Gemini Notebook's Studio panel as if you had written the perfect prompt yourself.
What is Premium Deck View, and is it really watermark-free?
Premium Deck View is a full-screen presentation mode for the slide decks Gemini Notebook generates. When a deck is on screen, a floating “Present” button appears (or press P) and Notebook OS opens a dark, distraction-free stage you drive entirely from the keyboard — ← → Space to move, F for fullscreen, Esc to exit. While you present, it also hides the small “Gemini Notebook” watermark in the corner of each slide, so the stage is clean enough to screen-share, record, or project. The clean-up is purely visual and only happens inside Premium Deck View — it never modifies or re-uploads Google’s files, and if you download the deck the original watermark is still there. Premium Deck View is a Pro feature.
Does Voice Brain Dump transcribe my audio?
No — and that's by design. Notebook OS uploads the raw audio file directly to Gemini Notebook as a source. Gemini Notebook's own AI (powered by Gemini) handles the transcription natively — and it does a remarkable job. Gemini's accuracy holds up even for technical vocabulary and domain-specific terms. It also handles mixed-language recordings exceptionally well: if you switch between English and Vietnamese, or English and any other language mid-session, Gemini Notebook typically follows along without losing context. Your audio never touches a third-party transcription service.
What if Gemini Notebook updates its interface?
Notebook OS tracks Gemini Notebook's DOM structure and updates when Google changes the interface. Enable auto-update in Chrome's extension settings (chrome://extensions) to stay current. If something breaks between updates, submit a bug report and we patch it quickly.
Does it work on Microsoft Edge, Brave, or other Chromium-based browsers?
Yes. Notebook OS is a standard Chrome Manifest V3 extension and works on any Chromium-based browser that supports Chrome extensions — including Microsoft Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Arc, and Opera. Install it directly from the Chrome Web Store in any of these browsers.
Does it work on mobile?
No. Notebook OS uses browser extension APIs that are desktop-only. It needs Chrome or another Chromium browser on macOS, Windows or Linux. Mobile browsers do not support extensions.