Gemini Notebook is the better fit when…
- You research a topic from a stack of documents at a desk
- You want audio overviews and study guides
- You live in Google Docs and Drive
iki vs gemini notebook
Answers from your sources, in Google’s cloud or on your phone.
Gemini Notebook, which launched as NotebookLM, answers questions from the sources you give it, with citations. So does IKI. The difference is where the sources live and who reads them.
Gemini NotebookIKI
Reads videosPartly: Public YouTube videos with captions; not your own filesYes: Yes
Transcribes voiceYes: Audio files you uploadYes: Yes
Picks up screenshotsNo: Images you upload one by oneYes: Yes
Answers with sourcesPartly: One notebook at a time, with citationsYes: Yes
Runs on the phoneNo: Google’s cloudYes: Yes
Gemini Notebook is Google’s research notebook. You add PDFs, Google Docs and Slides, websites, public YouTube videos with captions, images and audio files, and it answers questions grounded in them with inline citations, audio overviews and study guides. It runs in Google’s cloud under your Google account, one notebook at a time. Google renamed it from NotebookLM on July 16, 2026. IKI gives grounded answers across everything you’ve saved, on your iPhone. It reads your own videos, speech and on-screen text alike, picks up new screenshots by itself and keeps the sources as your own files.
IKI is the better fit when…
- You want answers from everything you’ve saved, not one notebook
- You save your own videos, screenshots and voice notes
- You want the sources read on your phone, not uploaded
side by side
The details.
| Question | Gemini Notebook | IKI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free with a Google account; higher limits with Google AI plans | Free; Pro $6.99/mo or $49/yr; Founder $99 once (500 seats) |
| Answers | Grounded in one notebook’s sources, with citations | Grounded in your whole library, with sources; “not in your library” when it isn’t |
| Video | Public YouTube videos with captions; no local video files | Your own videos: speech and on-screen text |
| Voice and audio | Audio files are transcribed | Voice notes recorded and transcribed on the device |
| Screenshots | Images you upload | New ones arrive by themselves, text already read |
| Getting things in | Upload or paste into a notebook, up to 200 MB a file | Two taps from any app |
| Where your sources live | Google’s cloud | Your iPhone, or your own iCloud Drive |
| Works offline | No | Yes |
| Files you keep | No, the notebook lives in Google | Markdown plus the originals |
| Account | Google account | None |
Checked in September 2026. Renamed from NotebookLM on July 16, 2026. Sources: NotebookLM on Wikipedia.
credit where it’s due
Where Gemini Notebook wins.
Research depth
Long-document reasoning, audio overviews, study guides and notebook-level analysis. For desk research it goes further than IKI.
Big notebooks
Lots of sources per notebook, and more on paid plans.
Everywhere, free to start
Web, Android and iOS, with a Google account you probably already have.
moving over
How to move over.
- 1Nothing is locked in. The PDFs and docs you added are still wherever they came from.
- 2Share those files into IKI, or save the links from Safari. Each one is read on your phone and becomes a card and a file.
- 3Keep using Gemini Notebook for desk research, and let IKI hold what you want to keep.
Start with one save.
It’s free to start, and every save is a file you own.
Free · iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac · Made for iOS 27
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