Google’s note tool vs Notion

Google’s AI note tool is NotebookLM — a Gemini‑powered research assistant that ingests uploaded PDFs, Google Docs, slides and web pages and answers questions by citing those sources. (notebooklm.google). (notebooklm.google) NotebookLM produces “Audio Overviews,” podcast‑style summaries you can download for offline playback, and Google released standalone iOS and Android apps on May 19–20, 2025 to bring those features to mobile. (support.google.com 1) (support.google.com 2) Google’s development logs show recent updates such as conversation memory for multi‑turn context and the expansion of Google’s Nano Banana image model into NotebookLM to enrich generated artifacts. (neowin.net). (neowin.net) NotebookLM now offers paid tiers (Plus, Pro, Ultra) that raise generation quotas per notebook — the free tier lists up to 50 generations, Plus up to 100, Pro up to 300 and Ultra up to 600 — and Google also sells enterprise licenses with trial and subscription options. (notebooklm.google/plans). (notebooklm.google) Key product contrasts with incumbents: Obsidian is local‑first, stores notes as plain Markdown in a user‑controlled vault and supports thousands of community plugins, while Notion embeds AI inside its workspace and bundles AI in higher paid tiers rather than offering a standalone research assistant. (obsidian.md ) (obsidian.md) Hands‑on reviews find NotebookLM outperforms when synthesizing across multiple documents and producing study aids, but reviewers note it does not provide the same offline, file‑ownership model as Obsidian or the database/task automations that are central to many Notion workflows. (androidpolice.com). (androidpolice.com)