Export from NotebookLM: Complete Guide to Audio, Video, Slides & Research

Last updated: October 30, 2026 · Originally published: November 24, 2025

You’ve built a notebook full of research, generated Audio Overviews and slide decks, made flashcards for a study group, and now you need those files somewhere else. Some NotebookLM outputs have a download button, some export to Google Docs or Sheets, and a few still won’t leave the notebook without a workaround.

This guide goes output by output: what downloads, in what format, what the mobile app can and can’t do, and what to do when there’s no button at all.

Name change, July 2026: Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook on 16 July 2026. Same product, same notebooks, nothing to migrate. The app now lives at notebook.google.com (the old notebooklm.google.com address redirects there), and the help documentation is at support.google.com/gemininotebook. This guide keeps saying “NotebookLM” because that’s still what most people search for.

What changed in this October 2026 update:

• Flashcards now download as a CSV file. Quizzes still don’t download.
• The notebook’s chat can build files for you: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, CSV and images. That’s the new workaround for anything without an export button.
• Video Overviews come in three formats (Cinematic, Explainer and Short), and the mobile app can now download them.
• Slide revisions can delete and reorder slides.
• Daily generation counts are gone. Usage is now compute-based, refreshing every five hours up to a weekly cap.
• You can copy a whole notebook, sources and Studio outputs included, if its owner allows it.

Can You Download the Sources You Uploaded?

Short answer: no. This is the most common thing people expect NotebookLM to do that it does not do, so it is worth settling before the rest of the guide.

Everything else below covers getting out what NotebookLM made — audio, video, slides, infographics, reports. Getting back the PDF you put in is a different question with a different answer.

There is no download button for a source. Google’s own documentation defines a source as “a copy or auto-synced version of the source document you import or upload,” and the sources help page lists no download, export, or retrieval option at all. When you upload a PDF or a Word file, the text is extracted and stored for the model to read. The file itself is not kept anywhere you can reach.

What you can still recover depends entirely on how you added it:

The trap worth knowing about before it bites you: a Drive-linked source is not a backup of itself. Google is explicit that if the Drive file is deleted or you lose access to it, “the source will be inaccessible, and you will no longer be able to view or interact with the source in your notebook.” That applies to notebooks you own and to notebooks shared with you. The dead source still counts against your source limit while contributing nothing to your chat or your Studio outputs.

Browser extensions can bulk-export every source in a notebook to JSON or ZIP, which is genuinely useful for backing up a large research notebook. They carry the same limitation: what comes out is the parsed text, not your original files.

The rule: keep your own copy of every source before you upload it. NotebookLM stores a reading of your file, not your file. Treat a notebook as somewhere your research goes to be used — never as the only place it lives.

Quick Reference: Export Options at a Glance

Every NotebookLM output and the fastest way to get it out. Everything works on the web unless the row says otherwise; the last column covers the Gemini Notebook app on iPhone and Android.

One restriction applies across the board: if a notebook uses a Google Play Books ebook as a source, the publisher’s restrictions can block downloads of anything generated from it.

Downloading Audio Overviews

Audio Overviews are still the output most people come to NotebookLM for: a podcast-style discussion of your sources. There are four formats:

• Deep Dive (the default): two hosts discuss and connect the ideas in your sources.
• The Brief: one speaker, the key takeaways in under two minutes.
• The Critique: two hosts give constructive feedback on your material. Useful for an essay draft or a design doc.
• The Debate: two hosts argue opposing sides of the topic.

How to download: generate the overview in the Studio panel, open it, and select the Download icon on the player. The file plays in any media player. If a podcast host or app needs MP3 specifically, the section below covers converting it.

Length: choose Shorter, Default or Longer before you generate. Google lists the length setting as English-only.

Sharing without downloading: set the notebook to “Anyone with a link” and share the overview’s link, or share the notebook itself. Deleting an overview breaks every share link to it, and public links only work on personal Google accounts; Workspace Enterprise and Education accounts can’t create them.

Languages: 80+ languages. The default follows your Google Account language; change the notebook’s output language to generate in another one.

Interactive mode lets you join the conversation and ask the hosts questions by voice. It’s English-only, works only on newly generated overviews, isn’t available to people opening a share link, and nothing you say ends up in the downloaded file.

How many overviews you can make now depends on compute rather than a daily count. See Limitations & Quotas.

Mobile App Audio Downloads

If you used the download button in the mobile app and can’t find the file anywhere, that’s expected. Google’s help page says app downloads are for offline listening and can’t be saved as a file to your device. They live in the app’s Downloaded section and nowhere else.

To get an actual audio file you can keep:

• On your phone: open notebook.google.com in your phone’s browser instead of the app, load the overview, and download it from there.
• On a computer: download it on the web, then move it to your phone through Google Drive, email or AirDrop.

Treat the app like a podcast player: great for listening on a walk, no help when you need the file.

Converting the Audio to MP3

Google doesn’t name the download format, so check the file extension first. If it already ends in .mp3, you’re done. If it doesn’t, and a podcast host, email limit or older player is giving you trouble, convert it:

• Audacity (free): open the file, then File → Export Audio and choose MP3.
• Online converters such as CloudConvert: fine for the occasional file, but you’re uploading your audio to a third party.
• ffmpeg: the command-line option when you have a batch to convert.

Downloading Video Overviews

Video Overviews turn your sources into a narrated video, with visuals, quotes and data pulled from your documents. There are three formats:

• Cinematic: unpacks your sources through storytelling and richer visuals. English narration only, and only for users 18+.
• Explainer: a structured walkthrough that connects the ideas across your sources, built from narrated slides.
• Short: a roughly 60-second video on one concept, made for sharing.

How to download: on the web, open the video in the Studio panel and select Download. In the mobile app, open the video, tap More, then Download. The app couldn’t do this when this guide was first written; it now downloads and shares videos.

Visual styles (Explainer only, 18+): Classic, Whiteboard, Watercolor, Retro Print, Heritage, Paper-craft, Kawaii, Anime, or Custom, where you describe your own. Leave it on auto-select and NotebookLM picks one.

Steering: the customise screen takes a prompt, so say who the video is for and what to focus on. “Focus only on the cost analysis sections” and “I already know the basics; skip to the implementation details” both work.

Producer notes: Google AI Ultra subscribers can review and edit the video’s plan before it renders. Once you approve the plan, it’s locked.

Sharing works the same way as audio: a link (public links on personal accounts only) or the shared notebook. Deleting the video kills the link.

Exporting Slide Decks

NotebookLM builds complete, designed slide decks from your sources, with charts, diagrams and visuals drawn from your material.

How to download: in the Studio panel, open the three-dot menu next to the deck and choose Download PDF Document (.pdf) or Download PowerPoint (.pptx). You can also present full screen inside NotebookLM.

The PowerPoint catch: each slide arrives as an image inside the .pptx file. You can present it, reorder slides and add speaker notes, but you can’t click into a title and change the wording. When PowerPoint export launched in February 2026, Google said Google Slides export was “coming next”; as of October it still hasn’t shipped. The full workaround is in How to Export NotebookLM Slides to PowerPoint.

Finish your edits inside NotebookLM, then export once.

Revising slides: open the deck, select Revise, and type instructions on each slide you want changed. Edits queue up as Pending Changes until you select Generate revised deck. Revision now handles structure as well as wording:

• Change the text, layout or visuals on any slide.
• Delete a slide (More → Delete slide), and restore it if you change your mind before regenerating.
• Drag thumbnails to put slides in a new order.

Two things to know before you revise. Your sources aren’t consulted during revisions, so a revised slide isn’t re-checked against your material. And every revision builds a whole new deck against your quota, so batch all your changes into one pass. There’s no documented way to insert a brand-new slide; regenerate with a better prompt instead.

Customisation: pick the format (a Detailed Deck to read on its own, or Presenter Slides to talk over), the length, the output language and which sources to use, then describe the deck you want: audience, tone, focus. Ultra subscribers can also review the outline before the deck renders.

Watermark: removal comes with Google AI Pro and Ultra, except in India, South Korea and Vietnam, where a visible watermark always applies. In the mobile app you can generate, review and revise decks, but not add or remove slides; download from the web.

Exporting Infographics

An infographic condenses your sources into one designed image.

How to download: three-dot menu → Download. It saves as a PNG, and the mobile app can download it too.

Options before you generate:

• Orientation: square, portrait or landscape.
• Detail: Concise, Standard or Detailed (beta). Detailed tends to cram too much into one image, so start with Standard.
• Visual style (18+): Sketch Note, Kawaii, Professional and others, or let NotebookLM choose.
• Output language, plus a custom prompt for audience and focus.

Infographics have no revise button. To change one, open its prompt, edit it, and generate again. For a small fix like a typo or a colour, open the PNG in Canva and patch it there.

Exporting Flashcards and Quizzes

Both are generated only from your sources, with a difficulty setting (easy, medium or hard), a count (fewer, standard or more) and an optional prompt to set the focus. Progress saves if you leave mid-session, and the Explain button gives you the reasoning behind any card or answer.

Flashcards now download. Use Download in the flashcard controls to save the deck as a CSV file. It opens in Excel or Google Sheets, and a two-column file of fronts and backs is what most flashcard apps, Anki included, can import.

Quizzes still don’t download. Google’s help page lists no export for them. Quizzes now include short-answer, multi-select and fill-in-the-blank questions, and you can add or edit questions, but taking the quiz happens inside NotebookLM. Your options:

• Share the notebook. Anyone with access finds the quiz in the Studio panel.
• Ask the notebook’s chat for a quiz as a Word or PDF file (see Ask the Chat to Build the File). The chat writes a new quiz from the same sources; it can’t copy the one in Studio.
• Use a browser extension (see Third-Party Export Tools).

Exporting Mind Maps

Mind maps show how the concepts in your sources connect, and clicking a node sends it to the chat so you can dig into it.

How to download: open the mind map and select Download from the options in the top-right corner of the Mind Map window. It saves as a PNG image.

Mind maps aren’t in the mobile app at all, so this one is a desktop export.

Exporting Reports (Study Guides, Briefing Docs, and More)

Reports come in two kinds, and they export differently.

Document reports are text: Briefing Doc, Study Guide, Blog Post, or a custom format you describe. NotebookLM also suggests formats based on your sources, like a glossary of key terms for a scholarly paper. To export, open the three-dot menu next to the report and choose Export to Google Docs. Reports with data tables can go to Google Sheets, with each table on its own tab.

Learning Overviews are interactive reports that weave summaries together with slides, quizzes and flashcards in a step-by-step walkthrough. They’re web-only and share by link, and the person you send it to needs access to the notebook. There’s no export for a Learning Overview as a whole, but the slides, quizzes and flashcards it embeds also appear in your Studio panel, and each of those exports the usual way.

Exported Docs don’t sync back. Edit the Doc and the report in your notebook stays as it was.

Exporting Data Tables

Data tables pull structured information out of your sources into columns you define: competitor features, study findings, prices across a stack of documents.

How to export: three-dot menu → Export to Sheets. The table lands on the first tab and its citations on the second, so you can check where every cell came from. Data tables aren’t available in the mobile app.

Need Excel instead? Download it from Sheets (File → Download → Microsoft Excel), or ask the chat for an .xlsx file directly.

Ask the Chat to Build the File

This is the newest export route, and it covers most of the gaps where Studio has no button. The notebook’s chat can now run code and hand you a downloadable file. Google lists these output types:

• Documents: PDF, Microsoft Word, Markdown and plain text
• Spreadsheets and data: Excel (.xlsx), CSV and JSON
• Presentations: PowerPoint (.pptx)
• Charts and images: PNG, SVG, JPG and GIF

Prompts that fill real gaps:

• “Write a 10-question quiz on chapters 3 and 4 as a Word document, with the answer key on a separate page.” Quizzes have no download button.
• “Turn the comparison in my notes into an Excel file, one row per product.”
• “Make a PNG bar chart of monthly spending from my spreadsheet sources, grouped by category.”
• “Summarise the three interview transcripts as a two-page PDF briefing.”

Before you rely on it: Google labels these agentic features experimental, and says the mobile app may not support them. The code-running “cloud computer” behind them launched in July for Google AI Ultra and some Workspace plans, with Pro users on the web next; Google hasn’t said when, or whether, free accounts get it. If no file comes back, your plan probably doesn’t have it yet.

Because the chat writes and runs code to make the file, check its numbers and formulas the way you’d check a colleague’s spreadsheet. And every file is a fresh generation from your sources: ask for “the quiz” and the chat writes a new one, while the quiz in your Studio panel stays as it is.

Chat History and Notes

Chat History

Chat saves automatically and stays private to you, even in a shared notebook. To start clean, open the three-dot menu in the chat panel and choose Delete Chat History.

There’s no button to export a whole conversation. Save the answers worth keeping as notes (below), or ask the chat to pull the key points of the conversation into a Word document or PDF.

The chat settings at the top of the chat panel shape what you’ll export later. Set a conversational goal or role (Learning Guide suits study notebooks) and a response length. Shorter answers make cleaner notes.

Saving Notes

Save to note pins a chat answer to your notebook with its formatting, tables and clickable citations intact. A saved answer becomes editable once you remove its citations.

Export a note: open the note’s More menu and choose Export to Docs. It opens as a new Google Doc in a new tab. Two things don’t carry over: later edits (the Doc and the note are separate from then on) and sharing permissions (the Doc is private until you share it).

Convert notes to sources: “Convert all notes to source” turns your notes into sources the chat and Studio can use. Useful once your notes have become the best summary in the notebook.

The mobile app shows your notes but can’t create or edit them.

Moving a Whole Notebook

There’s still no single file that holds an entire notebook. Since August 2026 there’s a better option for sharing one: make a copy.

If the owner allows it, a copy brings across the sources, the Studio outputs (Audio and Video Overviews, study guides, flashcards, quizzes, slide decks), the prompts that made them and the custom chat settings. It leaves behind the owner’s chat history and personal notes. Google Drive sources only come across if you can open and copy the original Drive file, and the copy doesn’t sync with the original afterwards. Owners control this with Allow copies in the sharing settings, which is on by default.

Copying is the cleanest way to hand someone a ready-made study set or research pack without giving them edit rights to yours.

Two newer ways to use a notebook’s contents elsewhere, with nothing to export:

• Google Docs: type @ in the Gemini bar at the bottom of a Doc and pick a notebook. Gemini drafts from that notebook’s sources.
• Gemini app: type @Gemini Notebook in a Gemini chat to ask questions of your notebooks, add sources or save notes. Gemini Notebooks and NotebookLM Are Now the Same Thing covers how the two connect.

Managing Sources and Organization

How Sources Work

Sources imported from Google Drive auto-update, syncing every few minutes, so edits to the original document flow through when you open the notebook. Files you upload from your computer are one-time snapshots: change the file on your desktop and the notebook keeps the version you gave it. If a document is going to keep changing, add it from Drive instead of uploading a copy.

Supported sources:

• Google Drive (Docs, Slides, Sheets)
• PDFs (up to 200MB, including images and graphs)
• Microsoft Word (.docx) and PowerPoint (.pptx)
• Text, Markdown and ePub files
• Web URLs (text only) and public YouTube videos with captions
• Audio files (MP3, M4A, WAV, AAC, OGG, OPUS and more; clear speech needed)
• Images (text is read with OCR) and CSV files
• Pasted text (up to 900,000 characters)

The mobile app accepts a shorter list: PDFs, websites, YouTube, audio and pasted text. Per-plan source limits are in Limitations & Quotas.

Finding sources: the search box in the Sources panel has two modes. Fast Research pulls matching material from the web or from your Google Drive; try “Docs about Q4 planning” or “Slides from Claire” for the Drive side. Deep Research is the slower option below. Both return a list you review before anything is imported.

Forcing a sync: Drive sources refresh on their own, but if you need the latest version right now, open the source and click “Click to sync with Google Drive.”

Deep Research

Deep Research works like a dedicated researcher: describe a topic, and it searches the web, writes a cited report and suggests sources to import. Add the report to your notebook as a source and it exports like anything else. Generate slides, an infographic or a video from it, or export it to Docs.

For filling gaps in a notebook you’ve already built, ask in the chat instead. The chat reads your existing sources first, so “Look at all my sources: what’s missing, and can you find sources to fill those gaps?” brings back better suggestions than starting a fresh search.

Notebook Sharing

Three modes: private (only you), shared with specific people as Editor or Viewer, and public, with full notebook or chat-only access. Public sharing works on personal Google accounts only; Workspace Enterprise and Education accounts can’t share publicly. Custom chat and notebook analytics are available on every plan, and advanced sharing options need a paid plan.

Real Workflow Examples

Workflow 1: Research → Presentation (Full Pipeline)

Goal: turn uploaded research into a presentation with supporting materials.

1. Create a notebook and add sources (PDFs, Docs, web links, YouTube lectures).
2. Use Deep Research to add web sources you’re missing.
3. Generate a Briefing Doc to see the main themes.
4. Create a Slide Deck (Detailed Deck if people will read it without you).
5. Generate an Infographic for social media.
6. Create an Audio Overview for people who’d rather listen.
7. Download everything: slides as PDF for email or PowerPoint for presenting, the infographic as PNG, audio from the player.

One research session, several formats for different audiences.

Workflow 2: Academic Study Session

Goal: prepare for an exam with active recall.

1. Upload lecture notes, textbook chapters and supplementary readings.
2. Generate a Study Guide for the overview.
3. Create Flashcards for key terms, then download the CSV and import it into your flashcard app.
4. Generate a Quiz to test yourself, and use Explain on anything you miss.
5. Create a Longer Audio Overview for the commute.
6. Generate a Short Video Overview on the concept you find hardest.
7. Create a Mind Map to see how the topics connect.
8. Share with your study group: send the flashcard CSV, or share the notebook with Allow copies on so everyone gets their own version.

Workflow 3: Meeting Recording → Team Knowledge

Goal: turn meeting recordings into searchable knowledge and shareable summaries.

1. Upload the meeting audio (MP3, M4A, WAV). NotebookLM transcribes it on import.
2. Ask targeted questions: “What budget decisions were made?” “Who owns the website redesign?”
3. Ask the chat for the decisions and owners as a Word document.
4. Generate a Brief Audio Overview of the key decisions.
5. Create a Slide Deck (Presenter Slides) for the team briefing.
6. Download the audio and slides, and share the notebook with the team as Viewers.

Workflow 4: Content Creation Pipeline

Goal: research a topic and create content for several platforms.

1. Use Deep Research on your topic.
2. Generate a Blog Post report and export it to Google Docs.
3. Create a square Infographic for Instagram.
4. Generate a Slide Deck and export the PDF for a LinkedIn carousel.
5. Create an Audio Overview for podcast repurposing.
6. Create a Short Video Overview for TikTok or Reels.

Everything comes from the same sources, so the facts stay consistent across platforms.

Limitations & Quotas

Export Gaps

• No single-file export of a whole notebook. Making a copy is the closest substitute.
• Quizzes have no download (flashcards now do).
• PowerPoint exports are images, and Google Slides export hasn’t shipped.
• Learning Overviews share by link only.
• Interactive audio conversations don’t carry into downloads.
• Mobile app: audio downloads are offline-only, and mind maps, reports, data tables and note editing aren’t available.
• Exported Docs and Sheets don’t sync back to the notebook.
• Notebooks with a Google Play Books ebook as a source may block downloads.

File Restrictions

• 500,000 words or 200MB per source, whichever comes first
• PDFs work best under 200 pages
• Audio processes well up to about 3 hours

Usage Limits and Plans

In September 2026 Google replaced the old daily counts (“3 Audio Overviews a day”) with compute-based limits. What a request costs depends on the feature, the model, how complex the prompt is and how long the chat has run. Your allowance refreshes every five hours until you reach a weekly cap.

• Check your usage: Settings → Usage on the web. In the mobile app, tap your profile picture, then AI usage.
• Before you generate: Studio shows the expected cost.
• Out of quota: on the web, choose Generate later and the item builds when your allowance returns. It can take a couple of hours, and you’ll get a notification if they’re switched on.

What each plan gets, from Google’s plans page (October 2026, marked subject to change):

*A visible watermark is applied regardless in India, South Korea and Vietnam. Paid plans also get more usage per window. For current prices and how NotebookLM’s allowance compares with ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, see the LLM Usage Limits Comparison, re-checked monthly.

Feature Restrictions

• 18+ only: Cinematic Video Overviews, visual style choices, slide decks and infographics
• English only: Cinematic narration, interactive audio mode and the audio length setting
• Google AI Ultra only: video producer notes and slide outline review
• Public sharing: personal Google accounts only
• Watermark removal: Google AI Pro and Ultra

Third-Party Export Tools

Chrome extensions cover what’s left, mostly quizzes, chat transcripts and bulk exports. Search the Chrome Web Store for “NotebookLM exporter” and you’ll find tools that export quizzes to PDF, Word or Google Forms, chats to Markdown, and flashcards in Anki-ready formats.

Before you install one: these aren’t Google products, they need permission to read your notebook pages, and their feature lists are the developers’ own claims. Check the permissions and recent reviews. For flashcards, and for anything the chat can build, the built-in routes above now do the job. And for sources, a bulk export gives you the parsed text of everything in the notebook, never the original files you uploaded.

Key Takeaways

• Audio: download from the player on the web. The mobile app only saves for offline listening.
• Video: Cinematic, Explainer and Short formats, downloadable on the web and in the app.
• Slides: PDF or PowerPoint, and the PowerPoint slides are images. Finish revising (deleting and reordering included) before you export.
• Infographics and mind maps: image downloads. Mind maps are web-only.
• Flashcards download as CSV. Quizzes still don’t; ask the chat for a Word version.
• Reports, notes and data tables export to Google Docs and Sheets, and the exports don’t sync back.
• The chat builds files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, CSV, images) when Studio has no export button. Check what it makes.
• Whole notebooks move by making a copy; there’s still no single export file.
• Sources only travel one way. Keep your own copy of every file before it goes in.
• Limits are compute-based now. Check Settings → Usage before a big generation session.

This guide is part of a series on exporting your AI work: the ChatGPT Export Guide, Claude Export Guide and Gemini Export Guide. For getting files in, see the AI File Upload Guide.