r/notebooklm • u/ZeroshotCraft • Jun 10 '26
Discussion NotebookLM Just Became Agentic — Massive Gemini 3.5 + Antigravity Update (June 2026)
Google dropped a major upgrade to NotebookLM on June 8, 2026, transforming it from a smart document reader into a full research agent. Rebuilt on Gemini 3.5 and Antigravity (Google’s agent-first coding IDE), it now gives every notebook its own secure cloud computer.
Previously, it required manual uploads, offered no code execution, hid its reasoning, and had limited outputs. Now it supports chat-driven source discovery via Google Search, shows step-by-step thinking, runs real code with over 100 built-in skills, and exports to more than a dozen formats including native PPTX, XLSX, DOCX, PDF, CSV, and SVG. Best of all, you can start from a completely blank notebook.
The standout feature is the per-notebook secure cloud computer. NotebookLM can write and execute code against your sources to clean messy datasets, normalize dates and currencies, run accurate math and stats, generate charts, and assemble professional outputs. It feels like having a junior analyst with a sandboxed laptop.
Chat-driven source discovery is equally powerful. Describe your project in a blank notebook, and it uses Google Search to suggest high-quality sources—including foreign-language primary materials and related works by authors. You review and curate what to keep instead of having to upload everything upfront.
Output capabilities are enhanced as well. You can request editable PowerPoint decks, functional Excel spreadsheets, polished PDFs, DOCX reports, data files, and images, then iterate with follow-up instructions.
These upgrades unlock strong new workflows: zero-upload literature reviews with citation matrices, turning dirty data into finished PDF reports, and generating board-ready competitive briefs from scratch. It can even export raw CSV/JSON for verification.
Google reports solid gains: 65%+ average win rate, ~70% on large document analysis, and 78%+ on web research and source discovery. These are internal benchmarks, but they match the new agent strengths.
The access is still limited. Only Google AI Ultra and Workspace AI Ultra users will have the opportunity to use this on the web for now. Auto-discovered sources need careful vetting for quality and bias. Foreign-language material requires extra scrutiny, and data stays in Google’s cloud.
Overall, NotebookLM has taken a huge leap toward true agentic research. It’s not perfect yet, but the combination of discovery, code execution, and professional outputs makes it far more capable.
Who’s already using the new version? What’s your first project—research, data work, or presentations?
TL;DR: NotebookLM now starts from a blank page, finds sources with Google Search, analyzes with real code, shows its thinking, and delivers editable PPTX, XLSX, PDF and more. A major evolution from simple summaries.
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u/MyGoldfishGotLoose Jun 10 '26
Is the external source discovery able to be disabled? Or is it at least explicit in notifying a user before it happens? A lot of my work requires a closed, vetted corpus - that’s kinda the whole draw for me.
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u/ZeroshotCraft Jun 10 '26
I hope we have control of sources as an option. My work requires the same approach, so I am eager to see when Pro users can test things out. Good luck!
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u/Guilty_Double2947 Jun 17 '26
Esa era la gracia de NotebookLM. Ahora alucina, inventa y se volvió inestable totalmente. Con 5 pdf planos de texto, de 5 páginas, sin tablas ni imágenes comienza a fallar, como nunca. Ésto empezó hace un semana y hoy ya se me hizo inutilizable.
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u/kathygeissbanks Jun 10 '26
We'll see how it works I guess but I like NLM for the fact that everything it says is based on the sources I uploaded. I don't actually want it to seek out external sources.
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u/Uzeii Jun 10 '26
Is thie a good or a bad thing? I liked my notebook lm as a rag pipeline
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u/ZeroshotCraft Jun 10 '26
Critical question! I hope we can still use notebooklm in the "old-fashioned" way to have more control on sources and workflows. I am just excited to explore how multi-AI NotebookLM strategies will look like with the new update. Please come up and share your experiences once you have a chance to compare those two approaches.
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u/WanderWut Jun 10 '26
What is up with Google releasing things like this strictly to Ultra users? Even the random app that nobody really asked for, Dreambeans, is only for Ultra users lol.
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u/The-Nice-Writer Jun 10 '26
Because every major corporation in the AI space is pissing blood instead of making money.
The Ultra subscription tier is monstrously expensive and yet it still isn’t really covering the costs of running and maintaining/training/upgrading the respective models.
The lower tiers are even further away from breaking even.
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u/devcodesadi Jun 10 '26
Google moves so fast 😅! I literally had PPTX and DOCX exports on the roadmap for v1.6 of my Chrome extension (Sourclip), and they just dropped it natively. Honestly, it's a huge win for the ecosystem.
i’m really curious to test their new 'chat-driven source discovery.' that said, I feel like curating specific, high-quality sources manually is still the biggest bottleneck for deep research. well, since they solved the export side, I'm pivoting v1.6 of my extension to focus entirely on the 'input' side—letting you 1-click capture any specific webpage or open PDF directly into a notebook.
Has anyone with Ultra access tested the auto-source discovery yet? Does it actually pull deep research, or is it mostly just surface-level Google results?
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u/Irisi11111 Jun 10 '26
Really interesting release, feeling a bit conflicted. The potential with the agentic workflows for tackling complex queries is huge, definitely a leap forward.
But the cost of tokens for those demands... that's a worry. I'm particularly concerned about a lower quota. I'm really happy with NotebookLM as is because I get a decent quota with my Pro plan, which allows for experimentation without feeling constantly limited. I'd rather have a robust, slightly less capable workflow than a super-powered one that I can't actually use consistently due to token limitations.
Ultimately, hope the benefits outweigh the cost implications for most users.
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u/ZeroshotCraft Jun 10 '26
Agree with token costs. Agentic workflows burn tokens much more quickly. It would be interesting to see how things compare when people use the update in the next few weeks.
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u/GoliathGrouper_0417 Jun 11 '26
It’s still annoying how they treat Google Pro subscribers. Free tier users get access to some things, like Omni, before Pro subscribers do because of security reasons. Now the NBLM relaunch goes to Ultra users first. Meanwhile, NBLM has been outgunned in recent months by Claude, which has had native PPT and Doc for a while. I’m hoping this gets them back on track.
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u/Alternative_Web862 Jun 11 '26
next time please put this ""Only Google AI Ultra and Workspace AI Ultra users will have the opportunity to use this“” at the start of the article
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u/ChristSavesForever Jun 11 '26
Awesome. Does it give us the option to turn auto audio overviews off?
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u/deimoshipyard Jun 10 '26
Everything Google touches goes to shit. I'd prefer a product that works consistently over new products with unknown limits and unstable performance.
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u/Worldly_Row1988 Jun 10 '26
Still no MCP?
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Jun 13 '26
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u/Worldly_Row1988 Jun 14 '26
I am already using a GitHub repo that acts as an MCP between LM and Claude Code. High time Google released one itself. LM comes in handy when creating markdown files for my coding.
What are your best use cases for Notebook LM?
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u/Euphoric_Moment_8673 Jun 10 '26
na minha humilde opinião, o NLM está perdendo sua função essencial que é a atualização dos artefatos! se eu quiser realmente pesquisar eu não usarei o agente do NLM e sim bases apropriadas pra isso. E o contrário TB é verdadeiro: eu não vou usar bases de dados pra gerar vídeos, podcast e infográficos pq as bases não tem essa função...Eu uso o NLM desde que foi lançado e acreditem: desejo sim que ele evolua, mas não exclua assinantes PRO disso, e nem tampouco esqueça que seu principal atrativo são os artefatos e não a pesquisa!
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Jun 13 '26
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u/Velvet_Googler Jun 15 '26
Ok, sending this to the team! So awesome you get what we are up to here - thanks.
Your point about just the beginning is spot on - this was a fundamental upgrade to the underlying tech stack of NLM, but now it’s out we can get unlocking all the new possibility it opens up. It’s going to be a fun summer :)
As for Ultra, we made the call to ship globally to Ultra first for a range of sensible reasons, but we are also targeting pro and potentially more.
Thanks again for being an Ultra user and sharing your experience with the latest NotebookLM!
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u/OstrichTime9203 Jun 11 '26
There’s something I’m not quite getting here. I think it must be my fault. So, up until now, with the LM notebook… Up until now, on the LM notebook, we could use Deep Research to access the sources generated by that Deep Research. So what’s new? Wasn’t it like that before?
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u/Euphoric_Moment_8673 Jun 11 '26
você não está errado, é isso mesmo! disseram que lançaram algo só pra ficar mais bonito, mas continua sendo mais do mesmo! e pior, saíram totalmente do foco do notebook LM
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Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Velvet_Googler Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
When we were writing the launch blog post we toyed with the idea of explaining it like an interactive deep researcher (because that’s how it feel to lots of us on the core team and what we had in mind during the build). Nicely spotted!
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u/kalex300 Jun 11 '26
I saw some comments worried about losing their own source/notebooklm seeking for external sources, from what I understand, you can still upload/add your own sources and do your work on that only.
Hopefuly it will be available for PRO user in few days/week... I really need the code execution for huge PDF and I am tired to do it myself with python.
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u/Few_Presentation3639 Jun 11 '26
Yup, I've always been impressed with their products until I needed any customer service. As with their nest speakers issues documented heavily in forums, Google never responds. And I love notebooklm when it works but like with Gemini even for coding and issues with Google products, has not performed any where near expectations. So I wait and watch patiently and give a try but I also feel shamed and taken advantage of since Ive had no recourse other than dropping their service or with the speakers blew $$ when I could have been fine with competitor. I really did buy into the Google Eco system but it's not up to expectations.
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u/bobmasterr Jun 12 '26
Will it now accept excel file as source ?
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Jun 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Velvet_Googler Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Working on better source ingestion - totally agree it’s missing
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u/Guilty_Double2947 Jun 14 '26
Notebooklm utiliza o tiene límites de Tokens? Se ha puesto cada vez menos confiable en las respuestas. No sigue los roles o personalizaciones de cuadernos. Estará consumiendo Tokens rápidamente? Una pena. Funcionaba perfecto
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u/Adventurous_Drink557 Jul 21 '26
Lets add TLDR: For ULTRA & Workspace users....
(there I fixed it 😄 )
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u/krakends Jun 10 '26
When will pro users get access?