OpenShelf
Home / AI / Open Notebook

Open Notebook

Open-source alternative to Google NotebookLM

Open Notebook is an open-source research workspace and an alternative to Google NotebookLM. It lets you load your own sources and ask questions answered from those materials, and it can generate audio overviews of your notes. Students, researchers, and analysts use it to study and explore documents with help from different AI model providers.

Best for: Researchers and students who want source-based AI Q&A without sending data to a third party.

Key features

  • Source-based Q&A research workspace
  • Audio overviews of your content
  • Self-hosted with multiple model providers

Before you switch

AI tools evolve fast, and open-source models and interfaces are catching up quickly. When you switch, check whether the project supports the models you already use and whether it can run on your own hardware or a server you control. Self-hosted AI keeps your prompts and data private, but it may need a little setup. Start with the project’s documentation and community guides — most popular projects have step-by-step install instructions that take under an hour.

Like every project on OpenShelf, Open Notebook is developed in the open — you can read the code, follow development, and even contribute. Check the system requirements and the project’s own documentation linked on this page before installing.