Elicit
Research & Search
Finds, screens and summarises research papers into a comparison table.
NotebookLM
Upload your own documents and ask questions that only draw on those sources.
Freemium
Visit website What is it?
NotebookLM is Google's tool for understanding a pile of documents. Drop in PDFs, web pages, slides, YouTube videos or your own notes, then ask questions. It answers only from what you gave it, with pointers back to the exact passages.
It's the best way to get across a long report, a set of customer interviews or a stack of supplier contracts. It can also turn your sources into a two-host audio discussion, a slide deck, a study guide or a mind map, which is handy for sharing with people who won't read the originals.
Because it sticks to your sources, it won't bring in outside knowledge unless you ask it to research more. That's the point, but it surprises people.
Who it's for
Anyone who needs to understand or explain a set of documents they don't have time to read properly.
Best for
- Summarising long reports
- Questioning a set of PDFs
- Turning research into a podcast
- Study guides and briefings
Why it made the list
Nothing else makes a stack of your own documents this easy to question, and it's free.
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