Google upgrades NotebookLM, which now runs on Gemini 3.5 and Antigravity, to deliver new agentic capabilities and more advanced reasoning, starting for AI Ultra
Google on Monday announced an update to its NotebookLM research tool, which includes new features and the shift to Gemini 3.5 as the default model.
TechCrunchIvan Mehta
Context & Ripple Effects
NotebookLM began as an AI-first notebook powered by Gemini Pro and is now being moved onto Google’s newer Gemini 3.5 and Antigravity stack. The change follows Google’s broader rollout of Gemini 3.5 capabilities aimed at longer-horizon agentic and coding work.
This is also an early step in folding the standalone NotebookLM product more tightly into the Gemini brand: subsequent coverage describes its renaming to Gemini Notebook and the addition of a secure cloud computer for native code execution.
First-order effects
AI Ultra users receive NotebookLM with more advanced reasoning and new agentic capabilities, while Gemini 3.5 and Antigravity become its default underlying models.
Google makes NotebookLM a more direct showcase and distribution surface for its newest model stack rather than leaving it on its earlier Gemini Pro foundation.
Second-order effects
The upgrade raises the functional bar for AI research-notebook products: rivals must compete not only on summarization and source grounding, but also on multi-step task execution and reasoning.
Restricting the initial upgrade to AI Ultra gives Google a premium tier in which to introduce higher-capability agent features before broader availability, tying NotebookLM’s most advanced use cases to its paid AI offering.
Third-order effects
If Google continues adding execution capabilities alongside reasoning, the category could shift from AI-assisted note-taking toward controlled workspaces that research, generate, and act on tasks within the same notebook.
The later Gemini Notebook rebrand suggests Google is consolidating product surfaces around Gemini, making model advances—not separate app identities—the organizing layer for its AI portfolio.
The trend: Google is turning discrete AI productivity tools into Gemini-native agentic workspaces, with advanced models and execution features increasingly used to differentiate premium access tiers.
Introducing a more powerful NotebookLM 🚀 Massive upgrades deliver agentic capabilities in chat, more advanced reasoning, and a suite of new output formats. Tackling complex, multi-step research problems has never been easier. Rolling out now to Google AI Ultra subscribers. [video…
A more powerful NotebookLM with agentic capabilities, more advanced reasoning, and a suite of new output formats rolling out globally on the web starting with Google AI Ultra users first!
Forget about our users? Who? Us??? Please. These updates are rolling out globally on the web starting with Google AI Ultra and all Workspace business customers with AI Ultra Access and AI Expanded Access, however we *absolutely* plan to expand to others over time!
The most significant update to @NotebookLM in the three years since we launched. I've been using it for past two months and it is absolutely transformative for research. Rolling out to Ultra users today, support for more tiers to come.
@deepakThamizhK The agentic research capabilities can help identify additional sources from the web to add to your notebook. When it comes to answering questions, generating artifacts, etc. notebook will still be grounded exclusively from your sources that you have approved and s…
The new killer NotebookLM feature: easily being able to expand your search beyond your own source files Then, with today's update, you can also make new output formats: PDFs, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, charts, etc. We want NotebookLM to keep helping you do better research