Gemini Notebook Enterprise (Formerly NotebookLM Enterprise): Features, Limits, Security, and Admin Setup

NotebookLM became one of Google’s most loved AI tools because it does one thing very well: it answers questions only from the sources you give it, with citations, and turns those sources into summaries, audio overviews, mind maps, and reports. For businesses, the question was always whether it was safe for company documents.

Gemini Notebook Enterprise (renamed from NotebookLM Enterprise in July 2026) is Google’s answer: the same research experience, running in your Google Cloud project with enterprise identity, sharing controls, data residency, VPC Service Controls, and customer-managed encryption keys.

This guide covers what it does, how it differs from the consumer version, the limits, editions, security controls, and how to set it up. If your users already work in Google Workspace, this is the version to consider when notebooks will hold regulated or confidential content.

Table of contents

Open Table of contents

• What Gemini Notebook Enterprise (NotebookLM Enterprise) Does
• Enterprise vs. Consumer: What’s Different
• Platform Limits
• Editions and Licensing
• Sharing Notebooks
• Security and Compliance
• Admin Setup: Step by Step
• Moving Users Off Consumer Notebooks
• Rollout Tips
• Gemini Notebook Enterprise vs. Enterprise Search
• Conclusion

What Gemini Notebook Enterprise (NotebookLM Enterprise) Does

Users create notebooks, add sources, and then chat with them. Answers are grounded in those sources, with citations back to the passages used.

Supported sources

Uploaded sources become a static copy: the original file isn’t changed, and later edits to the original don’t flow into the notebook automatically.

What it can generate

Typical business uses

• Policy and compliance Q&A: a notebook of policies, standards, and audit findings
• Sales enablement: product docs, pricing guides, and case studies; reps ask questions before calls
• Onboarding: a team handbook new hires can question, with an audio overview for the commute
• Due diligence and research: contracts, reports, and filings, summarized into a briefing report
• Project handover: specs, decisions, and meeting notes in one place

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Enterprise vs. Consumer: What’s Different

Google also states that source data stored in the project is accessible only to Gemini Notebook Enterprise, not to other Google Cloud services such as Cloud Storage. Deleting a notebook deletes its data; deleting the project deletes everything.

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Platform Limits

Excel tip: each sheet is processed separately, with roughly 150,000 active cells per sheet. Conversion adds structural characters that count toward the 500,000-word limit, so a large workbook can exceed it even if the visible text doesn’t. Split very large workbooks or export only the sheets you need.

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Editions and Licensing

You can buy Gemini Notebook Enterprise standalone or as part of Gemini Enterprise. From Google’s edition comparison:

Notebooks are available from both the Gemini Notebook Enterprise and Gemini Enterprise apps when they share the same project and location. Google also has a Public Preview that lets users search their notebooks by title from Gemini Enterprise.

Gemini Notebook in the Gemini App (Google Workspace)

This one applies to Gemini Notebook in Google Workspace, not to the Google Cloud enterprise version described above. Since October 23, 2026, Gemini Notebook is a Connected App in the Gemini app: users can type @Gemini Notebook to create, edit, and delete notebooks, add or remove sources, save notes, and ask questions answered from their notebooks without leaving the chat. It’s on by default, except in the European Economic Area where it’s off by default, and it’s available to users in an OU or group where both Gemini and Gemini Notebook are turned on in the Admin console. Users manage it under Settings > Connected Apps. Google’s announcement doesn’t mention Gemini Notebook Enterprise.

For quota pooling and overage rules across Gemini Enterprise, see our billing guide.

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Sharing Notebooks

Notebooks are private by default.

Rules to know:

• Recipients must be in the same project and workforce pool, have the Cloud NotebookLM User role, and hold a Gemini Notebook Enterprise or Gemini Enterprise license
• You can share with groups: Google groups and Microsoft Entra ID groups. Group members get an email link; the notebook appears in My Notebooks after they open it
• With Entra ID without SCIM, you may need the group’s Object ID instead of its name, and no email is sent: copy the link from the Share dialog
• When someone gets access through several groups, the highest permission wins
• Shared users can always see the sources
• You can’t share with personal or Plus Gemini Notebook accounts
• Notebooks with sources added from Gemini Enterprise search results can’t be shared, and once shared, you can’t add Gemini Enterprise sources to them

That last rule protects permission-aware search: a source a user found through Gemini Enterprise search might not be visible to everyone they’d share with.

External sharing in Google Workspace (not the enterprise version)

Don’t confuse the rules above with a separate Workspace setting. Since September 2026, Workspace admins can control external sharing for Gemini Notebook in the Admin console at the domain, OU, or group level, with four options: Off (the default), Trusted Domains, On, and On with public notebook sharing. Google’s announcement covers Gemini Notebook in Google Workspace and doesn’t mention Gemini Notebook Enterprise, whose documentation still limits sharing to users in the same Google Cloud project.

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Security and Compliance

A breaking change to know about

On September 9, 2026, Google blocked website URL ingestion for Gemini Notebook Enterprise projects under VPC Service Controls. If your users add web pages as sources inside a perimeter, that no longer works. They need to save the content as a file and upload it instead. Tell users before they hit the error.

Data handling guidance for users

• Add only the sources the notebook needs: a smaller, focused notebook gives better answers
• Don’t paste credentials, customer card data, or other regulated data into sources unless your data classification allows it
• Remember that shared users can see every source, not just the answers

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Admin Setup: Step by Step

1. Enable the Gemini Notebook capability in the project’s Google Cloud console
2. Configure identity: Cloud Identity (Google) or a workforce identity pool for your third-party IdP
3. Grant roles:

4. Assign licenses (standalone or Gemini Enterprise); free-trial users also need the User role
5. Distribute the URL: the interface is at a project- and region-specific address; publish it on your intranet
6. Turn on Model Armor, audit logging, and CMEK if required
7. Train users on sharing rules and what not to upload

Note on the Admin role: because it grants full access to all notebooks, assign it to as few people as possible and review it quarterly, just as you would for Vault or super admin rights. Our Vault guide covers similar access-review practices on the Workspace side.

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Moving Users Off Consumer Notebooks

Many employees already use the consumer version with personal accounts, often with work documents in them. A rollout is a good moment to bring that usage inside your controls:

1. Announce the approved option. Tell users the enterprise version exists, where its URL is, and why it’s the one to use for work content.
2. Explain what changes. Sources and notebooks don’t move automatically between personal and enterprise accounts, and sharing between them isn’t possible. Users re-create important notebooks by re-uploading the sources.
3. Set a cut-off date after which work documents shouldn’t be in personal notebooks, and include it in your acceptable-use policy.
4. Offer templates. Pre-built team notebooks (policies, product docs, runbooks) give people a reason to switch on day one.
5. Ask users to delete work material from personal notebooks once they’ve moved. Deleting a notebook deletes its data.
6. Review periodically with your security team, using DLP and cloud access reports where you have them, for work documents still flowing to personal AI tools.

The smoother the enterprise experience, the less you’ll need enforcement.

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Rollout Tips

• Start with a curated notebook per team (HR policies, IT runbooks, sales playbook), owned by a named person who keeps sources current
• Use groups for sharing, mapped to your org structure
• Refresh sources monthly, since uploaded sources are static copies
• Promote audio overviews for long documents. They’re often the feature that drives adoption
• Measure queries per user and generated outputs in the first month to decide which teams need more licenses

Review slide decks and video overviews before they’re generated

Since October 19, 2026, Google has been rolling out a review step for slide decks and video overviews in Gemini Notebook: users can check the outline or producer notes, give feedback, and then choose Proceed to generate the final output. Google announced it for all Gemini Notebook users and hasn’t said separately whether it has reached Gemini Notebook Enterprise, so check your project before promising it in training.

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Gemini Notebook Enterprise vs. Enterprise Search

They complement each other: search to find the right documents, then put them into a notebook for focused analysis. For connector details, see our connectors guide.

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Conclusion

Gemini Notebook Enterprise keeps everything people like about NotebookLM (grounded answers with citations, audio overviews, mind maps, and reports) and adds what IT needs: data in your own project and region, enterprise sign-in, project-only sharing, VPC Service Controls, CMEK, and audit logging. Generous limits (300 sources per notebook, 500 queries per user per day) make it practical for real work.

Set it up with tight admin roles, clear sharing rules, and curated team notebooks, and it becomes the place where your organization’s important documents are actually read: alongside the files your teams keep in Google Workspace.

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Official Google documentation:

• What is Gemini Notebook Enterprise?
• Share notebooks
• Compare editions of Gemini Enterprise
• Gemini Enterprise release notes
• Manage external sharing for Gemini Notebook in the Admin console (Workspace Updates)
• Take actions on your notebooks from Gemini Notebook in the Gemini app (Workspace Updates)

Related reading:

• Gemini Enterprise Connectors and Data Stores: search everything, then go deep in a notebook.
• Gemini Enterprise Pay-as-you-go, Quotas, and Overages: editions and notebook availability.
• Gemini for Google Workspace: Admin Guide: AI features already built into Workspace apps.