How Onhand and NotebookLM differ
| Onhand | NotebookLM (Gemini Notebook) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you work | On the page itself in Chrome, with answers in a side panel | In its own app, after you add sources to a notebook |
| Sources | The webpage or PDF you have open, plus clearly related open tabs, including pages you're signed in to | Sources you add: PDFs, websites, YouTube videos, audio files, Google Docs and Google Slides |
| Showing sources | Highlights the passages on the original page, with notes in the margin | Inline citations in its answers |
| Study tools | Learning mode: guiding questions, quizzes tied to highlighted passages, and a This session panel | Audio and video overviews, flashcards and quizzes, study guides and mind maps |
| Price and code | Free tier with a daily limit, or your ChatGPT plan or own API key; open source | See Google's website |
NotebookLM details are from Google's Gemini Notebook help pages as of October 2026. NotebookLM and Gemini Notebook are trademarks of Google; Onhand isn't affiliated with Google.
Ask while you read, without building a notebook
- No setup: open a reading, a paper or a course page and ask. There is no notebook to create and nothing to add first.
- The evidence stays in place: Onhand highlights the passages it used on the page you're reading, so you see each one in its context instead of in a separate citation view.
- Pages behind a sign-in work: course sites and library journal access, because Onhand reads the page in your browser.
- Pick up later: sessions are saved in your browser with their highlights, notes and answers.
When NotebookLM fits better
If you want to gather a whole course's sources into one place and ask across all of them, or you want audio and video overviews, mind maps or slide decks made from your sources, NotebookLM is built for that. It also has mobile apps; Onhand is a Chrome extension.
Using both
They work well together: use NotebookLM for an overview of a stack of sources, and Onhand when you sit down to read one of them closely.
Try it
Add Onhand to Chrome, open the page you're reading, and click the
Onhand icon or press Ctrl+Shift+Space
(⌘+Shift+Space on a Mac). Onhand Free needs no account
or API key and has a daily limit; you can also sign in with your
ChatGPT plan or use your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or
OpenRouter key.