Comparison
Elicit vs NotebookLM
Elicit: Research assistant that searches and extracts data from 138M papers. NotebookLM: Google's AI that studies your documents and creates summaries and podcasts.
| Elicit | NotebookLM | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.7 |
| Price | Freemium Free Basic plan with 5,000 credits, unlimited searches and summaries. Plus $12/user/month, Pro $49, Team $79. | Freemium Very complete free plan (100 notebooks, 50 sources/notebook). Plus from $7.99/month. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Web | Web · iOS · Android |
Elicit or NotebookLM?
Elicit is an academic research tool and NotebookLM a study tool. Elicit combs through 138 million papers and extracts their data into a table, saving days on a literature review. NotebookLM works only on your sources and turns them into usable material: summaries, mind maps, quizzes and podcasts.
Choose Elicit if…
You are in the phase of finding and systematically comparing scientific literature.
Choose NotebookLM if…
You already have the material and what you want is to absorb and revise it.
Elicit
- Extracts data from many papers at once into a comparison table
- Free plan with unlimited searches and summaries
- A base of more than 138 million scientific articles
- Big price jump between the free plan and Pro ($49/month)
- English-only interface
NotebookLM
- Answers by citing YOUR sources: it barely makes things up
- Audio Overviews: turns your notes into a two-voice podcast
- Very generous free plan for students
- No public API for developers
- Paid tiers are sold inside Google subscriptions (AI Pro/Ultra)
The differences that actually matter
Finding and extracting versus studying and synthesising
Elicit searches millions of papers and extracts into a table whatever data you request from each: sample, method, result. NotebookLM starts from documents you already have and helps you understand and relate them. One scouts, the other digs.
The extraction table is what NotebookLM lacks
For a literature review, comparing forty studies column by column saves days of manual work. NotebookLM answers in prose about your sources, useful for understanding but not for tabulating systematically.
The audio summary
NotebookLM generates a spoken conversation about your documents you can listen to like a podcast. It sounds like a novelty and turns out to be quite practical for reviewing dense material while doing something else. Elicit has no equivalent.
Frequently asked questions
Which suits an undergraduate thesis?
Both, at different stages: Elicit to locate and compare the literature, NotebookLM to study the papers you selected in depth. What neither does is write the thesis for you, and submitting generated text as-is is usually prohibited by institutional rules.
Is NotebookLM free?
It has a free version with limits on notebooks and sources that is enough to study a subject or prepare a topic. The specific limits change frequently, so check them before organising your whole course around it.