C
CAI search engine that answers questions from peer-reviewed research papers
Free, from $20/mo
NotebookLM vs Semantic Scholar
Pricing, features, platforms and who each one suits — side by side.
N
Choose NotebookLM if…
- you're in its core audience: students, researchers
S
Choose Semantic Scholar if…
- you need an API to build on
- you're in its core audience: researchers, students
Side by side
Feature NotebookLM Semantic Scholar
Pricing modelFreemiumFree
Starting price—Free
Free plan
Free trial
API
Open source
Source citations—
Academic paper search—
Citation export—
Shared workspaces—
PlatformsWebWeb, API
CategoryResearch AssistantsResearch Assistants
CompanyGoogleThe Allen Institute for AI
Based in——
Founded—2015
Part of—Ai2
Key features
N NotebookLM
- Notebooks organized around your uploaded sources
- Answers questions using a Gemini model
- Up to 600 sources per notebook on top tiers
- Notebook sharing, with advanced controls on Enterprise
- Workspace and Workspace for Education access
- Enterprise security controls via Google Cloud
S Semantic Scholar
- Search across 239+ million scientific papers
- Coverage of all fields of science
- Semantic Reader augmented reading for select papers (beta)
- Developer API with paper search
- API documentation, tutorials and gallery
- Free user accounts
- Resources for librarians and publishers
Plans and prices
From each vendor's site. Prices change — confirm before buying.
NotebookLM
StandardFree
Plus (Google AI Plus)Price not stated
Pro (Google AI Pro)Price not stated
Ultra (Google AI Ultra)Price not stated
EnterpriseCustom
Semantic Scholar
FreeFree
Strengths and limitations
NotebookLM
- Free Standard tier allows 100 notebooks and 50 sources per notebook
- Paid tiers raise limits to as many as 600 sources per notebook
- Available through Workspace, Workspace for Education and Google Cloud
- NotebookLM help page gives no prices; they sit on separate Google AI plan pages
- Watermarks stay on output in India, South Korea and Vietnam even on paid plans
- Google labels plan limits as subject to change
Semantic Scholar
- Free to use
- Indexes over 239 million papers from all fields
- Public API with documentation and tutorials
- Built by the nonprofit research institute Ai2
- Semantic Reader is in beta and only works on select papers
- No mobile apps listed
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Built from each vendor's public website; we haven't tested them hands-on. Editorial policy