Ace
Disclosure: we make Ace. NotebookLM details below come from Google's own announcements as of October 26, 2026; Google has since renamed it Gemini Notebook, and features change, so check there too. NotebookLM and Gemini are trademarks of Google; Ace is not affiliated with Google.
Short answer: NotebookLM is a research notebook: you load sources, then ask questions, get summaries, listen to audio overviews, and it can also make flashcards and multiple-choice quizzes. Ace does one thing: turns your lecture material into practice. That means more question types (put in order, type the answer, label a diagram from your own slides, formula simulations), live two-player duels with a friend, and streaks and a study calendar to keep you coming back.
What do Ace and NotebookLM have in common?
More than most comparisons. Both start from your own material rather than the open web: lecture slides, PDFs, YouTube lectures. Both can make multiple-choice questions from it. And Google says NotebookLM's "explain" option shows why a quiz answer was wrong with citations back to your sources, which is the right instinct for revision. If you already live in NotebookLM for reading and research, that's a real advantage.
Why isn't a notebook the same as a revision tool?
NotebookLM's centre of gravity is understanding: chatting with your sources, summaries, study guides, audio and video overviews. Those are useful while you're learning a topic. They are also mostly forms of reading and listening, and the evidence on revision is clear that being tested beats re-exposure. Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found students who practised recalling a passage remembered much more a week later than students who reread it, even though rereading made them feel more confident.
The danger with a notebook is that the comfortable tools win. An audio overview on the bus feels like studying; so does a neat summary. A quiz is the uncomfortable button. A tool built only for practice removes the choice: open it and you're answering questions.
The other gap is what happens across days. Spacing practice out beats one long session (Cepeda and colleagues, 2006, reviewed hundreds of experiments on this). Google has added saved progress and a "got it / missed it" mark to NotebookLM flashcards, but there's no habit loop pulling you back to practise.
Where is Ace different from NotebookLM?
| Ace | |
|---|---|
| Built for | Practice only: open a set and you're answering questions |
| Question types | Multiple choice, put the steps in order, type the answer, label a diagram taken from your own slides, and simulations where you set the value for formula topics |
| Checking | Every answer checked against your file; questions that fail are dropped before you see them |
| Proof on every question | The sentence from your material that backs the answer, shown under it every time, not only when you ask |
| Studying with friends | Live two-player duels: the same questions, taking turns against a clock, points for speed |
| Coming back | Streaks, a study calendar for planned sessions, and a streak widget on your iPhone Home Screen |
| Scope | Pick the chapters you're being examined on |
Question types matter more than they sound. Google says short-answer, multiple-select and fill-in-the-blank formats are coming to Gemini Notebook. Ordering a process, labelling a diagram from your lecturer's own slide, or moving a value until a formula hits its target practise things a four-option question can't. Our post on whether interactive simulations help you learn covers the evidence on that last one.
Duels matter because revising alone is where most revision dies. Sharing a quiz link is not the same as playing it against a friend in real time. More on how duels work.
Can you use NotebookLM and Ace together?
- Learn in NotebookLM. Use it to read around a topic, ask questions of your sources and make sense of a hard lecture.
- Practise in Ace. Upload the same lecture file, pick the chapters, and answer questions from memory, solo or against a friend.
- Fix misses from the source line. Each answer shows the sentence it came from; if that isn't enough, go back to NotebookLM and ask about it.
- Return on a schedule. Put sessions in Ace's calendar and keep the streak going. See our spaced repetition schedule.
Try Ace with your own lecture: your first study set is free.
Frequently asked questions
Is NotebookLM good for studying?
For understanding material, yes: chatting with your sources, summaries and overviews are useful while you learn. For revision, its quizzes are one feature among many, so it's easy to slip into reading and listening instead of practising.
Is NotebookLM now called Gemini Notebook?
Yes. Google renamed it in July 2026. It's still the same standalone research tool, and the study features described here carried over.
What can Ace make from a lecture that NotebookLM's quizzes can't?
Put-the-steps-in-order questions, type-the-answer questions, diagram labelling using an image from your own file, and interactive simulations for formula topics, depending on what your material contains. Plus live duels with a friend.
Which files can I upload to Ace?
PDF, PowerPoint, Word, ePub, plain text and YouTube lecture links.
Sources
- Paul, M. & Dhami, D. (2025). 6 ways to use NotebookLM to master any subject. Google blog. blog.google
- Google (2026). Sharpen your study routine with new Gemini Notebook tools. Google blog. blog.google
- Google Workspace Updates (2026, March 20). New ways to customize and interact with your content in NotebookLM. workspaceupdates.googleblog.com
- Roediger, H. L. & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. PDF
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T. & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. PubMed
