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About this tool
The 200MB cap exists because NotebookLM loads the full text of every source simultaneously into its context window. Scanned PDFs are the most common cause of hitting this limit — a 300-page scanned document at 300 DPI can easily exceed 200MB, while the same document as a text-based PDF would be under 5MB. Compressing re-encodes the images inside the PDF at lower quality without touching the text layer NotebookLM reads.
→NotebookLM supports PDF uploads up to 200MB per file.Google Help ↗
→Each file is limited to approximately 500,000 words.Google Help ↗
→Free users can add up to 50 sources per notebook; NotebookLM Plus allows up to 300 sources.Google Help ↗
→NotebookLM supports Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, text files, URLs, and YouTube links as sources.Google Help ↗
→If a file exceeds the size or word limit, compressing or splitting the PDF is required before upload.Google Help ↗
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is the NotebookLM PDF size limit?+
200MB per file. Files larger than 200MB are rejected during upload. Each file is also capped at approximately 500,000 words, which can be hit before the size limit on text-dense PDFs.Source: Google Help ↗
Why does NotebookLM reject large PDFs?+
NotebookLM loads the full text of every source in your notebook into its context window simultaneously. The 200MB cap prevents individual files from consuming the entire context budget and degrading analysis quality.Source: Google Help ↗
What happens when you exceed the NotebookLM upload limit?+
NotebookLM rejects the file and shows an error — typically 'file too big', 'exceeds limit', or 'upload failed'. The file is not added to your notebook. Compress it below 200MB and retry.Source: Google Help ↗
Why are scanned PDFs so much larger than regular PDFs?+
Scanned PDFs store each page as a high-resolution image. A 300-page scanned document at 300 DPI can exceed 200MB, while the same document as a text-based PDF would typically be under 5MB.Source: Google Help ↗
What should I do if my PDF is still too large after compression?+
Split the PDF into smaller parts and upload each as a separate source in NotebookLM. Each part must be under 200MB and under 500,000 words.Source: Google Help ↗