NotebookLM and its abilities need no introduction. It’s genuinely a powerful research tool, especially once you start feeding it the right sources. But that’s also where the first bit of friction starts showing up. Several developers and communities have created browser extensions that make it a little easier to add web pages to NotebookLM so you can skip the manual copy-pasting of URLs. However, not all of them are designed equally.

This is where NotebookLM Tools comes in. It’s a browser extension that lets you manage your NotebookLM from anywhere in your browser without ever touching NotebookLM. It gives users the organization tools that NotebookLM notoriously lacks, and comes with several perks over other extensions, such as adding weblinks to a notebook in bulk. Here’s why I’ve been using NotebookLM Tools and how I get the most out of it.

What is NotebookLM Tools?

And what makes it better than other NotebookLM extensions?

NotebookLM Tools is a Chrome browser extension built specifically to remove the friction from using NotebookLM at scale. It primarily focuses on the part most users hit first: getting sources in. There’s no separate service to sign up for and no extra setup beyond installing the extension - just ensure you’re signed into your NotebookLM account. It runs on all Chromium-based browsers; I use it without issue in Brave. And while there are some paywalls, the free version includes all the core features, including bulk source handling.

The extension’s core purpose is speeding up and streamlining your NotebookLM work. It lets you add large numbers of sources in one go, instead of requiring you to repeat the same upload steps over and over. You can collect your materials from the web, move them into NotebookLM more efficiently, and also manage your notebooks without having to jump between tabs thanks to all the little extras in the extension. It has its own interface from which you can organize your notebooks in ways NotebookLM itself doesn’t support, such as tagging.

This extension is perfect for anyone who works with a lot of resources and inputs. If you live in your browser and constantly deal with tons of research, reference links, or handle source-heavy projects, then NotebookLM Tools can save time immediately.

How I add sources to NotebookLM in bulk with NotebookLM Tools

It handles bulk source input in a flash

The main reason why I love NotebookLM Tools is how quickly it gets me from raw materials to a fully curated notebook. There are a couple of ways it lets you import sources to a notebook in bulk. First, I recommend opening the NotebookLM Tools interface to get familiar with the controls - there’s quite a lot to work with. You will see the options for adding sources right under the link it displays for whatever page you’re currently on. Here’s what they do:

• Page - This simply lets you add the current webpage to a new or existing notebook.
• Links - This feature is really cool; it lets you extract all the links from the current page you’re on, and add them to a new or existing notebook. It’s perfect for webpages that tend to hyperlink a lot of relevant information.
• Playlist - Lets you add YouTube videos to NotebookLM in bulk. It’s ideal for courses that span over several videos in a playlist.
• RSS - Lets you add sources directly from your RSS feed of choice.
• Tabs - This feature is my favorite of them all. Tabs detect every tab you have open in your browser and lets you add all of them to a new or existing notebook.

All of these features let you curate the list of weblinks, too. For example, if NotebookLM picked up all of my opened tabs via the Tabs function, but I don’t want all of them in a notebook, then I simply have to untick them in the list. Once you’ve curated your list of weblinks or videos, it will take a minute to load them into your notebook, and then you can find them in NotebookLM. I also appreciate that the extension doesn’t direct you to the notebook by default (you can toggle this in the settings), which makes for a more distraction-free environment as you’re still gathering resources.

NotebookLM Tools comes with loads of extras

It’s more than a source import tool

When you click the Notebooks button in NotebookLM Tools, it will open the interface in full view in a new tab. This window gives you several options for managing your notebooks, none of which NotebookLM has natively. You can inspect all the sources, prompts, responses, and generations from every notebook, and you can also import more sources from your device. Furthermore, it has a Tags feature you can use for organizing your notebooks, plus a global search function to surface anything specific you’re looking for.

There’s a similar tab for audio overviews called Podcasts that gives you some organization features too. And the NotebookLM Tools Settings window lets you configure how the extension behaves, such as where it's situated in your browser, toggling auto-open on or off, and so on.

I can finally add and manage my NotebookLM sources in bulk

NotebookLM is already strong at working with the information it’s given. However, getting that information into the app can become a pain. NotebookLM Tools completely streamlines that process by not only letting you add active page links, but also by extracting all hyperlinks or open tabs and adding them in bulk. Plus, it gives us a couple of organizational features that NotebookLM users have been begging Google for. I’ve yet to find a NotebookLM extension that beats this one.