During Google's I/O 2025 keynote, the tech giant shocked fans with a new subscription tier that came with a staggering $250 price tag. If this is your first time hearing of it, no, that isn't a typo. Google's AI Ultra indeed retails for "only" $249.99/month.
The plan essentially gets you access to the "highest level of access to the best of Google AI," and Google announced that it would include the highest limits for Gemini, Flow, Whisk, Gemini in Google apps, etc. Interestingly, the AI Ultra plan didn't offer any real perks for NotebookLM users. The benefits page only mentioned "highest limits and best model capabilities (later this year)." Well, that just changed, and it might make the Ultra price tag a little easier to swallow.
NotebookLM officially joins the AI Ultra lineup
As announced via a X post, NotebookLM has officially joined the Google AI Ultra plan. In the post, the team explained that it has already begun rolling out and will unsurprisingly give users the highest access to Gemini's latest models. While the announcement itself was pretty vague, an official support article is thankfully much clearer and outlines exactly what Ultra users are getting.
Before we dive into the differences, let's quickly get the similarities between the NotebookLM Pro and Ultra plans out of the way (since there’s only one) — the number of notebooks.
Both Pro and Ultra users can create up to 500 notebooks per user. For reference, free-tier users can make 100 notebooks, while Plus users can create 200 notebooks. Ultra users can add double the sources to notebooks compared to Pro users, going up to 600 per notebook.
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When it comes to chat limits, Ultra users can send up to 5,000 chats per day. Free users can only send 50 per day, which puts into perspective just how much headroom Ultra gives if you're someone who constantly hits the ceiling. Ultra users can generate 200 Audio Overviews, 200 Video Overviews, and conduct up to 200 Deep Research sessions per day.
Additionally, Ultra users can generate 1,000 Reports, Flashcards, and Quizzes per day. Free users can only generate 10 per day, which again speaks to how aggressively the Ultra tier targets high-volume users. Finally, when it comes to NotebookLM’s newest features, Slide Decks and Infographics, Ultra users get the “highest limits.”
Unfortunately, Google hasn’t specified a number yet, so it’s unclear how big the jump actually is from the “limited” number free and Plus users currently get. Ultra users also get priority access to key features, as well as the "highest access" to Gemini models.
Ultra users can remove watermarks on Slide Decks and Infographics
Sure, higher limits are great and everything. But the real star of the show is that Google AI Ultra subscribers will be able to remove the watermark that’s produced on Slide Decks and Infographics they generate. If you haven't played around with these features, Slide Decks let you generate full-fledged presentations complete with layouts, visuals, and text.
Similarly, Infographics are more visually focused summaries of sources uploaded to your notebook. Both these features come with NotebookLM's logo at the bottom by default, but Ultra users can now produce completely clean, professional-looking outputs without any branding.
While I once thought I'd never be able to justify the $250 price tag, the combination of higher limits, watermark-free outputs, and expanded feature access makes the Ultra tier feel like a genuinely worthwhile upgrade, especially for heavy NotebookLM users.