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AI Notebook Review: Free Open-Source NotebookLM Alternative

·7 min readBy · Founder of PromptQuorum · Discovery engine for open-weight & open-source AI

AI Notebook is a free, MIT-licensed notebook for Mac and Windows that answers questions about your own documents with citations, and with Ollama as the provider its AI calls stay on your device, per the README. Cloud providers are an optional choice. It is an early 0.x project by one developer, and this review rests on the maker's website and repository, not on hands-on testing.

Key Takeaways

  • Local path: Ollama runs the models on your machine; remote providers are optional.
  • License and maker: MIT, open code, published by the individual developer Lukáš Oplt.
  • Price: free; no paid plan appears on the pages read.
  • Maintenance: version 0.15.0 was released on 12 October 2026 and the repository was last updated on 14 October 2026.
  • Risks: early 0.x stage, and the installers are not signed with a paid certificate.

📍 In One Sentence

AI Notebook is a free, open-source desktop app that, per its README, answers questions over your own documents with citations and can run fully offline with Ollama.

💬 In Plain Terms

Think of a research folder you can talk to: you drop in your files, ask a question, and every answer points back to the passage it came from.

Read in:
🇺🇸en🇩🇪de🇫🇷fr🇯🇵ja🇨🇳zh🇪🇸es🇧🇷pt🇸🇦ar🇰🇷ko

AI Notebook is a free, MIT-licensed desktop notebook for Mac and Windows. You add your own documents, ask questions, and get answers with numbered citations that point back to the source passages. This review covers what the maker's website and GitHub repository say, which parts can run on your own computer through Ollama, where data can leave the machine, and how it compares with other document-chat tools in the directory.

AI Notebook Review: Free Open-Source NotebookLM Alternative

Get AI Notebook

AI Notebook installs from the GitHub Releases page, and the app itself needs no terminal. Download the disk image for Mac or the setup file for Windows. Local AI also needs Ollama, which you install separately.

Platform
Get It
MacDownload for Mac — .dmg installer, macOS 14 or newer
WindowsDownload for Windows — setup .exe, Windows 10 (version 1809) or 11
Release notesGitHub Releases
Websitelukoplt.github.io/AI-notebook
Source codegithub.com/lukoplt/AI-notebook — MIT license

The installers are not signed with a paid certificate: on Mac, open the app with right-click, then Open; on Windows, SmartScreen shows "Unknown publisher". No Linux build and no separate privacy-policy page were found; the README lists the outbound network calls.

AI Notebook at a Glance

Attribute
AI Notebook
PlatformmacOS 14 or newer, Windows 10 (1809) or 11
PriceFree
LicenseMIT, open source
RunsDesktop app; AI local or cloud
Works with local LLMsYes, via Ollama or OpenAI-compatible servers
Voice input / outputNot stated
Persistent memoryLocal database of notebooks, sources and notes
Tool use / actionsNot stated

Attributes follow the personal-assistants comparison used in the Local LLM Software Directory. A missing statement on the site means unknown, not unsupported.

What AI Notebook Is

AI Notebook is a research notebook that answers from your own sources, not from the open web. You collect sources in a notebook, the app splits and indexes them on your computer, and each answer carries numbered citations that open the matching excerpt.

The maker is Lukáš Oplt, who publishes it as an open-source project on GitHub; the README calls it an offline alternative to Google NotebookLM. This review draws on the website and repository only, so answer quality, retrieval accuracy and stability are not rated here.

  • Sources. PDF, text, Markdown, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and web pages; folders can be watched for changes.
  • Chat. Streamed answers with clickable [N] citations, built on semantic plus keyword retrieval.
  • Notes and transformations. A note editor with version history, plus summary, key-point and entity transformations and custom prompts.
  • Export and search. Markdown, PDF, ZIP or full-database export, global search, tags and optional web search.

Local vs. Cloud: Where Your Text Goes

AI Notebook can run chat and embeddings on your device, but it also supports remote providers, so the privacy result depends on your choice. Local use goes through Ollama or another server that speaks the OpenAI API; the release notes list presets for LM Studio and vLLM. An Open WebUI server on your network works for chat only.

Anthropic and OpenAI are available for chat, and OpenAI also for embeddings; those calls leave your device. The README lists the other outbound calls: web pages you add by URL, an optional once-a-day update check against api.github.com, and optional web search. On Windows, Ollama is required for local AI.

Privacy, License and Cost

The README says that with Ollama as the provider the app makes no AI calls off your device, and the website says your documents are not training data. Notebooks, sources, notes and chats live in one local SQLite database, and API keys are kept in the operating system credential store, not in that database. The code is open and PromptQuorum did not examine network traffic, so these statements are the maker's own.

The license is MIT and the app is free. Known limits per the README: no OCR for scanned PDFs, and Excel formulas are not evaluated.

Trade-Offs: Benefits vs. Limitations

Local answers with citations

What it means in real use:
Per the README, Ollama keeps AI calls on the device and answers link to source excerpts.
Limitation / caveat:
You install and run Ollama and the models yourself; speed depends on your hardware.

Free and open source

What it means in real use:
MIT code and no price on the pages read.
Limitation / caveat:
One-developer project at version 0.x; long-term upkeep is unknown.

Many file types

What it means in real use:
PDF, Office files, Markdown and web pages in one notebook.
Limitation / caveat:
No OCR for scanned PDFs; Excel formulas are not evaluated.

Flexible providers

What it means in real use:
Switch between Ollama, OpenAI-compatible servers and cloud models.
Limitation / caveat:
Remote providers receive the text used for answers.

Mac and Windows

What it means in real use:
One app on both systems.
Limitation / caveat:
Installers are unsigned; no Linux build found.

AI Notebook vs. Alternatives

These are the closest tools in the directory for chatting with your own documents.

AI Notebook

Platforms:
Mac, Windows
Price and license:
Free, MIT
Role:
Notebook with citations
Key difference:
Source notebooks; local via Ollama
Articles about AI Notebook (1)

Khoj

Platforms:
Mac, Windows, Linux, web
Price and license:
Free, AGPL 3.0
Role:
AI second brain over your documents
Key difference:
Syncs with Obsidian and Notion
Articles about Khoj (4)

Also mentioned in:

+4 more not shown

Platform, price, and feature details for third-party apps change frequently. Verify current specifics on each project's own page before deciding.

Compare in directory

Who Should Use AI Notebook

  • Researchers and students with document collections. Citations let you check each answer against its source.
  • Mac and Windows users who want an offline option. Ollama keeps AI calls on the device, per the README.
  • Open-source users. The MIT code is public and the app is free.
  • NotebookLM users who prefer local files. The README positions it as an offline alternative.

Who Should Not Use AI Notebook

  • Linux users. No Linux build was found.
  • Anyone with scanned PDFs. The README lists no OCR.
  • Teams that need vendor support. It is a one-developer project.
  • Anyone unwilling to run Ollama. Without it, answers come from a cloud provider you configure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does AI Notebook work offline?

With Ollama and its models already downloaded, AI calls need no internet, per the README; web-page sources, web search and the update check do. PromptQuorum did not test it offline.

Can I use it without Ollama?

Yes: it accepts OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Anthropic and OpenAI. Anthropic and Open WebUI handle chat only, so embeddings need Ollama, OpenAI or a compatible server.

Where is my data stored?

In a single SQLite database in the app-data folder; on Mac that is Application Support/AINotebook, per the README.

How does it differ from Google NotebookLM?

The README presents it as a free, offline-capable desktop alternative that works with your own models, while NotebookLM is a hosted Google service. PromptQuorum did not compare features.

Verdict

AI Notebook is a good fit if you want a free, open-source, NotebookLM-style notebook over your own files on Mac or Windows and are ready to run Ollama so the AI stays on your device.

The caveats are maturity and verifiability: an early version from one developer, unsigned installers, no OCR, and privacy and answer-quality claims that PromptQuorum could not check. Try it with a small set of non-sensitive documents first.

Sources

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