Open Notebook

A private, multi-model, 100% local, full-featured alternative to Notebook LM

In a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence, having the ability to think 🧠 and acquire new knowledge 💡, is a skill that should not be a privilege for a few, nor restricted to a single provider.

Open Notebook empowers you to:

🔒 Control your data - Keep your research private and secure
🤖 Choose your AI models - Support for 16+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio, and more
📚 Organize multi-modal content - PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, and more
🎙️ Generate professional podcasts - Advanced multi-speaker podcast generation
🔍 Search intelligently - Full-text and vector search across all your content
💬 Chat with context - AI conversations powered by your research

Learn more about our project at https://www.open-notebook.ai

🆚 Open Notebook vs Google Notebook LM

Feature	Open Notebook	Google Notebook LM	Advantage
Privacy & Control	Self-hosted, your data	Google cloud only	Complete data sovereignty
AI Provider Choice	16+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio, etc.)	Google models only	Flexibility and cost optimization
Podcast Speakers	1-4 speakers with custom profiles	2 speakers only	Extreme flexibility
Context Control	3 granular levels	All-or-nothing	Privacy and performance tuning
Content Transformations	Custom and built-in	Limited options	Unlimited processing power
API Access	Full REST API	No API	Complete automation
Deployment	Docker, cloud, or local	Google hosted only	Deploy anywhere
Citations	Comprehensive with sources	Basic references	Research integrity
Customization	Open source, fully customizable	Closed system	Unlimited extensibility
Cost	Pay only for AI usage	Monthly subscription + usage	Transparent and controllable

Why Choose Open Notebook?

🔒 Privacy First: Your sensitive research stays completely private
💰 Cost Control: Choose cheaper AI providers or run locally with Ollama
🎙️ Better Podcasts: Full script control and multi-speaker flexibility vs limited 2-speaker deep-dive format
🔧 Unlimited Customization: Modify, extend, and integrate as needed
🌐 No Vendor Lock-in: Switch providers, deploy anywhere, own your data

How Open Notebook Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Your Browser                                           │
│  Access: http://your-server-ip:8502                     │
└────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┘
                 │
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   Port 8502   │  ← Next.js Frontend (what you see)
         │   Frontend    │    Also proxies API requests internally!
         └───────┬───────┘
                 │ proxies /api/* requests ↓
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   Port 5055   │  ← FastAPI Backend (handles requests)
         │     API       │
         └───────┬───────┘
                 │
                 ▼
         ┌───────────────┐
         │   SurrealDB   │  ← Database (internal, auto-configured)
         │   (Port 8000) │
         └───────────────┘

Key Points:

v1.1+: Next.js automatically proxies /api/* requests to the backend, simplifying reverse proxy setup
Your browser loads the frontend from port 8502
The frontend needs to know where to find the API - when accessing remotely, set: API_URL=http://your-server-ip:5055
Behind reverse proxy? You only need to proxy to port 8502 now! See Reverse Proxy Guide

Provider Support Matrix

Thanks to the Esperanto library, we support this providers out of the box!

Provider	LLM Support	Embedding Support	Speech-to-Text	Text-to-Speech
OpenAI	✅	✅	✅	✅
Anthropic	✅	❌	❌	❌
Groq	✅	❌	✅	❌
Google (GenAI)	✅	✅	❌	✅
Vertex AI	✅	✅	❌	✅
Ollama	✅	✅	❌	❌
Perplexity	✅	❌	❌	❌
ElevenLabs	❌	❌	✅	✅
Azure OpenAI	✅	✅	❌	❌
Mistral	✅	✅	❌	❌
DeepSeek	✅	❌	❌	❌
Voyage	❌	✅	❌	❌
xAI	✅	❌	❌	❌
OpenRouter	✅	❌	❌	❌
OpenAI Compatible*	✅	❌	❌	❌

*Supports LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint

✨ Key Features

Core Capabilities

🔒 Privacy-First: Your data stays under your control - no cloud dependencies
🎯 Multi-Notebook Organization: Manage multiple research projects seamlessly
📚 Universal Content Support: PDFs, videos, audio, web pages, Office docs, and more
🤖 Multi-Model AI Support: 16+ providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Google, LM Studio, and more
🎙️ Professional Podcast Generation: Advanced multi-speaker podcasts with Episode Profiles
🔍 Intelligent Search: Full-text and vector search across all your content
💬 Context-Aware Chat: AI conversations powered by your research materials
📝 AI-Assisted Notes: Generate insights or write notes manually

Advanced Features

⚡ Reasoning Model Support: Full support for thinking models like DeepSeek-R1 and Qwen3
🔧 Content Transformations: Powerful customizable actions to summarize and extract insights
🌐 Comprehensive REST API: Full programmatic access for custom integrations
🔐 Optional Password Protection: Secure public deployments with authentication
📊 Fine-Grained Context Control: Choose exactly what to share with AI models
📎 Citations: Get answers with proper source citations

Three-Column Interface

Sources: Manage all your research materials
Notes: Create manual or AI-generated notes
Chat: Converse with AI using your content as context

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