Open Notebook - Start Here

Open Notebook is a privacy-focused AI research assistant. Upload documents, chat with AI, generate notes, and create podcasts—all with complete control over your data.

Choose Your Path

🚀 I want to use OpenAI (Fastest)

5 minutes to running. GPT, simple setup, powerful results.

→ OpenAI Quick Start

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☁️ I want to use other cloud AI (Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, etc.)

5 minutes to running. Choose from 17+ AI providers.

→ Cloud Providers Quick Start

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🏠 I want to run locally (Ollama or LMStudio, completely private)

5 minutes to running. Keep everything private, on your machine. No costs.

→ Local Quick Start

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What Can You Do?

• 📄 Upload Content: PDFs, web links, audio, video, text
• 🤖 Chat with AI: Ask questions about your documents with citations
• 📝 Generate Notes: AI creates summaries and insights
• 🎙️ Create Podcasts: Turn research into professional audio content
• 🔍 Search: Full-text and semantic search across all content
• ⚙️ Transform: Extract insights, analyze themes, create summaries

Why Open Notebook?

Feature	Open Notebook	Notebook LM
Privacy	Self-hosted, your control	Cloud, Google's servers
AI Choice	17+ providers	Google's models only
Podcast Speakers	1-4 customizable	2 only
Cost	Completely free	Free (but your data)
Offline	Yes	No

Prerequisites

• Docker: All paths use Docker (free)
• AI Provider: Either a cloud API key OR use free local models (Ollama)

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Next Steps

1. Pick your path above ⬆️
2. Follow the 5-minute quick start
3. Create your first notebook
4. Start uploading documents!

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Need Help? Join our Discord community or see Full Documentation.