According to Android Police, Google is upgrading its AI research tool NotebookLM for users on its premium AI Ultra plan, which costs $200 per month. Ultra subscribers now get a usage limit for AI generations that is 50 times higher than the regular plan and can add up to 600 sources per notebook, a major jump from the 300 allowed on the Pro tier. They also get increased limits for features like Audio and Video Overviews and Slide Decks, plus priority access to new features like watermark removal. Previously, AI Pro and Ultra users had the same NotebookLM limits, which made the Ultra tier’s 10x higher price hard to justify. This change, applied at no extra cost to existing Ultra subscribers, finally creates a meaningful tier difference for power users.
Ultra Finally Gets Its Perks
Here’s the thing: this move was overdue. Charging $200 a month—ten times the cost of the $20 AI Pro plan—for the same NotebookLM experience was, frankly, a weird business decision. It devalued the Ultra brand immediately. Now, with 50x more generations and the ability to handle 600 sources, Google is targeting a specific user: the serious researcher, analyst, or content creator who needs to synthesize massive amounts of information. The priority access to features like watermark removal is a nice touch, too. It turns NotebookLM from a cool experiment into a legitimate professional tool within the Ultra bundle. But it makes you wonder: was this always the plan, or did they realize nobody would pay that premium for the same thing?
The Ultra Bundle Play
So what’s Google’s strategy? It’s clearly about building a comprehensive, high-end AI ecosystem. The AI Ultra plan isn’t just about one app. It bundles priority Gemini access across Search and coding tools, early project peeks, a huge pile of credits for other AI services, and even throws in YouTube Premium and 30TB of storage. NotebookLM’s upgrade is a piece of that puzzle, making the entire bundle stickier for knowledge workers. The goal is to create a walled garden so valuable that professionals and businesses can’t imagine working outside of it. For a company whose core revenue is still advertising, this is a bold bet on direct software subscriptions from power users.
The Standalone Question
Now, the article raises a good point. Shouldn’t NotebookLM have its own paid tier? Absolutely. Not every researcher needs all the other Gemini fluff. They might just want a powerful, standalone research assistant. By locking the best NotebookLM features behind a $200/month everything-but-the-kitchen-sink plan, Google might be leaving money on the table from users who have a specific, deep need for this one tool. An intermediate, NotebookLM-focused Pro+ tier could capture that market. But maybe that’s not the goal yet. Maybe they want to use the elite features of NotebookLM as a lure for the bigger Ultra subscription. It’s a classic bundling strategy, but it risks alienating users who just want the best tool for a specific job.
