# Open Notebook

A self-hosted, multi-model alternative to Google NotebookLM.

HTML: https://softbests.com/software/open-notebook
Markdown: https://softbests.com/software/open-notebook.md
Website: https://www.open-notebook.ai

- Category: [Notes & Markdown](https://softbests.com/category/notes-markdown)
- Pricing: Open source
- Platforms: Web, Self-hosted
- Underrated

## Best for

Researchers who want NotebookLM-style source chat and podcast generation without handing documents to Google.

## Why it deserves attention

Open Notebook ingests PDFs, web pages, audio, and video, indexes them with full-text and vector search, and lets you chat with citations across the sources in a notebook. It connects to 20+ providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and local servers such as Ollama and LM Studio, and can generate multi-speaker podcasts with custom scripts. It runs from Docker Compose with a Next.js UI and SurrealDB, is MIT-licensed, and keeps API keys encrypted in your own deployment. The trade-off is that it is self-hosted: you run Docker, manage the database and encryption key, and pay for whichever model provider you connect.

## Can replace

- NotebookLM

## Related and alternatives

- [Obsidian](https://softbests.com/software/obsidian)
- [Joplin](https://softbests.com/software/joplin)