Can NotebookLM watch YouTube videos?
NotebookLM reads the transcript of YouTube videos — it does not analyze the visual content. Add any YouTube URL as a source and NotebookLM extracts the transcript with timestamps. Use Notebook Toolkit for one-click capture with metadata preserved.
In more detail
NotebookLM extracts YouTube transcripts (auto-captions or human-provided) and treats them as text sources. It does not analyze visuals — a whiteboard tutorial may lose value, but lecture-style content is captured well. Add a YouTube URL via the NotebookLM Add Sources panel, or use Notebook Toolkit for one-click capture with the title, channel, description, and timestamped transcript preserved. NotebookLM cites specific moments in the video when answering questions. This makes long-form content (Lex Fridman, Huberman Lab, MIT lectures) deeply useful — they become searchable knowledge bases.
Get one-click capture for NotebookLM
Notebook Toolkit saves ChatGPT, Claude, YouTube, Reddit, and any web page to NotebookLM in one click. Free to install.
Install Notebook Toolkit