Google links its writing AI Gemini directly with the research platform Gemini Notebook in Google Docs. Since September 23, 2026, an existing notebook can be integrated as a source using the @ command, with Gemini inserting clickable references into the text. Access is currently limited to paying Workspace and Google AI plans.
An @ sign connects research and text drafting
Anyone typing the @ sign in the sidebar or the lower input line of Google Docs can now select an existing Gemini Notebook. Gemini bases its text suggestions on the sources collected there and adds clickable references that allow the original source to be verified at any time. According to the announcement on the Google Workspace blog, this is suitable for project proposals or technical white papers, where pre-researched material should culminate in a finished text. The outlet Android Authority describes the step as closing the previous gap between research in notebooks and actual writing in Docs.
The feature is part of a series of extensions Google is using to integrate Gemini more closely with Google Docs. Just this September, Gemini already gained the ability to send emails directly from a document, and before that came automatic diagrams and multilingual writing. With notebook access, Google is now closing the gap between research and finished text within a single workflow.
Access remains tied to paid plans and activation
The feature is exclusively available on paying plans: Workspace Business and Enterprise in both the Standard and Plus tiers, Workspace Education in the Plus tier, and the individual subscriptions Google AI Pro and Ultra. Educational institutions additionally need the Google AI Pro for Education or Teaching and Learning add-ons, while businesses can alternatively use the AI Expanded Access add-on. Free Google accounts are excluded.
Before use, administrators must enable Gemini for Workspace in Google Drive via the admin console, and individual users also need Workspace Smart Features activated. According to Google, the rollout is already fully complete in both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains as of September 23, 2026, so there is no additional waiting period for eligible accounts. Google does not mention any restriction to specific countries or languages, so anyone with a qualifying plan and activation should also be able to use the feature in Germany and the rest of the EU. Whether the interface runs fully in German cannot be determined from the announcement.
Renaming of NotebookLM paved the way for this expansion
The foundation is the name change from NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook, which Google manager Josh Woodward announced on July 16, 2026. Google states, by its own account and independently unverified, that more than 30 million users and over 600,000 organizations use the research platform. The renaming changed little about the feature set itself, but it made the tool more visible within Google’s AI ecosystem: notebooks can now also be opened from the Gemini app, and a connection to Google Search’s AI mode has been announced.
Shortly before that, Google had already expanded Notebook to include access to more than 100,000 purchased e-books, showing that the platform increasingly serves as a central knowledge source for other Google products. The new Docs integration continues that trend by feeding the collected material directly into the writing process instead of merely making it searchable. Since July 2026, Gemini Notebook has also been able to independently run code in a secured cloud environment for paying Ultra and Workspace customers, to analyze data from the stored sources. This capability is expected to reach Pro users on the web in the coming weeks.
What matters now is whether Google opens the notebook integration to free accounts or keeps it permanently tied to paid plans, as has been the case with most previous Gemini extensions in Docs. It also remains to be seen whether competitors such as Microsoft will follow with a comparable source connection between Copilot Notebooks and Word – until that happens, it stays a direct advantage for Google.
