Google Gemini and Gemini Notebook

Emerson IT offers two of Google's AI productivity tools for students, faculty, and staff: Gemini and Gemini Notebook. Both are available under Emerson's Google Workspace for Education environment.

For more on guidelines and effective uses of AI productivity tools, see:

• AI Use Standards & Safety Guide
• AI Tools Reviewed by Emerson IT

For additional training, visit Google's official learning center: Generative AI training & help.

What are Gemini and Gemini Notebook?

• Gemini is Google's generative AI assistant. You can use it to generate text, brainstorm ideas, summarize information, write drafts, and more.
• Gemini Notebook is a personal research assistant that allows you to upload your own files and generate summaries, notes, and outlines based on your materials. It was previously named NotebookLM.

How to Access Gemini and Gemini Notebook

• To use Gemini, go to gemini.google.com.
• To use Gemini Notebook, go to notebooklm.google.com.

You must be signed into your Emerson Google Workspace account to access these services. If you see an access denied message, verify that you are logged into your Emerson account by clicking the user icon in the top right. If you are logged in as a personal account, log in as your Emerson account instead.

Privacy and Data Protection

Gemini and Gemini Notebook at Emerson are governed by Google Workspace for Education privacy standards. Some key points include:

• Google Workspace for Education does not use your conversations or files to train its models.
• Your conversations are private and are not accessible by anyone but you.
• Conversations and chat history will be retained for 3 months, after which they will be automatically deleted. You cannot manually delete conversations before that time, per Google's policies.
• For full details on Google's privacy protections for Workspace for Education, see Generative AI in Google Workspace Privacy Hub.

When using these tools, users are required to comply with Emerson's IT security policies, including the Data Governance Policy and Electronic Resources Acceptable Use.

Available Models

When using Gemini at Emerson, you will see three model options:

• Pro: The most advanced model, excelling at complex math, coding, and sophisticated writing tasks. Uses Gemini 3.1 Pro under the hood.
• Thinking: A faster thinking model that balances speed and reasoning to quickly solve complex problems.
• Fast: A powerful and efficient model designed for speed, ideal for everyday tasks like summarization and brainstorming. This model has no stated daily prompt cap, making it a good option for heavy use.

Gemini Notebook uses similar underlying models to analyze your uploaded sources, summarize materials, and generate study guides, FAQs, or outlines based on your content.

Usage Limits

Gemini and Gemini Notebook are core services in Emerson's Google Workspace for Education license, and both run at Google's standard education tier. The limits below are Google's published limits for that tier. Google may change them without notice, including during periods of high demand. When you reach a limit, you will be notified and told when your access refreshes.

Gemini Limits

Gemini enforces limits based on which model you select. Longer, more complex prompts and large file uploads consume more of your allotment, so heavy use (such as processing full documents or lengthy writing projects) may cause you to hit limits faster than short, simple prompts.

Prompt limits by model:

• Pro: Up to 25 prompts every 4 hours
• Thinking: Up to 300 prompts per day
• Fast: General access with no stated daily cap

If you reach your limit for Pro or Thinking, you can switch to Fast to continue working in the same conversation. Your Pro and Thinking limits will reset after a set period. To see where you stand, go to Settings > Usage Limits at the bottom left of gemini.google.com.

Context window:

• 32,000 tokens, which is roughly 50 pages of text. Long conversations and large file uploads can exceed this, and when they do, responses may miss details scattered through the content. Starting a new conversation resets the context window, so for long projects it is best to work in shorter sessions rather than one continuous thread.

Other limits:

• Audio overviews: Up to 20 per day
• Deep Research: Up to 5 reports per month
• Image generation and editing: Up to 20 images per day with Nano Banana 2, plus up to 3 image redos per day with Nano Banana Pro
• Music generation: Up to 10 thirty-second tracks per day, or up to 5 full tracks of up to 3 minutes
• Slide generation: Up to 20 presentations per day
• Connecting Gemini to Google Workspace apps: General access

Not included at Emerson's tier:

• Video generation in the Gemini app
• Scheduled actions
• Connecting to GitHub and uploading code folders

Usage counts across gemini.google.com, the Gemini mobile app, and Gemini in Chrome all draw from the same limits. For full details, see Google's official documentation: Gemini Apps features and limits for Education.

Gemini Notebook Limits

• Notebooks: Up to 100 per user
• Sources per notebook: Up to 50
• Chat queries: Up to 50 per day
• Audio overviews: Up to 3 per day
• Video overviews: Up to 3 per day
• Reports: Up to 10 per day
• Flashcards: Up to 10 per day
• Quizzes: Up to 10 per day
• Mind maps: Up to 10 per day
• Deep Research: Up to 10 per month

Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200MB for local uploads. The 50-source limit applies to each notebook rather than to your account, so a large body of material can be divided across several notebooks by topic. Images and videos generated in Gemini Notebook carry a visible watermark.

For full details, see Google's official documentation: Gemini Notebook features and limits for work or school accounts.

Current Limitations

• Gemini for Workspace side panel integration in Gmail, Docs, and Sheets is not currently included for most users.
• During periods of heavy demand, Google may temporarily restrict features that use more computing resources, such as Deep Research.