Google Gemini and NotebookLM

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

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

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

What are Gemini and NotebookLM?

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

How to Access Gemini and NotebookLM

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 NotebookLM 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.

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

Usage Limits

Emerson's Google AI Pro for Education license provides expanded access to both Gemini and NotebookLM, with higher daily limits than the base Education tier. Usage limits may change without notice due to capacity constraints. When limits are reached, you will be notified and your access will refresh after a set period.

Gemini Limits

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

Daily prompt limits by model:

  • Pro: Up to 100 prompts per day
  • 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.

Context window:

  • 1 million tokens (approximately 1,500 pages of text or 30,000 lines of code). 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 daily limits:

  • Deep Research: Up to 20 reports per day
  • Image generation and editing: Up to 100 images per day
  • Audio overviews: Up to 20 per day
  • Music generation: Up to 50 tracks per day
  • Video generation: Up to 3 videos per day (Veo 3.1 Fast, preview)

For full details, see Google's official documentation: Gemini Apps features and limits for Education.

NotebookLM Limits

Emerson's license provides Higher Level Access in NotebookLM, which includes expanded limits over the standard tier.

  • Notebooks: Up to 500 per user
  • Sources per notebook: Up to 300
  • Chat queries: Up to 500 per day
  • Audio overviews: Up to 20 per day
  • Video overviews: Up to 20 per day
  • Reports: Up to 100 per day
  • Flashcards: Up to 100 per day
  • Quizzes: Up to 100 per day
  • Mind maps: No limits
  • Deep Research: Up to 20 per day

Each source can be up to 500,000 words or 200MB for local uploads. For full details, see Google's official documentation: NotebookLM 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.

For assistance, please email helpdesk@emerson.edu.

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