Studley AI is the strongest of the flashcard-tier study apps, and it earns that with real production practice: written tests that grade how complete your answer was rather than whether you flipped the right card.
NotebookLM, renamed Gemini Notebook in July 2026, does not test you at all in that sense. It answers from your sources with citations and will not say anything that is not in them.
The comparison is really about whether you need to be graded or to be explained to.
Round by round
Five jobs, and which of the two does each one better.
Round 1
Grading what you actually wrote
Studley AI
Studley’s written test takes an open-ended answer and grades how complete it was rather than marking it right or wrong, and its paper grader will assess an essay against a rubric you supply. NotebookLM has nothing comparable. Its quizzes are multiple choice, which tests whether you can recognise the right option in a quiz it wrote itself. If you need feedback on prose you produced, only one of these two attempts it.
Round 2
Reading your whole document
NotebookLM
This is Studley’s most substantive complaint and the main theme on its Trustpilot page, where it averages 2.8 out of 5: notes come back incomplete, cut off mid-chapter, with sections stopping halfway through tables. NotebookLM answers strictly from your uploads with a citation on every claim, so you can check any sentence against the passage it came from. For material you cannot afford to have silently truncated, that difference matters.
Round 3
Resisting the shortcut
NotebookLM
Studley ships a Solve tab that photographs a problem and returns the answer, one tap from your study sets, and its own homepage promises to crush your homework. NotebookLM has no equivalent: it will explain a concept from your sources at length, but it is not built to hand you a worked solution to tonight’s assignment. If you know you reach for shortcuts under deadline pressure, this is not a small difference.
Round 4
Studying away from your desk
Studley AI
Studley is on iOS and Android with strong ratings on both, and generates a two-speaker podcast of your material for listening on the move. NotebookLM is web only, so you are starting from a laptop. Its Audio Overviews are the better podcast of the two, but you have to be at a computer to make one.
Round 5
How far you get before paying
NotebookLM
Studley’s free plan is one study set, ever, and its own FAQ says so. Not one a day, one in total, and a failed generation still consumes it. NotebookLM gives you 50 sources per notebook, 100 notebooks, 50 chats a day and 10 quiz and 10 flashcard generations a day, with no card required. This is the widest gap on the page.
At a glance
Studley AI
vs
NotebookLM
Study sets with graded written answers
What it is
Source-grounded notebook with citations
Generates a set, scores your answers
Core mechanic
Answers from your sources, with citations
$14.99/mo or $97.99/yr
Price
Free. From $4.99/mo via Google AI Plus
One study set, ever
Free tier
50 sources per notebook, 50 chats a day
Photo solver in the Solve tab
Answer shortcut
None
Web, iOS, Android
Platforms
Web only
Who should pick which
One grades you and one explains to you, so the honest question is which of those you are short of.
Pick Studley AI if
- You want written answers graded for completeness
- You want an essay assessed against a rubric you supply
- Most of your studying happens on a phone
- You want flashcards, quizzes and a podcast from one upload
Pick NotebookLM if
- You want to be sure nothing was left out of your material
- Budget is the deciding factor, or you will not enter a card
- You would rather not have a photo solver beside your study loop
- You want every claim traceable to a passage you uploaded
A third option, and it is ours
Both of these are intake tools. They leave you holding a much nicer pile of material and the same original problem: at some point you have to produce this yourself, under time pressure, with nothing in front of you. Neither one ever asks you to.
That is what Akono does instead, and it is ours, so weigh this accordingly. Same input, your slides or recordings, but it builds a course from them and runs sessions where a tutor asks the questions, reads what you wrote, and picks the next question from your answer. What you misunderstand stays on file until you can state it correctly. The plan works backwards from your exam date.
Where it is honestly the wrong tool: it does not record lectures, it is built for exams weeks out rather than tonight, it is weaker for pure calculation drilling, and there is no free tier. A 3-day trial, card required, then €11.99 a month or €59.88 a year. If free is non-negotiable, take NotebookLM from this page and ignore this section.