Pick MotherDuck if
solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA.
Read the MotherDuck pageMotherDuck vs NotebookLM
Our take
Pick MotherDuck if solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA. Pick NotebookLM if students and analysts who will upload sources and stay inside a notebook.
Best for
MotherDuck Cloud DuckDB metered in CU-hours and GB
NotebookLM Ask a notebook you filled
Free plan
MotherDuck $0 · no card. Up to 3 internal users and 2 service accounts. 10 GB storage and 10 Pulse hours / month included. Pulse instances only. Preset RBAC. Community support. 1-day snapshots. Lite without a card includes 30 minutes/day of F4 Flights
NotebookLM $0 · sign up with a Gmail account (Help). 100 notebooks; 50 sources; 50 chats/day
Lowest paid
MotherDuck Storage $0.04/mo
NotebookLM Google AI Plus $4.99/mo
Next step up
MotherDuck Flights $0.15/hour
NotebookLM Google AI Pro $19.99/mo
Coding agent
MotherDuck Flights
NotebookLM
Watch out
MotherDuck Lite is Pulse-only
NotebookLM Standard is 50 sources and 50 chats/day
Last checked
MotherDuck 2026-10-22 · motherduck.com/pricing
NotebookLM 2026-10-22 · one.google.com/about/google-ai-plans
Which one, then?
Pick NotebookLM if
students and analysts who will upload sources and stay inside a notebook.
Read the NotebookLM page