Setup Gemini Notebook

September 29, 2026

Table of contents

  1. Automated setup (recommended)
  2. Use a dedicated Gmail account
  3. If Google asks for a phone number
  4. Manual setup
    1. Start the browser without device-bound sessions
    2. Sign in to Gemini Notebook
    3. Copy the https://notebook.google.com cookies
    4. Copy the https://accounts.google.com cookies
  5. If Google signs the account out
  6. Usage limits

Approximately 5 minutes to complete setup steps.

This is the setup guide for Gemini Notebook API. A Google account and a useapi.net subscription are required for the API to work. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) works on the free Google plan, and paid Google AI plans raise its usage limits.

Use our guided browser setup to connect your account automatically — no DevTools or cookie copying needed. Enter your API token, sign in with Google in the remote browser, and your account is verified and added.

Open automated setup

Prefer manual setup? Continue with the steps below.

Use a dedicated Gmail account

⚠️ Use a dedicated Gmail account for this API — do NOT use your personal Gmail account.

When creating a new account:

  1. Enable 2-Step Verification with Microsoft Authenticator, and save the backup codes. Avoid Google Authenticator — it backs its codes up to the Google account it is signed into, which would link this dedicated account to your personal one.
  2. Keep your sign-ins consistent. If you use a VPN, pick one region and stay with it rather than switching locations — an account that appears from different places in a short time is what Google treats as suspicious. The automated setup above signs in from a US browser, so it needs no VPN on your side.

If Google asks for a phone number

Occasionally Google shows a “Verify it’s you” page and asks for a phone number to text a code to, even on an account that never had one. Any number that can receive SMS works. It does not have to be one already on the account.

If you’d rather not use your personal number, get an inexpensive prepaid line just for this — for example a Tello eSIM on its cheapest plan with texts (about $5/month, activated online). Install it on any phone, receive the code there, and keep the line active so you can pass future checks.

Avoid online SMS-rental and “free virtual number” services. Google rejects most of them, and a rejected number can make the lock harder to clear.

Manual setup

⚠️ Do NOT use Google Chrome. Google’s integration with Chrome interferes with cookie extraction. Use Brave or Ungoogled Chromium instead.

You copy two sets of cookies from Developer Tools and paste both into the same cookies field: the https://notebook.google.com set and the https://accounts.google.com set. The account is refused with only one of them.

Start the browser without device-bound sessions

Chromium browsers on Windows and Mac now bind a Google sign-in to the device (Google’s Device Bound Session Credentials). Cookies copied from a bound session are refused anywhere else, and the API answers These cookies are not signed in to Gemini Notebook. The browser’s own flags page does not turn this off (Google overrides it), but a command-line switch does. The automated setup is not affected.

  1. Quit Brave completely, including any instance left in the system tray (check Task Manager for brave.exe, on a Mac use Cmd+Q). A running Brave ignores the switch.
  2. Start it from the Run box (Win+R) with this command, which opens a private window with no cookies and without device-bound sessions:
"C:\Program Files\BraveSoftware\Brave-Browser\Application\brave.exe" --incognito --disable-features=EnableBoundSessionCredentials,DeviceBoundSessions

On a Mac, run the same switches from Terminal:

open -na "Brave Browser" --args --incognito --disable-features=EnableBoundSessionCredentials,DeviceBoundSessions

Keep this window open for the steps below.

Sign in to Gemini Notebook

Navigate to https://notebook.google.com and sign in with your dedicated Gmail account 1.

Enter your password, then the 2-Step Verification code 1. Google names Google Authenticator here whichever authenticator app holds the code.

⚠️ You MUST check Don't ask again on this device 2 — skipping it will break the API session.

Once signed in you see Gemini Notebook with your plan’s badge 1 (no badge on a free account).

Copy the https://notebook.google.com cookies

  1. Open Developer Tools: right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect (or press F12), then open the Application tab 1
  2. Under Cookies, select https://notebook.google.com 2
  3. Click in the cookie table and select all cookies (Ctrl+A) 3
  4. Copy them (Ctrl+C, or right-click and Copy) 4, and paste them into the cookies field below.

Copy the https://accounts.google.com cookies

This second set holds LSID. Without it the account is refused with Missing cookies: LSID. It is in the same Developer Tools, one entry down.

  1. Stay on the Application tab 1
  2. Under Cookies, select https://accounts.google.com 2
  3. Click in the cookie table and select all cookies (Ctrl+A) 3
  4. Copy them (Ctrl+C, or right-click and Copy) 4, and paste them into the same cookies field below, under the first set.

Before you paste, look for __Secure-1PSIDRTS in what you copied. If it is there, the session is device-bound and will be refused: close every Brave window and start again with the command above.

Paste everything you copied, exactly as it is. The form below sends it to POST /accounts, which checks the cookies with Google before the account is added.

A successful response is 201 for a new account or 200 for an update, with the account email, its Google plan (tier) and its current usage (quota).

If Google signs the account out

If Google ends the session of a connected account, the API detects it on the next request, re-checks it once, and then emails you right away with a link to re-add the account. Until you re-add it, the account is paused and shows the re-add message in GET /accounts. Re-adding through the automated setup takes about a minute.

Usage limits

Gemini Notebook meters usage per Google account in two windows — every 5 hours and weekly — as a share of the plan’s compute budget. Each Audio Overview, video, quiz or report uses part of it, and Google refuses new generations once the budget runs out until the window resets. Paid Google AI plans raise the budget. The API reports the live usage of each account at GET /accounts/email.