Hekko vs NotebookLM (2026): Which AI Study Tool Should Students Use?

Hekko and NotebookLM start from opposite ends of your course. Hekko starts from the lecture: you record the class and get notes, a cheat sheet, quizzes and flashcards. NotebookLM starts from documents you already have: you upload readings and PDFs and ask questions that it answers with citations. If most of your course is spoken in class, choose Hekko. If it's mostly readings, NotebookLM is excellent, and free.

Full disclosure: Hekko is our product. NotebookLM is a very good tool, and we say below exactly where it beats Hekko.

TL;DR

The honest answer: Hekko for lectures, NotebookLM for readings. They don't compete much, and plenty of students use both.

• Pick Hekko if you attend lectures and want to revise from them without rewriting your notes.
• Pick NotebookLM if you study mostly from PDFs, articles and books, and want answers sourced to the exact passage.

Hekko vs NotebookLM at a glance

NotebookLM details checked on Google's own pages on 17 September 2026.

What's the difference between Hekko and NotebookLM?

Hekko captures a lecture and turns it into study material; NotebookLM helps you understand documents you already have. NotebookLM never listens to a class: it works on sources you upload. Hekko records the class itself, then merges it with the slides or PDFs you add, so the notes connect what the professor said with what was on screen.

Both let you ask questions about your material. NotebookLM's answers point to the exact passage in your sources, which is its strength. Hekko's chat, Ask Hekko, answers about one course or a whole folder of courses and can build a mock exam from them.

In practice: the lecture where the professor explains why a proof works, gives the example that's going to be on the exam, or insists on one point, is Hekko's material. The 40-page reading assigned for next week is NotebookLM's.

Can NotebookLM record lectures?

No. NotebookLM can't record a live class. You can upload an audio file recorded elsewhere as a source, but you have to record it with another app, export it, and upload it yourself, one lecture at a time.

Hekko is built for that part: you press record on your phone or computer at the start of class, in a lecture hall or on Zoom, and recordings of three hours or more work. The audio is transcribed and then deleted; only the text is kept.

Which one is better for revising for exams?

Both generate flashcards; the difference is where they come from. Hekko gives every lecture its own cheat sheet, quizzes and two-sided flashcards, built from what was said in class. NotebookLM generates study guides, FAQs and flashcards from your documents, and its Audio Overview turns your sources into a two-host podcast, handy for a light review on the bus.

The bigger difference is what happens next. Hekko brings each course back as a short quiz review at growing intervals (spaced repetition), in 5-minute sessions, so a lecture from September is still there in December. NotebookLM doesn't schedule reviews: you decide when to come back. Our guide to spaced repetition explains why the timing matters.

Which free plan is better?

NotebookLM's free plan is more generous, and it's usable long term: 100 notebooks, 50 sources per notebook and 50 chat questions a day. Hekko's free plan covers 2 complete courses a month, each with notes, cheat sheet, quizzes and flashcards, without a card. That's enough to judge Hekko on a real week of classes, but if you record every lecture, you'll need the paid plan: $7.99/month billed yearly, or $13.99/month.

When is NotebookLM the better choice?

NotebookLM is the better choice whenever your material is already written:

• Readings-heavy courses (law, history, literature, social sciences), where the lecture matters less than the texts.
• Research and dissertations: dozens of papers in one notebook, and answers that cite the exact passage.
• A tight budget: its free plan does a lot.

And Hekko's limits, honestly: no public library of ready-made decks, and a free plan that stops at 2 courses a month.

Can you use Hekko and NotebookLM together?

Yes, and it's arguably the best free-plus-paid setup for a heavy semester. Record your lectures with Hekko, export the notes to PDF, and add them as a source in the same NotebookLM notebook as your readings. You then ask NotebookLM questions that cross what was said in class with what's in the texts, and you keep Hekko's quizzes and flashcards to test yourself.

Verdict

• Most of your course is spoken in class → Hekko.
• Most of your course is readings and PDFs → NotebookLM.
• Both → Hekko for lectures, NotebookLM for readings, and Hekko's notes added as a NotebookLM source.

Still comparing? See our comparison of the 9 best AI note-taking apps for students.