notedock.app

What It Is

NoteDock is a native macOS desktop companion app for Google NotebookLM, but it is not an official Google product. It pulls NotebookLM tasks such as importing materials, managing sources, and organizing files out of the browser workflow and into the menu bar, global hotkeys, Finder drag-and-drop, the clipboard, and browser extensions. Its core value is helping you “feed” materials into NotebookLM faster and more reliably.

Core Features

Its AI-related capabilities are focused on local preprocessing: OCR, format conversion, text extraction, audio/video transcription, speaker labels, keyframe extraction, and intelligent chunking. It supports PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, TXT, Markdown, EPUB, images, audio, video, and URLs, and can automatically split files that exceed NotebookLM’s roughly 500,000-character limit into multiple sources. Version 2.1 adds a Sources Tab, Safari extension, global font scaling, broader localization, and better switching between multiple Google accounts.

Pricing and Trial

The Free plan is permanently free and covers text/URL sources, clipboard support, global hotkeys, and basic folders. Pro costs $4.99/month or $39.99/year, includes a 7-day trial, and unlocks unlimited file uploads, full format support, audio/video transcription, offline OCR, intelligent chunking, batch import, unlimited folders, and priority support. Payments and cancellations are handled through the Mac App Store.

Pros and Cons

The main advantages are its smooth native Mac experience, hotkey capture, Chrome/Safari extensions, and local chunking, all of which noticeably reduce the friction of uploading to the NotebookLM web app. Its privacy design is also relatively restrained: there are no NoteDock servers, no analytics or telemetry, and credentials are stored in Keychain. The downsides are that it depends heavily on NotebookLM and Google login, so changes to Google pages or interfaces may affect functionality; it only supports macOS 14+; OCR and conversion accuracy are not officially guaranteed; and key file-related features require Pro.

Who It’s For and Access from China

NoteDock is suitable for students, researchers, writers, and business users, especially Mac users who frequently import papers, textbooks, scanned documents, web pages, meeting materials, and audio/video content into NotebookLM. Users in mainland China should note that while NoteDock itself is available through the Mac App Store, its core functionality depends on Google NotebookLM and a Google account, so network access may be partially restricted. Payment depends on the region of the Apple ID and its App Store subscription capabilities. Alternatives include using the NotebookLM web version directly, or preprocessing files with local OCR, transcription, or format-conversion tools before uploading them manually.