--- title: I used NotebookLM and Claude Projects to organize five... description: A hands-on comparison of NotebookLM and Claude Projects for organizing a large personal notes archive (Obsidian vault spanning five years). NotebookLM hit... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-notebooklm-and-claude-projects-to-organize-five-years-of-notes-and-only-one-finished-the-job-xbko6qqdb twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I used NotebookLM and Claude Projects to organize five years of notes, and only one finished the job | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on comparison of NotebookLM and Claude Projects for organizing a large personal notes archive (Obsidian vault spanning five years). NotebookLM hit... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-notebooklm-and-claude-projects-to-organize-five-years-of-notes-and-only-one-finished-the-job-xbko6qqdb og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/xbko6qQdb.png og:image:alt: I used NotebookLM and Claude Projects to organize five years of notes, and only one finished the job og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I used NotebookLM and Claude Projects to organize five years of notes, and only one finished the job **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 4 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on comparison of NotebookLM and Claude Projects for organizing a large personal notes archive (Obsidian vault spanning five years). NotebookLM hit friction fast: a 100-source-per-notebook cap, no direct local folder upload, isolated notebooks with no cross-notebook memory, and unreliable uploads. Claude Projects handled the full vault without prep, used RAG when context overflowed, maintained persistent memory across sessions, and delivered richer outputs including charts, timelines, and grouped inventories. The verdict: NotebookLM suits well-organized, reference-style notes; Claude Projects is better for messy, sprawling personal archives. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many sources can I upload to a single NotebookLM notebook on the Google AI Plus plan? The Google AI Plus plan allows 100 sources per notebook. For a multi-year notes archive, that works out to roughly one note per two-and-a-half weeks of coverage, which forces users to either pick favorite notes, pre-merge notes into consolidated documents, or split the archive across multiple isolated notebooks that don't share memory with each other. _Anyone weighing NotebookLM against other AI note tools can compare real usage limits on daily.dev before committing to one._ ### What are the file and project limits for Claude Projects on the Claude Pro plan? Claude Pro gives unlimited Projects, a 30MB per-file limit, and no stated cap on the number of files in a Project's knowledge base. When the content exceeds the context window, Claude automatically switches to retrieval-augmented generation, pulling relevant chunks per query, which lets effective capacity scale well beyond the raw context window. _Developers deciding between AI workspaces for large document sets can track these capacity details on daily.dev._ ### Should I use NotebookLM or Claude Projects to organize a large personal notes archive? Claude Projects suits messy, unstructured personal archives better because it requires no prep, supports large and numerous files, retains persistent memory across sessions, and produces richer outputs like grouped idea inventories, retrospectives with charts, and chronological timelines. NotebookLM works well only when notes are meticulously organized with consistent prefixes and tag hygiene, making it better suited for lecture notes, research, or project archives where hallucination-free, source-grounded retrieval matters most. _Anyone choosing between AI tools for personal knowledge management can follow these comparisons on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [NotebookLM is great until your research gets messy, and that's where Claude Projects wins](https://daily.dev/posts/notebooklm-is-great-until-your-research-gets-messy-and-that-s-where-claude-projects-wins-gl2isanhs) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I ditched NotebookLM for Claude Projects and I’m not going back](https://daily.dev/posts/i-ditched-notebooklm-for-claude-projects-and-i-m-not-going-back-v8esiiy3e) · XDA Developers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [I built my entire second brain in Claude Projects, and NotebookLM can't compete anymore](https://daily.dev/posts/i-built-my-entire-second-brain-in-claude-projects-and-notebooklm-can-t-compete-anymore-qrcbdgi3e) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I gave up NotebookLM for Claude Projects, and the trade-offs surprised me](https://daily.dev/posts/i-gave-up-notebooklm-for-claude-projects-and-the-trade-offs-surprised-me-d9cgd8jtc) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#notebooklm](https://daily.dev/tags/notebooklm) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-notebooklm-and-claude-projects-to-organize-five-years-of-notes-and-only-one-finished-the-job-xbko6qqdb) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I used NotebookLM and Claude Projects to organize five years of notes, and only one finished the job","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-notebooklm-and-claude-projects-to-organize-five-years-of-notes-and-only-one-finished-the-job-xbko6qqdb","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-used-notebooklm-and-claude-projects-to-organize-five-years-of-notes-and-only-one-finished-the-job-xbko6qqdb"},"datePublished":"2026-07-18T14:34:39.374Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T21:30:32.687Z","description":"A hands-on comparison of NotebookLM and Claude Projects for organizing a large personal notes archive (Obsidian vault spanning five years). 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