When learning, an AI tool can help by having you explain, recall or verify your own knowledge. However, it can also be helpful to have the AI give you an answer instead of doing those activities yourself. Therefore, students need to ask the right kind of questions about AI tools for their studies. Instead of asking “Which one is smarter?” they should be asking “Can I verify this answer from my own course material? Can I describe it without consulting the text?”
There is one significant limitation to the below comparison: this article does NOT contain a direct side-by-side test between ChatGPT, Gemini and NotebookLM for the same textbook page. Therefore it would be misleading to say there was one that was more accurate than the others. Instead this article uses an actual textbook extract to illustrate the methods used to verify the answers provided by each of the three Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools. Subsequently, each of the three tools are compared for document study features, privacy policy and free tier limits, as of September 29, 2026. Ultimately, the rules established by your course for the use of AI will determine what you may use for graded work.
How to Tell If an AI Tool Is Teaching You or Just Doing the Work
After finishing any AI study, it can be beneficial to take the answer you received from the tool and think through the answer using your own words. Then, look back at your textbook or notes to compare the two answers and see if you are able to locate the source of the answer that the AI provided. If you discover where the AI’s answer came from and have identified parts of the answer that the AI’s response did not include as well as any inaccuracies, the AI has provided you with material that could enhance your understanding of the topic. On the other hand, if the only material you have is what the AI has provided and you have no opportunity to think through the issue, you are not able to learn anything new through the process of using the tool.
Hallucinations are made-up claims produced by AI that may seem reasonable but have no basis in fact or data. The research done on verifying AI-generated claims explains that verbal fluency alone is not an indicator of the reliability of a claim. Citation can help validate an AI-generated statement, but only if the cited reference actually supports the claim next to it.
Validate your homework using an AI homework helper, whether to receive hints, receive easier explanations, or receive questions to work on independently. However, for graded assignments, this is not the same; for example, the University of Minnesota allows instructors to impose different policies regarding AI usage in different courses. Thus, review your class assignment instructions prior to submitting it via an AI tool, as well as when you upload materials for classes. If you do not understand any clearly defined rules, please contact your instructor.
Summarizing a Textbook Page: ChatGPT vs. NotebookLM vs. Gemini
A naming update: Google renamed NotebookLM to Gemini Notebook in July 2026. The title refers to the widely-used name for the tool in the table of contents, with the additional term “Gemini Notebook” used below referring specifically to the source-based “standalone” notebook on its own, without the limitations of an ordinary chat session in Gemini.
These products can all work with study material, but their documented ways of working differ:
- Gemini Notebook says its notebook chat answers from your supplied sources and provides citations you can open in context. Its chat documentation makes it a practical choice when your immediate job is checking what a particular reading says. A citation is a place to check, not proof that the summary is complete.
- ChatGPT can summarise uploaded documents, while its Study mode guidance says you can direct it to a page or section and ask it to question you rather than simply answer. Those features do not establish that it summarises this textbook page more or less accurately than either Google tool.
- Gemini can analyse uploaded files, according to its file-upload guidance. That same guidance warns that a large upload can produce an answer that misses details or connections.
Callout: The method for replicating a check of the three tools is to use either the Passive Transport section from the 2nd Edition of OpenStax’s Biology 2e or a section that you have permission to use from your course. Use each tool to generate the question: Please provide a summary of the entire Passive Transport section. For each claim you make, please provide the passage where you found that information. If no information is provided for that claim in that passage, then it will be noted. Then check these points against the OpenStax text:
| Claim to check | What the textbook says | What would need correcting |
|---|---|---|
| What crosses a plasma membrane? | It is selectively permeable: some substances pass; others do not. | “Everything passes freely.” |
| Does passive transport use cellular energy? | The section says passive transport does not require the cell to expend energy. | A summary that treats passive and energy-using transport as the same process. |
| What moves in osmosis? | Osmosis transports water, while the membrane limits movement of dissolved substances. | “Osmosis moves any dissolved substance across the membrane.” |
The right-hand side contains illustrative examples of incorrect answers that have not been varied in any way from what actually was produced by any of the three tools. This is intended to be an exercise for you to compare and evaluate each claim individually and not an evaluation of the overall accuracy of a particular tool. It is important to note how even in a summary of a topic, the distinction between the two answers makes one of them incorrect and the other one correct. You should refer to the text surrounding each citation in order to determine whether or not you can support that claim.
AI Flashcard Makers and Quizzes: Where the Hallucinations Hide
The only time an AI flashcard creator is helpful is when both the question and its answers are from your source material; if it isn’t, it will have you memorizing incorrect information. The flashcard and quiz instructions in Gemini Notebook include creating study materials from the information in your notebook. Both the flashcards and quizzes in the Gemini app and the [study mode in ChatGPT](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11780217-using-study-mode-in-chatgpt) can ask you quiz questions, or you can create flashcard-type questions to review material. The fact that they have these features is written down (documented), but that does not mean they are accurate.
Use the OpenStax passage above to see what checking a card entails:
- Ask for a small set of questions based only on the passage, with a source location for each answer.
- Before practising, read each front and back against that location. A card asking “What is osmosis?” must not define it using the passage’s description of all diffusion.
- Hide the answer, say yours aloud, then reveal it and check the textbook—not just the AI’s “correct” label.
- Remove or rewrite any card whose answer the source does not support.
This last step is important because when you require ‘active recall,’ instead of passively reading, you use the information to create flashcards or test yourself. The study guide for UC San Diego says you should try to recall before checking your course materials. You don’t need an app to do this, but what AI contributes is a method for practicing recall with quiz questions while still using the course material as an answer key.
The Privacy Trap: Which Study Tools Actually Train on Your Notes?
Content improves an AI model via training, whereas retention is the storage of content for an extended time. When a user disables training mode on their account, their uploaded essays or any other type of file(s) are not automatically deleted. A statement indicating that a file will not be used for training purposes does not mean that file will not be retained.
The boundaries differ more precisely than “Google versus OpenAI”:
- For a personal Gemini Notebook, Google’s notebook privacy terms say notebook content is not used to directly train foundational AI models unless you provide feedback. They say feedback can include your sources and outputs for review and product improvement. Content shared with another Google service is also subject to that service’s notices. This is Google’s stated policy, not an independently tested guarantee of confidentiality.
- For a personal ChatGPT account, OpenAI’s data controls let you turn off “Improve the model for everyone” for new conversations. They also say ordinary saved chats remain in history when you turn it off. The often-repeated 30-day figure does not describe the retention of every standard ChatGPT chat: OpenAI applies a potential period of up to 30 days to Temporary Chats for safety purposes, while ordinary chats have different retention rules. Its file-upload guidance sets out separate considerations for uploaded files.
- For a personal Gemini app chat, Google’s Gemini Apps privacy notice says activity can include uploaded files and may be used to improve services, including AI models, when Keep Activity is on. It describes different treatment for future chats when that setting is off, with exceptions including feedback. Do not assume a Gemini app chat has the same data boundary as a standalone Gemini Notebook.
Each account type (i.e., school-managed) may have different terms regarding the use of ChatGPT as a tool by students (In effect, students are using ChatGPT to create content). The terms for student accounts in the OpenAI workspace controls indicate that content created by students will not be used for training the ChatGPT model unless the student explicitly gives permission for it to be used. The Google notebook terms provide additional protection for qualifying Google Workspace for Education users. However, neither term explains which type of Google/or OpenAI account your school issued, who may access the account on behalf of the school, or whether you can upload your classmate’s content.
For unpublished essays, data collected from research, information contained in lecture slide presentations or notes created by a peer, make it a point to obtain proper permission prior to uploading said content. If you wish to obtain information regarding a particular topic but do not wish to provide the original source material, request information on the general subject matter only and verify the answer given to you either through your course syllabus or the approved course materials. For a more detailed discussion on consumer account settings, refer to the topic dedicated to the privacy settings for ChatGPT and associated tools when the information becomes available.
Free-Tier Limits: When Your AI Study Buddy Hits a Paywall
The term “Free” refers to a plan, not to a continuous study session. These are vendor-created limits, as checked on 29 September 2026, and not based on your account performance; the service may change these limits.
- ChatGPT: OpenAI’s free-tier FAQ says everyday text chats are available, while uploads and other tools have separate usage limits. Its file-upload FAQ lists three file uploads per day for Free users and says limits may be lowered at peak times. Study mode does not add extra usage allowance, according to its Study mode guidance.
- Gemini Notebook: Google’s Standard-plan limits list 100 notebooks per user, 50 sources per notebook, 50 chats per day, and 10 flashcard or quiz generations per day. Google labels the limits subject to change.
- Gemini app: Google’s usage-limits page describes compute-based limits rather than a fixed promise that every prompt costs the same. It lists a 32,000-token context window without an AI plan. A context window is how much material the tool can consider together; Google’s upload guidance warns that an overly large file may yield a response missing details, even when you receive an answer.
The practical difference is between a clearly posted limit—a limit on uploading or chatting—and an answer that is partially sent to you from a long source. In the case of the latter scenario, if you believe this could be an issue for you, you should ask for each section that is allowed and compare it with each section. Do not assume that the success of uploading will prove that the entire chapter has been considered.
The Student Decision Tree: Match the Tool to the Study Task
Please take note of the following guidance regarding using the recommender service of your choice as a starting point in the development of an answer. The information listed above is based on my review of 29 September 2026 and may be subject to change when a new version of that product is released. You are responsible for verifying the accuracy of any answer you receive through using the recommender service from the above choices.
- Is the task assessed, or is the material restricted or someone else’s? If yes, check your course rules and permission to share it before selecting a tool. If permission is uncertain, keep the material out of the app.
- Do you need to understand a concept rather than submit an answer? If you can discuss it without uploading restricted material, try ChatGPT Study mode for hints and questions, or Gemini’s learning tools where available. Ask for the next hint, not a finished response; verify the explanation in your reading.
- Do you need to summarise a permitted source? Try Gemini Notebook if opening citations back to that source would help your check; its source-citation guide explains that workflow. ChatGPT and Gemini can also work with uploaded material, but none earns an accuracy recommendation here without a controlled comparison. Check every important claim against the page.
- Do you need to practise remembering it? Generate a small quiz in a permitted tool—or write questions yourself. Verify its answers first; then answer with the source closed and check afterwards.
If you encounter a free-tier limit on your route, the fallback course of action is to refer to your specific course textbook, any supplementary materials (including your own self-created study questions), and not rely on an unverified answer provided by one of the independent applications that remains functional. A decision tree like this does not have any authority to override an instructor’s policies or provide any indication that a citation proves an indicator of comprehension of the material.
Where Most People Go Wrong
Using a fluent answer, a source citation (or a label for “Study”) as proof that you’ve completed your learning task would be incorrect. First, decide which task you would like to complete, verify whether or not you can actually distribute the answer to other people (if needed), and have the resource generate a response that you can compare to your original resource. Ultimately, take that response you’ve generated and then determine what you’ve learned so far about the assignment and how you could present that information independently and without assistance from any resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is using AI to study cheating?
There is no universal guidance that applies to every course or task. The syllabus guidance provided by the University of Minnesota has made clear that an instructor may allow or disallow certain uses of AI for their courses, including the use of course content that may have been uploaded. Review your course instructions carefully; if they do not address the question, check with your instructor before using AI for assessed assignments.
Which tool gave the most accurate textbook summary?
This article does not refer to a specific example because it did not run the necessary comparison of a series of passages with identical prompts. If those results influence your selection of AI resources, please complete the OpenStax checker example provided above for each available account, along with noting the language used on each tool, and then comparing it with the text of the passage. The results for a single passage and date are indicative of your specific attempt to compare tools, but the ranking of these results is not permanent over time.
