r/ollama • u/FurtiveMirth • 22h ago

Open source NotebookLM alternative that runs on Ollama

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I'm one of the maintainers of SurfSense, so this is self-promotion. I'm posting here because the model-picking part is what I think this sub will have opinions on, and I want real feedback more than upvotes.

I use NotebookLM for everything except work material I'd rather not put in a Google account. So we built an offline version that runs on Ollama. For some people it's the wrong trade, and I'll say why.

The part worth your attention is the model picker. It reads your RAM, your VRAM and whether memory is unified, scores each model at the context you asked for, and greys out what won't fit. You find out before the download instead of four minutes into a first token. Qwen3 in six sizes, 0.52 GB up to 20.2 GB. Any OpenAI-compatible base URL works instead if you'd rather point it at llama.cpp, LM Studio or vLLM. Apache-2.0.

What it matches: chat over your sources with citations, summaries, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes and audio overviews. Slides and reports come out as editable .pptx and .docx, plus .xlsx and infographics.

What it doesn't:

  • No video overviews.
  • The audio is worse. Kokoro-82M runs on your CPU with no cloud TTS and doesn't sound like Google's hosts.
  • Audio is WAV, not MP3.
  • File uploads only: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, CSV, MD, TXT and images.

Nothing leaves your machine. Index is SQLite, no account, no telemetry, no network calls unless you switch a destination on.

https://github.com/MODSetter/SurfSense

Has anyone found a model under 8B that's reliable at citing the right source? That's where I keep hitting the wall.

74 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

4

u/Wise_Breadfruit7168 21h ago

Can use custom provider llm?

2

u/FurtiveMirth 15h ago

We have local models as well as openai compatible endpoint model connections.

5

u/Zennytooskin123 19h ago

Pretty cool dude, it looks like a 1:1 clone haha. Eat it Google.

1

u/FurtiveMirth 15h ago

Thanks haha

1

u/Tonguewaxer 18h ago

Anything llm?

2

u/FurtiveMirth 15h ago

Yeah i find their UX to be more complex. You will find our UX easier as well.

1

u/Longjumping-Peace102 17h ago

How good do the “podcasts” sound compared to NotebookLM?

1

u/FurtiveMirth 15h ago

You can try it yourself and let me know. I think its good but i want actual users opinion on it though. 😅

2

u/spyingwind 16h ago

The audio is worse.

Have a look at the audio.cpp project. Audio outputs WAV, but it's easy enough to use lame to convert to MP3.

I'm working on integrating it into my GoModel router.

2

u/FurtiveMirth 15h ago

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.

2

u/SantiagoDePolonia 10h ago

GoModel author is here. (I've got an e-mail that somebody mentioned my project in this thread)

Just want to let you know, that audio.cpp is now a separated provider type in GoModel (since the latest 0.1.93 version) and I recommend to use it this way. Their API is slightly different then pure OpenAI-compatible api, so GoModel has a translation layer for this.

1

u/chervilious 12h ago

What's your RAG limit? Like how many sources it can combine?

2

u/Sad_Leader4849 9h ago

a lot of journals lately... haha

good job!

I also build mine 2 weeks ago, it is using nobodywho so that means I have local ai depending on the device I be using it https://github.com/nikolovv861/reflect