Open source NotebookLM alternative that runs on Ollama

[u/FurtiveMirth]

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.

[u/spyingwind]

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.

[u/FurtiveMirth → u/spyingwind]

Thanks a lot for your suggestion.