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Claude does most of my work. It writes with me and automates the tasks I used to do by hand, some of them while I sleep.
But ask it for an image, and it can’t make one. Same for a video, or watching a clip you recorded. And it has nothing like NotebookLM, the notebooks that answer only from your own sources.
Gemini does all of that. And you probably have it already, free with your Google account.
So I stopped choosing between them. I connected them.
This guide comes in two parts. In the first, Diana walks you through what Gemini adds to Claude, one tool at a time.
In the second, I show you how I connected them. Claude now uses Gemini for me: Nano Banana for my images, Gemini notebooks for research, and more. I stay in Claude, and it calls Gemini when it needs to.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
What Claude can’t do (and Gemini can)
Gemini is actually 7 tools, and 5 of them do what Claude can’t
How I connected Claude to Gemini, so Claude can do what it couldn’t before
The one-time setup that connects them, and the use cases that make it worth it
What Claude can’t do
Claude is the best tool I know for writing, building and getting work done.
But there are a few things it can’t do:
It can’t make an image.
It can’t make a video.
It can’t make music.
It can’t watch a video (you can’t even upload one).
Gemini does all four. Here’s what you need:
Free: enough to get started.
Paid: more usage and video. Plans go from Plus ($4.99/month) to Pro ($19.99/month) and Ultra (from $100/month).
Start free, and move up when you hit a limit.
Gemini is actually 7 tools
Open gemini.google.com or the mobile app, and click the + in the chat box.
Almost everything in this section starts from that menu: your files at the top, then the tools that create images, videos, music and Canvas pages, and the rest under More tools.
Five of them do what Claude can’t. Here they are:
1. Images with Nano Banana
Nano Banana is Google’s image model, and it’s built into the chat.
It’s good at:
Creating an image from a description
Editing an image you upload, in plain language: “Remove the text.” “Change the light to late afternoon.”
Keeping the same character or product consistent across images
It’s useful beyond pretty pictures. Upload a photo of a real product and ask for it on a marble bathroom shelf in soft morning light, and you get a usable product shot. Or upload a screenshot of a landing page and ask for ten things that hurt conversions. It reads the layout as well as the words.
→ Here’s a complete guide about Nano Banana: Nano Banana vs. ChatGPT Images
For a quick image now and then, the app is all you need.
If you make images every week, it gets frustrating fast:
You get one image at a time.
You wait for every single one.
Every change is another round: ask, wait, check, ask again.
Keeping the same look across images is hard.
That’s why I don’t make mine in the app anymore. Claude makes them for me, four at a time, in the style of my past images. More about that later in this guide.
2. Video with Gemini Omni
Gemini Omni is the video model in the Gemini app now. It replaced Veo, so if you’ve read about Veo in Gemini, this is what you get instead.
Describe a scene, or give it up to 5 of your own photos, and it makes a 10-second video with sound. Then keep editing it by talking to it: “make it night,” “move the camera behind her.” When you like it, ask what happens next, and it extends the scene.
It’s on the Plus, Pro and Ultra plans.
3. Music with Lyria
Describe a song, or start from a photo, and Lyria writes the lyrics and makes the track: up to 3 minutes, with vocals or instrumental only. Pick a genre, or mix a few.
Just click one “Create music” and then describe the track you want.
Here’s a prompt:
And here’s the track it made:
4. Gemini watches your videos
You can’t upload a video to Claude. Cowork can cut a video into still images and read those, but it sees the frames it picked, not the video.
Gemini watches your whole video, and that lets it do things most other tools still can’t:
Upload a recording of yourself doing an exercise and ask what your form gets wrong.
Upload a competitor’s video ad and ask how its first seconds hold attention.
Film yourself fixing something and ask for a written step-by-step guide from the footage.
You can upload up to 5 minutes of video in total on the free plan, and up to an hour on the paid plans, with files up to 2 GB.
5. Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM)
A “notebook” is a set of your own sources: documents, links, PDFs, anything you load. Gemini answers only from those sources and cites every claim.
That’s the point of it. A normal chat can mix your document with something it read online. A notebook only uses what you gave it.
You can also add notebooks as a source in a Gemini chat, and ask across two notebooks at once.
Try this: load everything for one project (contracts, briefs, client emails), then ask a question only your own files can answer, like “What payment terms did I already agree to here?” It points at the line instead of guessing.
→ Full guide: NotebookLM
You can also connect your notebooks to Claude, so Claude builds things from what’s in them. I’ll show you how later in this guide.
How I connected Claude to Gemini
Why not switch to Gemini, then? Because for writing that has to sound like me, building AI systems and automating work, Claude is still better.
So Claude stays where I work, and Gemini does what Claude can’t.
The rest of this guide is for paid subscribers. It’s the exact setup I use every week, with every prompt I paste, so you can copy it instead of building it from scratch.
Below the line:
Claude + Nano Banana: I used to make my images in the Gemini app, one at a time, waiting for each and asking again for every change. Now Claude reads my draft, picks the cover style that fits, and makes four at once. Plus the trick that keeps your face looking like you in the AI images.
Claude + Gemini’s eyes: Claude can’t watch a video, but Gemini can. Drop recordings in a folder, and Claude sends each one to Gemini and turns what comes back into notes, a step-by-step guide, or a list of what to fix.
Claude + NotebookLM: Claude reads your notebooks and turns what’s in them into reports, dashboards and small apps.
Past this line, the full setup is waiting: