diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index f16af650fa2..bbde802d4c6 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -80,10 +80,7 @@ jobs:
           python-version: '3.7'
           architecture: 'x64'
       - name: Install requirements
-        run: |
-          pip install -r requirements.txt
-          python -m pip install -r cirq/contrib/contrib-requirements.txt
-          pip install -r dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
+        run: pip install -r requirements.txt -r cirq/contrib/contrib-requirements.txt -r dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
       - name: RST check
         run: find . -type f -name "*.rst" | xargs rstcheck --report warning --ignore-directives autoclass,automodule
       - name: Doc check
@@ -206,8 +203,8 @@ jobs:
           pip install -r dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
       - name: Pytest check
         run: check/pytest --ignore=cirq/contrib --benchmark-skip
-  notebooks:
-    name: Notebook Tests
+  notebooks-stable:
+    name: Changed Notebooks Isolated Test against Cirq stable
     runs-on: ubuntu-16.04
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v2
@@ -218,6 +215,29 @@ jobs:
           python-version: '3.7'
           architecture: 'x64'
       - name: Install requirements
-        run: pip install pytest pytest-xdist requests virtualenv filelock
+        run: pip install -r dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-isolated-notebook-tests.txt
       - name: Notebook tests
-        run: check/pytest -n auto -m slow dev_tools/notebook_test.py
\ No newline at end of file
+        run: check/pytest -n auto -m slow dev_tools/notebooks/isolated_notebook_test.py
+      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        if: failure()
+        with:
+          name: notebook-outputs
+          path: out
+  notebooks-branch:
+    name: Notebook Tests against PR
+    runs-on: ubuntu-16.04
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v1
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.7'
+          architecture: 'x64'
+      - name: Install requirements
+        run: pip install -r requirements.txt -r cirq/contrib/contrib-requirements.txt -r dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-notebook-tests.txt
+      - name: Notebook tests
+        run: check/pytest -n auto -m slow dev_tools/notebooks/notebook_test.py
+      - uses: actions/upload-artifact@v2
+        if: failure()
+        with:
+          name: notebook-outputs
+          path: out
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 7fea4f3be3d..3862dcbca25 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -46,3 +46,6 @@ docs/api_docs
 
 # pyenv configuration
 .python-version
+
+# notebook test output
+out
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt b/dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
index 80341a40fe7..ea6ec93ff48 100644
--- a/dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
+++ b/dev_tools/conf/pip-list-dev-tools.txt
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ pytest~=5.4.1
 pytest-asyncio~=0.12.0
 pytest-cov~=2.5.0
 pytest-benchmark~=3.2.0
-filelock
+filelock~=3.0.12
 
 # For generating protobufs
 
diff --git a/dev_tools/notebook_test.py b/dev_tools/notebook_test.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 76102092f5e..00000000000
--- a/dev_tools/notebook_test.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,123 +0,0 @@
-# Copyright 2020 The Cirq Developers
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-import functools
-import glob
-import os
-import subprocess
-import sys
-from typing import Set
-
-import pytest
-from filelock import FileLock
-
-from dev_tools import shell_tools
-from dev_tools.env_tools import create_virtual_env
-
-SKIP_NOTEBOOKS = [
-    # skipping vendor notebooks as we don't have auth sorted out
-    "**/google/*.ipynb",
-    "**/pasqal/*.ipynb",
-    "**/aqt/*.ipynb",
-    # skipping fidelity estimation due to
-    # https://github.com/quantumlib/Cirq/issues/3502
-    "examples/*fidelity*",
-    # https://github.com/quantumlib/Cirq/pull/3669#issuecomment-766450463
-    'docs/characterization/*.ipynb',
-]
-
-
-def _list_all_notebooks() -> Set[str]:
-    output = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'ls-files', '*.ipynb'])
-    return set(output.decode('utf-8').splitlines())
-
-
-def _tested_notebooks():
-    all_notebooks = _list_all_notebooks()
-    skipped_notebooks = functools.reduce(
-        lambda a, b: a.union(b), list(set(glob.glob(g, recursive=True)) for g in SKIP_NOTEBOOKS)
-    )
-
-    # sorted is important otherwise pytest-xdist will complain that
-    # the workers have different parametrization:
-    # https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-xdist/issues/432
-    return sorted(os.path.abspath(n) for n in all_notebooks.difference(skipped_notebooks))
-
-
-TESTED_NOTEBOOKS = _tested_notebooks()
-
-PACKAGES = [
-    # for running the notebooks
-    "papermill",
-    "jupyter",
-    "virtualenv-clone",
-    # assumed to be part of colab
-    "seaborn",
-    # https://github.com/nteract/papermill/issues/519
-    'ipykernel==5.3.4',
-]
-
-
-@pytest.mark.slow
-@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
-def base_env(tmp_path_factory, worker_id):
-    # get the temp directory shared by all workers
-    root_tmp_dir = tmp_path_factory.getbasetemp().parent.parent
-    proto_dir = root_tmp_dir / "proto_dir"
-    with FileLock(str(proto_dir) + ".lock"):
-        if proto_dir.is_dir():
-            print(f"{worker_id} returning as {proto_dir} is a dir!")
-            print(
-                f"If all the notebooks are failing, the test framework might "
-                f"have left this directory around. Try 'rm -rf {proto_dir}'"
-            )
-        else:
-            print(f"{worker_id} creating stuff...")
-            create_base_env(proto_dir)
-
-    return root_tmp_dir, proto_dir
-
-
-def create_base_env(proto_dir):
-    create_virtual_env(str(proto_dir), [], sys.executable, True)
-    pip_path = str(proto_dir / "bin" / "pip")
-    shell_tools.run_cmd(pip_path, "install", *PACKAGES)
-
-
-@pytest.mark.slow
-@pytest.mark.parametrize("notebook_path", TESTED_NOTEBOOKS)
-def test_notebooks(notebook_path, base_env):
-    """Ensures testing the notebooks in isolated virtual environments."""
-    tmpdir, proto_dir = base_env
-
-    notebook_file = os.path.basename(notebook_path)
-    dir_name = notebook_file.rstrip(".ipynb")
-
-    notebook_env = os.path.join(tmpdir, f"{dir_name}")
-    cmd = f"""
-{proto_dir}/bin/virtualenv-clone {proto_dir} {notebook_env}
-cd {notebook_env}
-. ./bin/activate
-papermill {notebook_path}"""
-    stdout, stderr, status = shell_tools.run_shell(
-        cmd=cmd,
-        log_run_to_stderr=False,
-        raise_on_fail=False,
-        out=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
-        err=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
-    )
-
-    if status != 0:
-        print(stdout)
-        print(stderr)
-        pytest.fail(f"Notebook failure: {notebook_file}")
diff --git a/dev_tools/notebooks/isolated_notebook_test.py b/dev_tools/notebooks/isolated_notebook_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..76af3dfcb4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev_tools/notebooks/isolated_notebook_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,176 @@
+# Copyright 2020 The Cirq Developers
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# ========================== ISOLATED NOTEBOOK TESTS ============================================
+#
+# In these tests are only changed notebooks are tested. It is assumed that notebooks install cirq
+# conditionally if they can't import cirq. This installation path is the main focus and it is
+# excercised in an isolated virtual environment for each notebook. This is also the path that is
+# tested in the devsite workflows, these tests meant to provide earlier feedback.
+
+import functools
+import glob
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import warnings
+from typing import Set
+
+import pytest
+from filelock import FileLock
+
+from dev_tools import shell_tools
+from dev_tools.env_tools import create_virtual_env
+
+# these notebooks rely on features that are not released yet
+# after every release we should raise a PR and empty out this list
+# note that these notebooks are still tested in dev_tools/notebook_test.py
+NOTEBOOKS_DEPENDING_ON_UNRELEASED_FEATURES = [
+    'docs/characterization/*.ipynb',
+]
+
+# By default all notebooks should be tested, however, this list contains exceptions to the rule
+# please always add a reason for skipping.
+SKIP_NOTEBOOKS = [
+    # skipping vendor notebooks as we don't have auth sorted out
+    "**/google/*.ipynb",
+    "**/pasqal/*.ipynb",
+    "**/aqt/*.ipynb",
+    # skipping fidelity estimation due to
+    # https://github.com/quantumlib/Cirq/issues/3502
+    "examples/*fidelity*",
+] + NOTEBOOKS_DEPENDING_ON_UNRELEASED_FEATURES
+
+# As these notebooks run in an isolated env, we want to minimize dependencies that are
+# installed. We assume colab packages (feel free to add dependencies here that appear in colab, as
+# needed by the notebooks) exist. These packages are installed into a base environment as a starting
+# point, that is then cloned to a separate folder for each test.
+PACKAGES = [
+    # for running the notebooks
+    "papermill",
+    "jupyter",
+    "virtualenv-clone",
+    # assumed to be part of colab
+    "seaborn~=0.11.1",
+    # https://github.com/nteract/papermill/issues/519
+    'ipykernel==5.3.4',
+]
+
+
+# TODO(3577): extract these out to common utilities when we rewrite bash scripts in python
+def _find_base_revision():
+    for rev in ['upstream/master', 'origin/master', 'master']:
+        try:
+            out = subprocess.check_output(f'git cat-file -t {rev}'.split())
+            if "commit\n" == out.decode('utf-8'):
+                return rev
+        except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
+            print(e)
+    raise ValueError("Can't find a base revision to compare the files with.")
+
+
+def _list_changed_notebooks() -> Set[str]:
+    rev = _find_base_revision()
+    output = subprocess.check_output(f'git diff --name-only {rev}'.split())
+    return set(l for l in output.decode('utf-8').splitlines() if l.endswith(".ipynb"))
+
+
+def _tested_notebooks():
+    changed_notebooks = set()
+
+    # It would be nicer if we could somehow automatically skip the execution of this completely,
+    # however, in order to be able to rely on parallel pytest (xdist) we need parametrization to
+    # work, thus this will be executed during the collection phase even when the notebook tests
+    # are not included (the "-m slow" flag is not passed to pytest). So, in order to not break the
+    # complete test collection phase in other tests where there is no git history (fetch-depth:1),
+    # we'll just swallow the error here with a warning.
+
+    try:
+        changed_notebooks = _list_changed_notebooks()
+    except Exception as e:
+        warnings.warn(
+            f"No changed notebooks are tested "
+            f"(this is expected in non-notebook tests in CI): {e}"
+        )
+
+    skipped_notebooks = functools.reduce(
+        lambda a, b: a.union(b), list(set(glob.glob(g, recursive=True)) for g in SKIP_NOTEBOOKS)
+    )
+
+    # sorted is important otherwise pytest-xdist will complain that
+    # the workers have different parametrization:
+    # https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-xdist/issues/432
+    return sorted(os.path.abspath(n) for n in changed_notebooks.difference(skipped_notebooks))
+
+
+@pytest.mark.slow
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def base_env(tmp_path_factory, worker_id):
+    # get the temp directory shared by all workers
+    root_tmp_dir = tmp_path_factory.getbasetemp().parent.parent
+    proto_dir = root_tmp_dir / "proto_dir"
+    with FileLock(str(proto_dir) + ".lock"):
+        if proto_dir.is_dir():
+            print(f"{worker_id} returning as {proto_dir} is a dir!")
+            print(
+                f"If all the notebooks are failing, the test framework might "
+                f"have left this directory around. Try 'rm -rf {proto_dir}'"
+            )
+        else:
+            print(f"{worker_id} creating stuff...")
+            _create_base_env(proto_dir)
+
+    return root_tmp_dir, proto_dir
+
+
+def _create_base_env(proto_dir):
+    create_virtual_env(str(proto_dir), [], sys.executable, True)
+    pip_path = str(proto_dir / "bin" / "pip")
+    shell_tools.run_cmd(pip_path, "install", *PACKAGES)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.slow
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("notebook_path", _tested_notebooks())
+def test_notebooks_against_released_cirq(notebook_path, base_env):
+    """Tests the notebooks in isolated virtual environments."""
+    notebook_file = os.path.basename(notebook_path)
+    notebook_rel_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.relpath(notebook_path, "."))
+    out_path = f"out/{notebook_rel_dir}/{notebook_file[:-6]}.out.ipynb"
+    tmpdir, proto_dir = base_env
+
+    notebook_file = os.path.basename(notebook_path)
+    dir_name = notebook_file.rstrip(".ipynb")
+
+    notebook_env = os.path.join(tmpdir, f"{dir_name}")
+    cmd = f"""
+mkdir -p out/{notebook_rel_dir}
+{proto_dir}/bin/virtualenv-clone {proto_dir} {notebook_env}
+cd {notebook_env}
+. ./bin/activate
+papermill {notebook_path} {os.getcwd()}/{out_path}"""
+    _, stderr, status = shell_tools.run_shell(
+        cmd=cmd,
+        log_run_to_stderr=False,
+        raise_on_fail=False,
+        out=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
+        err=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
+    )
+
+    if status != 0:
+        print(stderr)
+        pytest.fail(
+            f"Notebook failure: {notebook_file}, please see {out_path} for the output "
+            f"notebook (in Github Actions, you can download it from the workflow artifact"
+            f" 'notebook-outputs')"
+        )
diff --git a/dev_tools/notebooks/notebook_test.py b/dev_tools/notebooks/notebook_test.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..69d4e462a98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev_tools/notebooks/notebook_test.py
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+# Copyright 2020 The Cirq Developers
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+# ========================== CONTINUOUS NOTEBOOK TESTS ============================================
+#
+# These tests are run for all of our notebooks against the current branch. It is assumed that
+# notebooks will not install cirq in case cirq is on the path. The simple `import cirq` path is the
+# main focus and it is executed in a shared virtual environment for the notebooks. Thus, these
+# tests ensure that notebooks are still working with the latest version of cirq.
+
+import functools
+import glob
+import os
+import subprocess
+from typing import Set
+
+import pytest
+
+from dev_tools import shell_tools
+
+SKIP_NOTEBOOKS = [
+    # skipping vendor notebooks as we don't have auth sorted out
+    "**/google/*.ipynb",
+    "**/pasqal/*.ipynb",
+    "**/aqt/*.ipynb",
+    # skipping fidelity estimation due to
+    # https://github.com/quantumlib/Cirq/issues/3502
+    "examples/*fidelity*",
+    # chemistry.ipynb requires openfermion, that installs cirq 0.9.1, which interferes
+    # with testing cirq itself...
+    'docs/tutorials/educators/chemistry.ipynb',
+]
+
+
+def _list_all_notebooks() -> Set[str]:
+    output = subprocess.check_output(['git', 'ls-files', '*.ipynb'])
+    return set(output.decode('utf-8').splitlines())
+
+
+def _tested_notebooks():
+    """We list all notebooks here, even those that are not """
+
+    all_notebooks = _list_all_notebooks()
+    skipped_notebooks = functools.reduce(
+        lambda a, b: a.union(b), list(set(glob.glob(g, recursive=True)) for g in SKIP_NOTEBOOKS)
+    )
+
+    # sorted is important otherwise pytest-xdist will complain that
+    # the workers have different parametrization:
+    # https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest-xdist/issues/432
+    return sorted(os.path.abspath(n) for n in all_notebooks.difference(skipped_notebooks))
+
+
+@pytest.mark.slow
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("notebook_path", _tested_notebooks())
+def test_notebooks_against_released_cirq(notebook_path):
+    notebook_file = os.path.basename(notebook_path)
+    notebook_rel_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.relpath(notebook_path, "."))
+    out_path = f"out/{notebook_rel_dir}/{notebook_file[:-6]}.out.ipynb"
+    cmd = f"""mkdir -p out/{notebook_rel_dir}
+papermill {notebook_path} {out_path}"""
+
+    _, stderr, status = shell_tools.run_shell(
+        cmd=cmd,
+        log_run_to_stderr=False,
+        raise_on_fail=False,
+        out=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
+        err=shell_tools.TeeCapture(),
+    )
+
+    if status != 0:
+        print(stderr)
+        pytest.fail(
+            f"Notebook failure: {notebook_file}, please see {out_path} for the output "
+            f"notebook (in Github Actions, you can download it from the workflow artifact"
+            f" 'notebook-outputs')"
+        )
diff --git a/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-isolated-notebook-tests.txt b/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-isolated-notebook-tests.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..797f31d0748
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-isolated-notebook-tests.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+pytest>=6.0.0
+pytest-xdist~=2.2.0
+filelock~=3.0.12
+virtualenv
+# for shell_tools
+requests
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-notebook-tests.txt b/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-notebook-tests.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..60950953beb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev_tools/notebooks/requirements-notebook-tests.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+pytest>=6.0.0
+pytest-xdist~=2.2.0
+filelock~=3.0.12
+
+papermill~=2.3.2
+notebook~=6.2.0
+
+# https://github.com/nteract/papermill/issues/519
+ipykernel==5.3.4
+
+# assumed to be part of colab
+seaborn~=0.11.1
diff --git a/docs/tutorials/quantum_walks.ipynb b/docs/tutorials/quantum_walks.ipynb
index 5beb917f6b7..1e3c537d08b 100644
--- a/docs/tutorials/quantum_walks.ipynb
+++ b/docs/tutorials/quantum_walks.ipynb
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
    },
    "outputs": [],
    "source": [
-    "try:\n",
+    "try:broken!\n",
     "    import cirq\n",
     "except ImportError:\n",
     "    print(\"installing cirq...\")\n",