Zoom, Teams and Google Meet Transcription

Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet can each transcribe a meeting without a third-party tool. None of them does it for everyone by default. Zoom makes a transcript only of cloud recordings, and only on a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account ^{1 2}. Google Meet transcripts need a supported Google Workspace edition ³. Teams transcription is controlled by meeting policy, and the organizer or a participant starts it during the meeting.

Each platform keeps the transcript in a different place. Zoom saves a separate file next to the cloud recording, Google Meet saves a document to the organizer's Drive, and Teams stores the transcript with the meeting. If you are on a free Zoom account, record the meeting to your own computer and transcribe that file. Our guide to meeting transcription covers the wider options, and transcribing an audio file covers the file route in detail.

All three platforms transcribe meetings themselves, mostly on paid business plans

Zoom and Google Meet both tie the feature to a paid plan. Zoom's audio transcript needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording turned on ². Zoom's computer recording is open to free accounts ⁴, but that records the file to your device, not to Zoom's cloud. Google's admin page lists the editions that support Meet transcripts as Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus ³. Personal Google accounts are not on that list.

Teams is harder to pin to a plan. Microsoft's support article on live transcription describes the feature without listing license tiers. A Microsoft 365 message center post, read from a third-party mirror, says standard Teams transcription is included in E3 and E5 ⁵. The same post does not say whether the Business plans include it. Ask your admin which license your account holds before you plan a recording workflow around Teams.

The practical rule is simple. On a business or education plan, use the built-in transcript from the platform. On a personal or basic plan, record locally or use a file transcription tool.

Zoom creates an audio transcript of cloud recordings once an admin turns it on

Zoom's audio transcript is a setting, not a button in every meeting. Zoom's article says you cannot enable or disable it while a meeting or webinar is running ⁶, so the setting has to be right before the recording starts Zoom's enable article. An account owner or admin switches on Create audio transcript, and the transcript is made only from a cloud recording ¹. A recording made to your computer gets no transcript from Zoom. The steps below follow Zoom's own enable article.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an admin, click your profile picture, then click Admin Center.
2. In the side menu, click Settings, then click Recording & Transcript.
3. Under General, make sure Cloud recording is enabled.
4. Under Advanced cloud recording settings, select Create audio transcript.
5. Optionally, click the lock icon to stop users changing the setting, then click Save.

An admin can also lock the setting so that no one in the account can change it ⁷.

Zoom's pages disagree on languages

Zoom's enable article says that audio transcription only supports English ⁸. Zoom's article on using audio transcripts lists a longer set of languages, from English to Danish ⁹. The two pages still disagree. If your meetings are not in English, record a short test meeting and check the transcript before you rely on it.

The transcript is a VTT file with timestamps

Once processed, the transcript appears as a separate file in the list of your cloud recordings ¹⁰. Zoom saves it in VTT format ¹¹, which is a plain text file with timestamps. A VTT file opens in any text editor ¹². Zoom's article says the transcript is divided into sections, each with a timestamp, and that you can display the text over the video as captions. You can also find recordings by searching the words in their transcripts, from Recording & Transcripts in the web portal. For the full steps to find and download a Zoom transcript, see the question on downloading a Zoom transcript.

Microsoft Teams transcribes live and saves the transcript with the meeting

Teams transcription runs during the meeting, and the transcript is ready when the meeting ends. It shows each speaker's name and a timestamp ¹³, so the output works as a record of who said what. Microsoft's support article gives these steps for starting live transcription from the desktop app:

1. In your meeting controls, select More actions.
2. Select Transcribe.
3. Confirm the language everyone is speaking, then select Confirm.

Everyone in the meeting sees a notification when transcription starts ¹⁴. Live transcription runs only on the Teams desktop app ¹⁵, so a participant on a phone can read the transcript after the call ¹⁶ but cannot start one there.

Who can turn Teams transcription on depends on policy

Teams also has a separate choice for who may record and transcribe a meeting. Microsoft's article describes three options: organizers and co-organizers, organizers, co-organizers and presenters, or no one Microsoft's support article on live transcription. The article says that with Teams Premium and Copilot, organizers can set this option when they schedule the meeting ¹⁷. If your organization has set the option to no one, nobody in the meeting can start a transcript.

Teams transcription is controlled in two places. It is both a per-organizer and a per-user policy setting ¹⁸, so the organizer must have it on for the transcript to be included, and the person who starts it must also have it on ¹⁹. Microsoft says the Transcription toggle is On by default for new meeting policies ²⁰. An admin changes this in the Teams admin center under the meeting policies, or with PowerShell.

Teams keeps the transcript in the organizer's OneDrive

Teams stores the transcript for a meeting with recording or transcription in the organizer's OneDrive for Business ²¹. The meeting organizer can download it after the meeting as a Word document or a VTT file by default ²². Microsoft's article says the transcript is available from the meeting event on the calendar as soon as the meeting ends ²³, and it stays in the meeting chat until the organizer deletes it ²⁴.

Teams also has a "Transcribe only" option. Microsoft's message center post says it creates a transcript without storing a recording ²⁵. This is useful where recording is restricted. The post came from a third-party mirror of Microsoft's message center, and it has expired from that message center, so confirm the option appears in your own tenant.

Translated transcripts are a separate feature. Microsoft says the organizer needs a Teams Premium license for attendees to use live translated transcription ²⁶. Plain transcription does not carry that rule.

Google Meet saves transcripts to Google Docs on eligible Workspace plans

Google's admin page lists the supported editions as Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Education Plus ³, and personal Google accounts are not on that list. Google says the feature is on by default, but it is not automatic for each meeting, because someone in the meeting has to start transcription ²⁷.

When the transcript is done, Google saves it to the meeting organizer's Drive ²⁸. Google also says that both you and your organization need enough free storage in Drive for a transcript to be saved ²⁹.

An admin sets the default, and Business Standard cannot turn it off

Admins control the feature from the Admin console. To change it, open Meet video settings under Google Meet, then choose an option for Meeting transcripts and click Save. Google notes that on Business Standard an admin cannot turn the feature off ³⁰.

Live captions are not a saved transcript unless someone saves one during the meeting

Live captions and a transcript are different things. Zoom's automated captions appear during the meeting, and Zoom says you can open the transcript panel and click Save transcript to download the full text as a TXT file ³¹. This save happens while the meeting is running. Zoom's whitepaper says that after a session ends, participants cannot retain, save or download captions as a separate post-meeting file ³², so anyone who wants a copy has to save it during the call.

Zoom is also clear about the limits of its captions. If speech-to-text is needed for compliance or accessibility, Zoom recommends a manual captioner or service that may be able to guarantee a specific accuracy ³³. Automated captions depend on background noise, voice clarity and dialect, and they are not a guarantee.

On a free plan, record locally and transcribe the file yourself

On a free Zoom account, the route is local recording. Zoom says computer recording is available to free and paid subscribers ⁴, so you can record the meeting to your own device, then transcribe the saved file afterward. An account owner or admin can turn computer recording off, so a free user may not have it at all.

Once you have the file, the accuracy of the transcript depends on the software you use. A 2024 study measured eleven speech recognition services on university lecture recordings ³⁴. It reported English average word error rates of 2.9 percent for Whisper large-v2 ³⁵ and 20.1 percent for Google ³⁶. The chart below shows six of the services, with the same English column.

The numbers come from a study of lectures, not from meetings, and the services may have changed since 2024. Still, the spread is large. Amazon and Microsoft each averaged 4.4 percent ^{37 38}, while Deepgram averaged 8.3 percent ³⁹ and IBM 11.2 percent ⁴⁰. The rate that matters to you is the word error rate on your own meeting audio, so check a few minutes of the transcript against the recording before you rely on it. For a browser-based route, see free audio to text or our guide to transcribing an audio file.

Use the built-in transcript whenever your plan includes it, because it is attached to the meeting and needs no file handling. Use the local route when it does not.

The local route takes four steps, and most of the work is in the last one:

1. Check that computer recording is on for your account, since an account owner or admin can switch it off ⁴.
2. Record the meeting to your computer. Tell the other participants before you start.
3. When the meeting ends, transcribe the saved file. A browser tool such as free audio to text can handle a single saved file.
4. Read the transcript against the recording. Names, product names, numbers and dates are the parts most likely to be wrong, so fix those first before you share the text.

A local recording captures only what your device hears, so a speaker far from the microphone may be hard to follow in the transcript. Test the set-up with a short recording before a meeting that matters. The question on whether Zoom can transcribe without recording covers the Zoom side in more detail, and the question on free Google Meet transcription covers the Google side.

The organizer's settings decide who can start a transcript and who can read it

The organizer's settings control access on all three platforms. In Teams, the policy and the meeting options decide who can start, view and download a transcript. Microsoft's table of permissions shows that the organizer can start, view and download, while a person from another organization can view the live transcript but cannot start one or download it Microsoft's table of who can start, stop, view and download a transcript. People who call in by phone cannot view the transcript at all ⁴¹.

In Zoom, the account admin controls the audio transcript setting. Zoom's use article says you can enable or disable whether viewers see the transcript when you share a cloud recording Zoom's article on using audio transcription. That makes the sharing setting a second control, separate from the transcript setting itself.

In Google Meet, the transcript sits in the organizer's Drive ²⁸, so the organizer controls the file. Any participant who needs the text should ask the organizer for a copy.

Before you rely on any of these platforms for a record, decide who needs access and who must be able to download the file. Check the settings with your admin, then run a short test meeting. The settings page is the only reliable answer for your account, and Zoom, Microsoft and Google can change it.

Where to go next

Start with the overview of transcription if you want the full picture. For the steps on turning Zoom transcription on, read the question on enabling transcription in Zoom. For longer files, see our guides to video to text, voice memo to text and transcription software. Labels for who said what are covered in timestamps and speaker labels, and caption files are in captions and subtitles, where the term closed captions is explained.