Does Copilot have meeting transcription?

Copilot does not record or transcribe a meeting by itself ¹. In Microsoft Teams, Copilot works with a meeting transcript, which comes from live transcription that someone has to turn on. Copilot can still take notes during a Teams meeting with transcription off ². What it cannot do is answer questions about the meeting afterward unless a transcript was running ³. The Microsoft guides we read cover Copilot in Teams only. For Zoom, use Zoom's own transcription, which works only with a cloud recording. For an in-person meeting, Copilot is not the tool, so record the meeting and transcribe the file.

This answer is based on Microsoft's pages as we read them on 17 October 2026. Teams menus and admin policies change, so check the current Microsoft guide before you plan a meeting around a setting.

Copilot in Teams can take notes without a transcript

Microsoft says Copilot can generate AI notes and tasks during a call or meeting without transcription and recording enabled ². Turning Copilot on does not start a transcript either. Transcription won't start automatically when Copilot is turned on ¹, so someone has to start one.

That split is the key to the answer. The notes Copilot writes during the meeting do not depend on a transcript. Answers about what was said afterward do.

The Allow Copilot and Facilitator setting decides whether a transcript is needed

Teams controls Copilot in meetings with one setting, called Allow Copilot and Facilitator. Organizers find it in the meeting scheduler under Online meeting options, then Copilot and other AI, as set out in Microsoft's guide to Copilot in Teams. The two options that matter for transcription work as follows.

Choose During and after the meeting when you want to ask Copilot about the meeting later. Choose Only during the meeting when you want Copilot's help in the meeting and do not need the discussion kept for later questions. Both options let Copilot work during the meeting. They differ in what remains afterward.

Copilot answers about a meeting afterward only from a live transcript

Microsoft's note is direct. To prompt Copilot about the meeting, or to see its conversation history after the meeting ends, turn on live transcription during the meeting ³. The note names live transcription. It does not mention a recording.

With Only during the meeting, the rule is narrower. If someone starts a transcript partway through, Copilot keeps only the part from that point ⁵. If you need the whole meeting, start transcription at the beginning, before the first question.

For Zoom and in-person meetings, Copilot is not the tool

The Microsoft pages we read describe Copilot in Teams. None of them describes Copilot joining a Zoom meeting or transcribing one. Zoom has its own transcription, but Zoom's audio transcript works only with cloud recordings ⁶, so a meeting you recorded to your own computer does not get one. The question on whether Zoom can transcribe without recording covers that case, and the guide to meeting transcription covers the wider options.

For an in-person meeting, Microsoft's Copilot guides describe no meeting feature. Record the meeting, then transcribe the file. The question on how to transcribe an in-person meeting walks through the steps.

Captions on screen are not a transcript. Live Captions show text as people speak, and a transcript is the saved text you keep afterward.

Transcription without a recording is a separate Teams option

Teams can make a transcript without making a recording. The Transcribe only option creates a meeting transcript and stores no recording ⁷. The Microsoft post that announced it has since expired from Microsoft's message center, so confirm that the option appears for your account before you plan a meeting around it. Because the option keeps a transcript and no recording, it fits meetings where a recording is not wanted.

What to do before and during a Copilot meeting

1. Check who hosts the meeting. Copilot won't work in meetings hosted outside your organization ⁸. If another organization hosts the meeting, plan on taking your own notes.
2. Set the option before the meeting. In Teams, select Calendar, open the meeting you organized, select Options, scroll to Copilot and other AI, and choose the setting you need. If you cannot see the option, contact your IT admin, as Microsoft's guide to Copilot without transcribing or recording advises.
3. Start transcription if you need answers afterward. Begin live transcription at the start of the meeting, not partway through, so that Copilot can use the whole discussion.
4. Save what you need before the call ends. Microsoft suggests copying any content you want to keep from a Copilot conversation into another place before the call ends.

Copilot's voice features are a different job. They are a spoken conversation with Copilot itself, and they do not transcribe a meeting. The Copilot voice and dictation guide explains those features. The question on whether Copilot can take dictation covers dictating a prompt, and the question on whether Copilot can transcribe audio to text covers uploaded files. For the wider picture of Windows tools, see the overview of dictation on Windows.