How do you turn off or disable transcription in Zoom?

To turn off Zoom's transcript, clear the Create audio transcript setting. This is an account setting, not a switch inside a meeting. It controls whether Zoom makes a transcript from your cloud recordings. Live captions are a separate feature. The host can turn those off during a meeting.

First decide which of the two you mean. A transcript is a file made after a cloud recording ends. Captions are text on the screen while the meeting runs. Each one is turned off in a different place, so check which one you have before you change anything.

Turn off the audio transcript in account settings

An account owner or admin finds the option under Advanced Cloud Recording settings in the account's Zoom settings ¹, and clears Create audio transcript there. Clearing the box turns off the automatic transcription of cloud recordings ².

On a personal account, you can switch on the setting yourself without admin permissions, so you can switch it off yourself as well ³. That only works if an admin has not locked it.

An admin can lock the setting so that no one in the account can change it ⁴. If the box is greyed out, or the change does not stick, ask your admin whether the setting is locked. You will need the admin to unlock it.

You cannot change it during a meeting

Zoom says you cannot enable or disable audio transcription while a meeting or webinar is running ⁵. The setting must be right before the recording starts. If you want no transcript for a meeting that is already under way, you cannot switch it off from inside that meeting. Ask the admin before the next one, or stop the recording if you do not want it made at all.

The setting does not touch recordings saved to your computer

The transcript is made only from a cloud recording, so the setting does not affect a recording saved to your computer ⁶. If you record to your computer, you get no Zoom transcript, whatever the setting says.

Turn off live captions as the host

Captions are separate from the transcript. A Brown University guide to Zoom captions describes the host's route. The host clicks the caret beside the Show Captions button, then turns captions off under Host Controls ⁷. The guide's menu names come from one Zoom version, so look for the same options in your own meeting.

After the session ends, participants cannot retain, save or download captions as a separate file ⁸. Zoom's automated captions article, though, says the full transcript of a session can be downloaded as a TXT file from the transcript panel ⁹. Check which of these applies to your account before you rely on either.

Recording and transcription are separate settings

The transcript setting is one of the advanced cloud recording options. Turning captions off during a meeting does not change that account setting, and changing the account setting does not turn captions off in a meeting that is already running.

If you are not the admin and the setting is locked, ask your admin to turn it off for the account. If you are a participant in someone else's meeting, you cannot change the account setting, but you can ask the host to turn off captions for that meeting.

What to do

1. Decide whether you need to stop the audio transcript, the live captions, or both.
2. For the transcript, an owner or admin clears Create audio transcript under Advanced Cloud Recording settings.
3. For captions, the host opens the caret beside Show Captions and turns them off under Host Controls.
4. Before a sensitive meeting, check the setting, then run a short test meeting.

If you want the transcript after all, read how to enable transcription in Zoom. If you need to find a transcript that already exists, read how to download a Zoom transcript. For Zoom, Teams and Google Meet together, see our guide to Zoom, Teams and Google Meet transcription, and for a closer look at captions, see closed captions.