How to Record Teams Audio Only (2026)

Yes, in Teams for work or school. In the desktop app, select More actions, then Record, open Choose what to record, pick Audio only and select Confirm. You need a qualifying Microsoft 365 license and recording allowed by your admin, and guests cannot record. Teams Free lists no audio-only choice. Otherwise, export the sound from a video recording, record your computer, or use Reline.

Yes, if you can record at all. Microsoft's help page on recording a Teams meeting tells you to specify the spoken language and what you want to record, and to select Audio only in the Choose what to record menu. That choice appears in the steps for the Teams desktop app. Microsoft's page does not say whether Teams on the web offers it, and the mobile steps (More options, Start recording) mention no choice at all.

Who can press Record: someone with one of the licenses Microsoft lists (Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5, F3, A1, A3, A5, Microsoft 365 Business, Business Premium or Business Essentials), with recording turned on by their IT admin, who is not a guest or from another organization. Anonymous users cannot record either. Microsoft Learn adds that both the organizer and the person who starts the recording need recording permission in their meeting policy. Everyone in the meeting gets a notification in Teams when the recording starts.

Teams Free, the personal version that Microsoft now calls Teams for personal use, is different. Recording there needs a Microsoft 365 Personal, Family or Premium subscription, the recording captures audio, video and screen sharing, and Microsoft lists no audio-only option. The recording sits in the meeting chat for 30 days, and you can download it before it expires.

1. Join or start the meeting in the Teams desktop app.
2. In the meeting controls, select More actions, then Record.
3. Specify the spoken language, open Choose what to record and select Audio only, then select Confirm. If Record is missing or greyed out, your license, your admin or the organizer does not allow you to record.
4. To stop, select More actions, then Recording, and stop it.
5. Find the file afterwards: for most meetings it is stored in the Recordings folder of the organizer's OneDrive and linked in the meeting chat; for a channel meeting it goes to the channel's SharePoint site. To download it, open the Shared tab in the meeting chat, select the recording, then More options and Download.

Two things to know. By default only the organizers and co-organizers can download or delete the recording, so if you started it in someone else's meeting, ask the organizer for a copy. And Microsoft's pages do not say which file format an audio-only recording produces, so check the file you get before you send it to a tool that expects MP3 or WAV.

If the meeting was recorded with video, or on Teams Free where there is no audio-only choice, download the recording (from the Shared tab in the meeting chat, or the download arrow under the recording in Teams Free) and export its sound:

1. Install Audacity, the open-source audio editor, and its optional FFmpeg library. Audacity does not ship FFmpeg; you add it separately.
2. Use File > Import > Audio and pick the video. The Audacity manual says FFmpeg imports the audio from most video files that are not DRM-protected.
3. Export the sound as MP3 or WAV from the File menu.

Any video editor or converter you already trust that can export audio does the same job. Be careful with online converter sites: you would be uploading other people's voices to someone else's server.

If you cannot press Record in Teams, record the sound your computer plays during the meeting. Two sources matter: the system audio (the other people) and your microphone (you). Many built-in recorders take only one of them.

• Windows 10 and 11: Audacity can record a WASAPI loopback of your speakers or headset, which is the other people's sound as audio only. Your own voice is a separate input, so record both with a tool that takes two sources, such as OBS Studio.
• Mac: the Screenshot toolbar (Shift-Command-5) can include system audio only from macOS 27, and it records video. On older macOS, use OBS Studio 30 or later (macOS 13 and later), or route the sound with BlackHole into Audacity.

Reline is the tool we make, so weigh our view accordingly. Its desktop app for Mac and Windows records your microphone and the sound your computer plays, and transcribes the meeting live as people talk, in 60+ languages. It records audio and a transcript, never video. No bot joins the Teams meeting, the participant list does not change, and you need neither Teams' Record button nor a work license, so it also works when you join as a guest.

1. Download Reline for Mac or Windows and sign in. The Free plan includes 10 hours of transcription.
2. Allow the microphone, then system audio. On macOS 14.2 or later that is an audio-only permission; on macOS 13 to 14.1 it is the screen recording permission, often followed by a restart of Reline. Before macOS 13, a Mac records only your microphone.
3. Join the Teams meeting in the Teams app or your browser as usual.
4. Press Record in Reline. The transcript appears as people talk.
5. Stop when the meeting ends. You get the transcript, an AI summary and the kept audio, with a play button on every transcript line.

Know the limits. Reline transcribes live while it records: it cannot turn a Teams recording you already have into a transcript, and there is no file upload. The audio stays in the note for playback next to the transcript; if what you need is an audio file to keep or send, options 1 to 3 give you one. On the Free plan each note holds up to 1 hour of recording. Your voice and the call are labeled Me and Other; the beta Separate speakers option numbers the voices on the call side, and you name them yourself. Capture happens on your computer, but transcription, AI summaries and storage run in the cloud.

Cannot install anything? Reline also runs in Chrome: it hears your microphone, and you share the Teams tab with its audio to capture the other side.

Teams' notice only covers its own Record button. A recorder on your computer and Reline put no notice in the meeting, so the notice is on you. Several US states, California among them, require every party to agree before a call is recorded, and in the EU you need a lawful basis under the GDPR and should say why you record. Rules differ by country and state, so check the rules where everyone on the call is. The simple habit: say at the start of the meeting that you are recording for notes, and stop if someone objects.

• Microsoft Support, "Start, stop, and find meeting recordings in Microsoft Teams": support.microsoft.com
• Microsoft Support, "Play, share, and download meeting recordings in Microsoft Teams": support.microsoft.com
• Microsoft Support, "Manage meeting and call recordings in Microsoft Teams for personal use": support.microsoft.com
• Microsoft Learn, "Manage Teams recording policies for meetings and events": learn.microsoft.com
• Audacity Manual, "Importing Audio": manual.audacityteam.org
• Audacity Support, "Installing FFmpeg": support.audacityteam.org