How to Transcribe a Zoom Meeting, Host or Not (2026)

To transcribe a Zoom meeting, the host turns on Meeting transcript or records to the cloud with an audio transcript, and both need a paid Zoom plan. On a free account, Zoom’s live captions are not saved. As a participant, ask the host, or run a bot-free desktop app like Reline. A finished computer recording needs a separate file transcriber.

This is the live route, and it replaced saved captions. Since Zoom’s May 2026 update, captions are for reading during the meeting and cannot be saved afterwards, so anything you want to keep has to be a transcript. Transcripts are off by default and need a Pro, Business or Enterprise account.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal, open Settings, then Meeting, and under In Meeting (Advanced) turn on Meeting transcript. If the switch is grayed out, an admin has locked it.
2. In the meeting, click More in the toolbar, then Transcript. A Transcript icon appears at the top right of the meeting window.
3. The Transcript panel opens to the right of the meeting window and fills in as people speak.
4. Click Save transcript at the bottom of the panel before you leave. Zoom saves a .TXT file to the Zoom folder in your Documents.

Your account decides who else gets it: one setting lets all participants view the transcript during the meeting, and another sets who can save it, from the host only up to all participants.

This route gives you a file after the meeting rather than text during it. It needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording on, and the transcript setting has to be on before you record.

1. In the web portal, open Settings, then Recording, and under Advanced cloud recording settings turn on Create audio transcript. On a managed account, an admin may have to do this.
2. In the meeting, start a cloud recording. Only the host or a co-host can do this.
3. After the meeting, Zoom emails you when the recording is available, then again when the transcript is, which can take longer.
4. In the web portal, open Recordings & Transcripts, then Cloud recordings, the meeting name and the recording. The transcript sits beside the playback, in timestamped sections.
5. Correct phrases with the pencil icon, rename any Unknown Speaker, and download the VTT file.

English is the default language. Zoom’s two help pages disagree on the rest: the transcript page lists 19 languages and a Change Language option that transcribes the audio again, while the settings page says audio transcription only supports English. Test a short recording in your language before you rely on it.

Looking for AI Companion? Zoom now builds those features into Zoom Workplace and calls them by what they do, so this one is simply Meeting Summary. It is for licensed users on Zoom Workplace Pro and higher plans. The host starts it from the Zoom AI icon at the top right of the meeting window and ticks Generate transcript to keep a transcript for after the meeting. Only the host and co-host can start or stop it, and any participant can ask the host to start it.

Afterwards, hosts find the transcript in their Zoom profile under Recordings and Transcripts, on the Transcripts tab, and can download it as a VTT file if the account lets hosts manage transcripts. Zoom says these transcripts cannot be shared directly through Zoom, so send the file yourself. Participants who are signed in can get the summary if the host shares it with them, by email and, where the account allows it, in Zoom Chat. Zoom’s page on the transcript describes access for hosts and admins only.

Without host or co-host rights you cannot start Zoom’s transcript or a cloud recording. This is what you can do instead:

• Read captions: click Show captions in the toolbar. You can follow along, but the text cannot be saved. If the host has limited captions, you send a request instead.
• Ask for a transcript: if the host’s account has Meeting transcript on, click More, then Transcript, then Request transcription. The host can start it or decline. Whether you can then view or save it depends on the account’s settings.
• Ask for the recording afterwards: if the host recorded to the cloud, they can share the link with Viewers can see transcript turned on.
• Use My Notes: if your account includes it, Zoom’s personal notes feature can transcribe for you, but in a Zoom meeting only if the host allows it. The host sees a My Notes icon next to your name and can stop it.
• Run a desktop app on your own computer: Reline, below, does not depend on any Zoom setting.

One dead end to know about: when the host gives you recording rights with Allow Record, you get a computer recording, and Zoom does not transcribe those.

It depends on where the recording is. Zoom’s audio transcript only covers cloud recordings, so a file on your computer needs a different tool.

• Zoom Clips: Zoom’s release notes say users can manually generate transcripts for uploaded videos if transcription is enabled, and an older note puts transcription on Pro and higher plans, not Basic. We found no step-by-step help page and have not tested this, so check that your account shows the option.
• Microsoft Word: Transcribe, in Word for the web and in Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows for commercial accounts, has an Upload audio option for .wav, .mp4, .m4a and .mp3 files, with 300 minutes of uploaded audio a month on a Microsoft 365 subscription.
• Whisper: OpenAI’s open-source speech recognition is free under the MIT License. You install it yourself with Python and ffmpeg and run it from a command line, so it suits people who are comfortable with that.

Already have a VTT file full of Unknown Speaker lines? Our free speaker name editor replaces them with real names in your browser. It works on text transcripts only and does not transcribe audio.

• Zoom Basic: automated captions are listed on the plan, but they are live only. Zoom’s pricing page also lists meeting summaries for 3 hosted meetings a month and 3 uses of AI note-taking a month, while its help pages name paid or standalone accounts for those features and do not say whether the Basic uses keep a transcript. Meeting transcript and cloud recording transcripts need a paid plan.
• A computer recording plus Whisper: both cost nothing, but you need to be the host or have recording rights, and you set up Whisper yourself.
• Reline’s Free plan: a live transcript with nothing to change in Zoom, up to the plan’s transcription hours, whatever Zoom plan the host is on.

For your next Zoom call, you can transcribe your own computer instead of the meeting. Reline’s desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux (beta) captures your microphone and the sound your computer plays, and writes a live transcript in 60+ languages with automatic language detection. Nothing joins the meeting, the participant list does not change, and you do not have to ask the host to change anything in Zoom. It works with the Zoom desktop app and with Zoom in a browser.

1. Install the Reline desktop app and sign in. You can start on the Free plan.
2. Allow the microphone when asked, and on a Mac also allow system audio.
3. Join the Zoom meeting as usual and tell people you are recording audio for notes.
4. Press Record in Reline. The live transcript starts as people talk.
5. Stop when the meeting ends. You get the transcript, an AI summary next to it, and the kept audio, with a play button on every transcript line.

Speaker names: the transcript is labeled Me vs Other (your microphone vs the meeting audio), and Reline does not read names from Zoom. In a group meeting, open Who is on the other side beside the record button and choose Separate speakers (beta): Reline numbers each voice on the meeting side (an estimate), and you click a voice to name it yourself. Zoom’s captions show each speaker’s display name, so Zoom is ahead on this point.

• Meetings that are already over: with no audio or video upload, a finished recording stays with Zoom’s options or a file transcriber.
• Video: Reline keeps audio and a transcript, not a video of the meeting or the shared screen.
• Speaker names from Zoom: the beta Separate speakers option only numbers voices for you to name.
• Windows sound: Reline records the whole default output device, not only Zoom. Wear a headset and mute other sounds.
• Offline use: transcription, summaries and storage run in the cloud. Only the capture is local.
• Your phone: there is no mobile app.

Zoom’s transcript shows an icon in the meeting window, its recording shows a notice, and the host sees a My Notes icon next to a participant’s name. Reline puts no notice in the meeting, so the notice is on you, and a transcript made this way still starts with a recording of people’s voices. 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.

• Zoom Support, "Frequently asked questions about meeting captions and transcript updates (May 2026)" (KB0085668): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Using Meeting transcripts" (KB0085682) and "Enabling or disabling meeting transcripts" (KB0085675): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Enabling or disabling automated captions" (KB0058810) and "Viewing captions in a meeting or webinar" (KB0059762): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Using audio transcription for cloud recordings" (KB0064927) and "Enabling or disabling audio transcription for cloud recordings" (KB0065911): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Starting a cloud recording" (KB0062627), "Starting a computer recording" (KB0076922) and "Managing and sharing cloud recordings" (KB0067567): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Using Meeting Summary with AI" (KB0058013) and "Accessing meeting transcripts for Meeting Summary with AI" (KB0076632): support.zoom.com
• Zoom Support, "Using My Notes" (KB0087985) and "Release notes for Zoom Clips" (KB0068160): support.zoom.com
• Zoom, "Zoom Workplace Pricing": zoom.us/pricing
• Zoom blog, "Meet ZoomMate: Zoom's next chapter in AI" (24 June 2026): zoom.com/en/blog/zoom-ai-companion-zoommate
• Microsoft Support, "Transcribe your recordings": support.microsoft.com
• OpenAI, Whisper: github.com/openai/whisper