Teams Transcription: How to Transcribe a Teams Meeting
In a Teams meeting, open More actions, choose Record and transcribe, then Start transcription, confirm the spoken language and select Confirm. Everyone in the meeting is notified, and afterwards the transcript waits in the meeting chat under Recap. This guide covers who can start it, where the transcript goes and why the option is sometimes missing, then how to transcribe a meeting when Teams will not.
- More actions > Record and transcribe
- 57 spoken languages in Teams
- Your admin's policy decides
- No bot needed either way
What Teams transcription is, and what it needs
Teams transcription writes down what is said in a meeting as it happens, with each speaker's name and a time stamp. It is built into Teams, so no bot joins the call. When the meeting ends, the transcript is available straight away in the meeting event on the calendar and in the meeting chat. It is stored in the meeting organiser's OneDrive for Business until an organiser deletes it.
Whether you can use it is decided by your IT admin, not by a switch in your own settings. Microsoft describes transcription as a per-organiser and per-user policy: for a meeting to get a transcript, the organiser must have the setting turned on, and so must the person who starts the transcript or recording. The transcription help pages name no licence of their own. For recording, Microsoft lists Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5, F3, A1, A3, A5, M365 Business, Business Premium or Business Essentials, plus recording enabled by an admin. Extras such as live translated transcription are part of Teams Premium.
Transcription and recording are related but separate. When you record a meeting, transcription starts automatically. You can also transcribe without recording, and while both run, Stop transcription ends only the transcript and Stop recording ends both. Live captions are a third thing: Teams shows them during the meeting but does not save them.
How to transcribe a Teams meeting, step by step
In the Teams desktop app, as Microsoft describes it. The mobile app can show a transcript after the meeting, but live transcription is only available on Teams for desktop.
Check that you are allowed to start it
The organiser and people from the same organisation can start transcription when the admin policy allows it. People from another tenant can follow the live transcript but cannot start it, and anonymous participants can do neither. With Teams Premium or a Copilot licence, organisers can also choose who may record and transcribe when they schedule the meeting: organisers and co-organisers, also presenters, or no one.
Start transcription in Teams
In the meeting controls, select More actions, then Record and transcribe, then Start transcription.
Confirm the spoken language
Teams asks which language everyone is speaking. Pick it and select Confirm. This spoken language setting matters: changing it later changes the transcript and caption language for everyone. If people speak something else, Teams detects the mismatch and prompts the organiser, a co-organiser or whoever started the transcript to update it. You can also change it yourself under Show transcript, then Language settings, then Spoken language in this meeting.
Tell people, even though Teams tells them too
All participants see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed, and each of them can choose to hide their identity in captions and transcripts. Microsoft also notes that, depending on your region, you may need everyone's permission before you record them. Say at the start what you are capturing and why. This guide is not legal advice.
Stop the transcription
Organisers, co-organisers and presenters can stop and restart it: More actions, Record and transcribe, then Stop transcription or Stop recording. Both stop the transcript. It also stops by itself once everyone has left the meeting.
Find and download the transcript
After the meeting, select Chat in Teams, open the past meeting chat, select Recap, then Transcript. Use the arrow next to Download to save it as a .docx or .vtt file. By default only organisers and co-organisers can download it; your admin's policies decide whether others may. People who dialled in by phone cannot view the transcript.
Transcribing a Teams meeting without Teams transcription
When the option is not there for you
Transcription switched off by policy, a guest seat in another organisation's meeting, the mobile app: in each case Teams will not transcribe for you. Mr.Speech records on your own computer, your microphone and the computer's audio as two separate tracks, so it does not depend on a Teams setting. It does not replace anyone's rules either. Tell participants you are recording, and if the host's organisation has turned transcription off on purpose, ask before you start. Teams shows no notice for you, because Teams is not doing the recording.
No bot, and not only Teams
Nothing appears in the participant list, and it keeps working where bots are blocked. Because it records the machine rather than the meeting service, the same button works for Zoom, Google Meet or any other conferencing tool. An in-person mode records a single microphone for a room with no call at all.
It knows who said what
An on-device speaker identification model labels you and every other person speaking. Name someone once in a finished meeting and their voice is remembered locally for future meetings, without any voice data touching the cloud.
Minutes, summary and tasks in one click
A structured protocol, a summary, action items or a follow-up email draft. Action items go straight onto a Kanban board with due dates and reminders. The AI is instructed never to invent a decision, a task or a name that was not in the transcript.
On your machine or in Europe
Pick per meeting: live transcription, recording with cloud transcription processed in Europe, or recording with on-device transcription that never touches the cloud. Export as text, Markdown, SRT or JSON.
Teams transcription vs Mr.Speech
Teams' own transcription is the simplest choice when everyone is in your organisation and your admin allows it. The table shows where each one fits. Every Teams cell comes from Microsoft's own help pages.
| Mr.Speech | Teams transcription | |
|---|---|---|
| No bot in the call | Records on your own computer | Built into the meeting |
| Who can start it | You, on your computer, after telling participants | Organiser and same-organisation users, if the admin policy allows; not guests from another tenant or anonymous users |
| Needs an admin setting | No Teams setting involved | Transcription policy on for the organiser and for the person starting it |
| Participants notified automatically | No, you tell them yourself | Everyone sees a notification |
| Zoom, Google Meet and in-person meetings | Any conferencing tool, plus an in-person mode | Teams meetings and events only |
| Speaker names | On-device speaker identification, names remembered locally | Speaker name and time stamp on each line |
| Languages | Around 100 in the cloud, detected automatically; 40 on-device | 57 locales; one spoken language set per meeting |
| Where the transcript lives | Your machine; cloud mode processed in Europe | The organiser's OneDrive for Business |
| Download | Text, Markdown, SRT or JSON | .docx or .vtt, by default for organisers and co-organisers |
| Minutes and tasks | Protocol, summary, action items on a task board | Transcript in the Recap tab; AI recap features not covered here |
Checked on 29 September 2026 on Microsoft's own pages (support.microsoft.com and learn.microsoft.com). Products change, so verify anything decisive yourself.
Questions
How do I start transcription in Teams?
In the meeting, select More actions, then Record and transcribe, then Start transcription. Confirm the language everyone is speaking and select Confirm. If you start a recording instead, transcription starts automatically with it.
Where do I find the Teams transcript?
Right after the meeting it is in the meeting event on the calendar and in the meeting chat: select Chat, open the past meeting chat, select Recap, then Transcript. The file itself is stored in the organiser's OneDrive for Business.
Why can't I transcribe in Teams?
The usual reasons, from Microsoft's pages: transcription is turned off in the meeting policy for you or for the organiser; you are a guest from another organisation or an anonymous participant; the organiser has limited who can record and transcribe; the organiser has turned off Copilot for the meeting, which also turns off recording and transcription; or you are on the mobile app, where live transcription is not available. Your admin can run Microsoft's Teams transcripts diagnostic tool to check your account.
Who can download a Teams transcript?
By default the organiser and co-organisers, as a .docx or .vtt file. Your admin's policies decide whether others may. People from another tenant and anonymous participants cannot view it after the meeting, and people who dialled in cannot view it at all.
Do I need a special licence for Teams transcription?
Microsoft's transcription pages name no licence of their own; what they require is the transcription policy for the organiser and for the person starting it. Recording needs one of the licences Microsoft lists, such as Office 365 Enterprise E3 or Microsoft 365 Business Premium. Live translated transcription is part of Teams Premium.
Is transcription the same as recording in Teams?
No. Recording saves the video and audio; transcription saves the text. Starting a recording also starts transcription, but you can transcribe without recording, and Stop transcription ends only the transcript.
Can I transcribe a Teams meeting without a bot?
Yes, both ways. Teams' own transcription is built in, not a bot. Mr.Speech also needs no bot: it records your microphone and your computer's audio on your own machine, so it works in meetings where you cannot use Teams transcription. Tell participants before you start, because Teams will not announce it for you.
Can I create meeting minutes from a Teams transcript with AI?
Microsoft's admin pages mention AI-generated insights in meeting recaps; which of them your organisation has is a question for your admin. Without them, download the transcript and fill in our meeting minutes template. With Mr.Speech, one click turns the meeting into a structured protocol with decisions and action items, and the tasks land on a board.
How do I transcribe a Zoom meeting?
Mr.Speech records the computer, not the meeting service, so a Zoom call works exactly like a Teams call: pick a mode, tell participants, press record. Zoom's own options are not covered in this guide.
Can Mr.Speech transcribe an existing Teams recording?
No. Mr.Speech transcribes what it records itself, live or when you stop. It does not import audio or video files.
