Google Meet transcription: transcripts, Gemini notes and Mac

Live captions: for you only, not saved

Captions are the simplest layer. Click Turn on captions at the bottom of the meeting and subtitles appear as people speak. Google's page says "the captions are turned on only for you": nobody else sees them, and they only cover the parts of the meeting you attended with captions on. You can scroll back through them during the call, but the page says nothing about saving them, and they aren't a transcript.

Google lists 88 caption languages for all users (26 standard, 62 in beta) and doesn't state a plan requirement. Translated captions are a separate feature with 69 languages, limited to Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Google AI Pro for Education, and still rolling out.

Google Meet Transcripts: the written record

Transcripts write what is said into a Google Doc. It's on by default for every Workspace edition that has it, except Education accounts with a student licence, and it never starts by itself unless the host has set it to.

• Editions: Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Workspace Individual, according to the user help page. Free personal accounts aren't listed.
• Who can start it: with Host management off, anyone from the host's domain; with it on, only the host and co-hosts. It runs only on a computer or Android device.
• Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish.
• How to start: Meeting tools, Transcribe, Start transcription, then Start. To stop: Meeting tools, Transcribing, Stop transcription. It can't be paused; stopping and restarting makes a separate file, and it stops when everyone leaves.
• What's captured: only spoken words. Chat messages need a video recording.
• What participants see: a Transcripts icon at the top right for everyone, and an on-screen warning for people joining a meeting set to transcribe automatically. Admins can additionally require each participant to consent explicitly; that's off by default.

Where Google Meet transcripts go, and for how long

The transcript is saved as a Google Docs file in the meeting organiser's Drive, in the Google Meet folder with a sub-folder per meeting (older ones sit in Meet Recordings, renamed Legacy Meet Recordings from July 2026). Google's admin page says it usually appears within a few hours and can take up to 24.

An email with the link goes to the host, any co-hosts and the person who turned transcription on, and the file is attached to the Calendar event. Invitees in the host's organisation can open it; the admin page says they get edit access when there are fewer than 200 invitees, and anyone with edit access can move, share or rename the file. Above 200 invitees, only the host, co-hosts and the starter have access.

Neither page states a retention period for transcripts. Google's Vault documentation says Meet files follow Drive retention rules by default; a Meet-specific rule covering recordings, transcripts and Gemini notes exists but is off until an admin turns it on.

Gemini "take notes for me"

Gemini's notes are the third layer: not a verbatim record but a summary document. Google's page says it needs an eligible Google Workspace edition or Google AI plan on the organiser's side; the page doesn't list the editions, so check your own plan rather than assume.

• What it produces: a notes document with two tabs. Quick notes holds a short summary and action items; Full notes adds a longer summary, decisions, action items and details. Late joiners can ask for a Summary so far during the meeting.
• Where it's saved: the organiser's Drive, Google Meet folder, with an email link to the organiser and a link in the Calendar event.
• Who receives it: set under Send notes to: all invited guests (including outside the organisation), invited guests in the organisation, or hosts and co-hosts only. For instant meetings, notes go to hosts and whoever started them.
• Languages: the same eight as Transcripts, one language per meeting.
• What participants see: Meet notifies everyone that notes are being taken, and a pencil icon appears on their screens.
• Limits: Google recommends meetings between 15 minutes and 8 hours, and says summaries may be incomplete for shorter meetings or after connection problems. Notes follow the organisation's Meet retention policy.

The page doesn't say whether Gemini notes also create a transcript; Transcribe is listed as a separate feature.

Transcribe a Google Meet on your Mac with QuietNote

QuietNote is a note taker for Mac (macOS 14.2 or later). Instead of asking Meet for a transcript, it records your microphone and the Mac's own audio next to the meeting, with no bot in the participant list, and transcribes on your computer. That makes it independent of your Google plan: it works for a free account, for a participant who can't start Transcripts, and for meetings the host never transcribed.

• Press Start in QuietNote when the call begins; nothing records until you do.
• Transcription runs on the Mac with a Whisper model that ships with the app, so it works offline and no audio leaves your computer. There's no fixed eight-language list; Whisper handles many languages.
• The transcript separates You (your mic) from Others (the call audio), with timestamps.
• Everything is a plain Markdown file in a folder you choose. Summaries, decisions and action items are optional: a local model through Ollama (fully offline) or Claude with your own API key, which sends only transcript text and only when you ask.
• Already have a recording of a Meet? Import the file and it's transcribed on your Mac through the same pipeline.

Unlike Transcripts and Gemini notes, QuietNote shows nothing to the other participants, so tell them you're transcribing. Our guide on whether it's legal to record a meeting covers the consent rules. The first signed Mac release isn't out yet; leave your email on the home page for it.

Meet transcript vs Gemini notes vs QuietNote

When each option fits

• Transcripts: you host on an eligible edition and the team wants a shared, searchable record in Drive that attaches itself to the Calendar event.
• Gemini notes: you want a summary rather than the full text, your organisation has the feature, and it's fine for Google to process the meeting.
• Live captions: you need to follow the conversation in the moment, in a language of your choice, and don't need anything afterwards.
• QuietNote: you're a participant, on a free account, or want the transcript to stay on your own Mac and work without a connection. Say you're transcribing at the start.