Microsoft Teams transcription: how it works and what it costs

Live transcription in a Teams meeting

To transcribe without recording, open More actions, choose Transcribe, confirm the spoken language and select Confirm. A transcript pane shows each speaker's name and a timestamp. All participants see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed, and it stops automatically when everyone leaves. Microsoft notes that live transcription is only available on Teams for desktop; mobile users can read the transcript after the meeting.

• Who can start it: the organiser and people from the same organisation. Microsoft's table says users from another tenant can view the live transcript but can't start it or see it afterwards; anonymous users can't start or view it; guests can't start it. Organisers, co-organisers and presenters can stop and restart it, and attendees see "Only meeting organizers and presenters can start transcription".
• Language: the person who starts it sets the spoken language, and changing it changes the transcript and captions for everyone. Microsoft's admin page lists around 57 supported languages and variants, from English (US, UK, Australia, India, Canada, New Zealand) to Welsh.
• Translated transcripts: live translated transcription needs the organiser to have a Teams Premium licence. Only the original-language transcript is stored.
• Privacy: participants can hide their identity in captions and transcripts, and obscenities are replaced with asterisks.

Transcription with a recording

When you record a meeting, transcription starts automatically. Stopping the recording stops the transcript; stopping only the transcript leaves the recording running. Microsoft's admin page explains the dependency the other way round too: if recording is on but the transcription policy is off, the recording is saved without a transcript file and captions can't be turned on during playback.

Transcription is both a per-organiser and a per-user policy. For a meeting to have a transcript, the organiser must have the setting on and so must the person who starts the recording or transcript. Who can record is covered in our guide to recording a Teams meeting.

Where Teams transcripts are saved and how to download them

• Storage: transcripts for meetings with recording or transcription are stored in the organiser's OneDrive for Business. For channel meetings they sit with the recording in the channel's SharePoint site. The transcript file inherits the permissions of the recording, and there's no direct way to manage it in the file explorer.
• Finding it: open the meeting chat or the Recap tab, or the meeting in your Teams calendar. It stays there until the organiser deletes it.
• Downloading: by default organisers and co-organisers can download the transcript as .docx or .vtt from the Download menu on the Recap tab. People from the same organisation can't download it by default (the organiser can change this in Stream); participants from another tenant and anonymous users can't download it at all.
• Deleting: only the organiser and co-organisers can delete a transcript, via Recap > Delete. Deleting the transcript file in OneDrive doesn't remove it from Teams unless it's deleted there too.
• Expiry: transcripts follow the same admin expiry policy as recordings. When automatic expiry is on, the default is 120 days (30 days maximum for A1 licences), adjustable from 1 to 99,999 days or off. Expired files go to the recycle bin.

Copilot and intelligent recap

After a transcribed meeting, the Recap tab in the Teams calendar and chat offers AI meeting notes, AI-recommended tasks, markers for when your name was mentioned, who spoke when, and chapters and topics. Microsoft calls this intelligent recap. It needs:

• A licence: Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot, assigned to the user. Audio recap (a podcast-style summary) needs the Copilot licence specifically.
• Transcription: the admin's transcription policy must be on. For the full experience, recording must be allowed as well; without it, Microsoft says users get the recap without the recording, speakers, topics and chapters.
• Role, for events: in webinars and town halls only organisers, co-organisers and presenters get intelligent recap.

Copilot during the meeting is separate from the recap. Each participant with a Copilot licence can ask it questions that only they see. The organiser's meeting option decides how it works: During and after the meeting needs someone to start transcription, and Copilot stops when transcription stops; Only during the meeting uses temporary speech-to-text data that isn't saved once the meeting ends; Off disables Copilot, and recording and transcription with it. Copilot doesn't work in meetings hosted outside your organisation, or in end-to-end encrypted meetings.

Admin settings that switch transcription off

If the Transcribe option is missing or greyed out, hover for the tooltip. Microsoft's troubleshooting page lists these causes:

• Unavailable for this meeting due to organization policy: the meeting policy's Transcription toggle is off for you. It's on by default for new policies; only the admin can change it.
• Transcription is turned off for the meeting organizer by org policy: the organiser's policy blocks it, even if yours allows it.
• Only meeting organizer and co-organizer can start transcription for this meeting: the organiser restricted Who can record and transcribe, an option available to organisers with Teams Premium or Copilot.
• Unavailable because Copilot is turned off for this meeting: the organiser set Copilot to Off in meeting options. The admin's default for the Copilot policy is "On with saved transcript required", which forces During and after the meeting; other policy values let organisers change it.
• Guests can't start the transcription / Unavailable to people in a different org from the organizer / Only people in this org can start transcription: you're a guest, external or not signed in.
• Only meeting organizers and presenters can start transcription: you joined as an attendee.

Admins can confirm whether an account meets the requirements with the Teams transcripts diagnostic in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Microsoft also reserves the right to restrict transcription and translation services with reasonable notice to limit excessive use.

Transcribing a Teams meeting on a Mac with QuietNote

Everything above depends on licences and policies that may not be yours to change. QuietNote takes a different route: it's a note taker for Mac (macOS 14.2 or later) that records your microphone and your Mac's system audio from your own computer, next to the Teams window. No bot joins the meeting, nothing appears in the participant list, and no Teams transcription banner appears, so tell the other people, as our guide on recording consent explains.

Transcription runs on the Mac with a Whisper model that ships with the app, so it works offline and the audio never leaves your computer. The transcript labels You (microphone) and Others (call audio) with timestamps and is saved as a Markdown file in a folder you choose, which you can open, search and share like any other text file. Summaries, decisions and action items are optional: a local model through Ollama, fully offline, or Claude with your own API key, sending only the transcript text when you ask. There's no account and no QuietNote server. You can also import an existing recording in common audio and video formats and have it transcribed on your Mac.

Nothing records until you press Start, and there's no calendar auto-join. The first signed Mac release isn't out yet; leave your email on the home page for early access.

When each one fits

• Teams transcript: you organise the meeting or present from the organiser's organisation, transcription is allowed, and you want the transcript in the Recap tab where attendees from the same organisation can read it.
• Copilot recap: your organisation has Teams Premium or Copilot licences and wants AI notes and tasks inside Microsoft 365, with the data stored under the organiser's OneDrive and the admin's retention rules.
• QuietNote: you're an attendee, a guest or external, or you want the transcript as a file on your own Mac, processed offline, independent of anyone's licence or policy.