Zoom transcription: cloud transcripts, captions and AI summaries

Last updated 21 October 2026

Zoom transcription comes in three forms: an audio transcript attached to a cloud recording, live captions you can save during the meeting, and an AI Companion meeting summary. Each needs a different plan, lands in a different place and is visible to different people.

Below is what Zoom's own documentation says about each, followed by how to transcribe a Zoom meeting locally on a Mac with QuietNote when you want the transcript on your own disk, offline, without a paid Zoom plan.

Three ways Zoom turns speech into text

Audio transcript: a VTT file generated after a cloud recording finishes processing. Paid plans only; not available for recordings saved to your computer.
Automated captions (live transcription): captions during the meeting, with a full transcript the host can view and save as a .TXT file while the meeting is running.
AI Companion meeting summary: a summary generated during the meeting and shared by email and Zoom Chat, available on paid Zoom Workplace plans. Zoom's pricing page also lists summaries for three hosted meetings per month on the Basic plan.

Zoom audio transcript for cloud recordings

Zoom's audio transcript needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording enabled. It is a cloud recording setting: Zoom states it applies only to cloud recordings, not to recordings saved to your computer, and it cannot be changed during a meeting.

Account owners and admins turn it on under Admin Center, Settings, Recording & Transcript, Advanced cloud recording settings, Create audio transcript. Individual users find the same option under their profile Settings, Recording, unless an admin has locked it.
Record the meeting to the cloud (host or co-host only; see how to record a Zoom meeting).
Wait for two emails: one when the recording is ready and a second when the transcript is available, which can take extra time.
Open Recordings & Transcripts, Cloud recordings in the web portal. The transcript is a separate VTT file in the recording's file list, which you can download and open in a text editor. In the player, the CC icon shows it over the video.

You can edit the transcript in the web portal: hover over a phrase, click the pencil icon and save, and relabel an "Unknown Speaker". Zoom notes the generated text has no capitalisation or punctuation, so you add those yourself. When you share a cloud recording you can choose whether viewers see the transcript.

Languages: Zoom's usage article lists 19 transcript languages (English by default, plus Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese Simplified, Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Dutch, Portuguese, Arabic, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Turkish and Danish) and says changing the language regenerates the transcript. Zoom's enabling article still says transcription supports English only, so check your own account.

Live captions and the in-meeting transcript

Automated captions are on by default for paid accounts; Zoom notes that some accounts may not have the setting at all. Admins manage them under the Meeting tab, In Meeting (Advanced) in the web portal.

In a meeting, click Show captions in the toolbar and captions generate automatically, in English unless the host has set another language. From the captions menu the host can open View full transcript, search it, and click Save transcript to download a .TXT file. Zoom's page describes this for the host during the session and does not say the live transcript is kept after the meeting ends, so save it before you leave.

Zoom is candid about accuracy: it depends on background noise, speaker volume and clarity, and regional dialects, and for compliance or accessibility needs Zoom recommends a manual captioner or a service that guarantees a specific accuracy. If manual captioning is enabled, automated captions can't be used in that meeting.

AI Companion meeting summary

Meeting Summary with AI Companion needs a licensed user on a Zoom Workplace Pro, Pro Plus, Business, Business Plus, Enterprise, Enterprise Plus or Enterprise Bundle account, with the feature enabled under Zoom AI, Meeting in the account or personal settings, and app version 5.16.0 or later. Zoom's pricing page lists unlimited meeting summaries from Pro upwards and three hosted meetings per month on Basic.

Who starts it: the host or a co-host, from the in-meeting controls. Any participant can request it, and the host is prompted to enable it. Admins can also set it to auto-start when the meeting starts. It isn't available in breakout rooms.
Who receives it: the host chooses between only the host; host, co-hosts and alternative hosts; host and invitees within the organisation; or all invitees. Recipients must have been on the original invitation and signed in to Zoom during the meeting; people who join ad hoc through a link get nothing.
Where it goes: by email when sharing is enabled, to the meeting's group chat in Zoom Chat if chat access is on, and to the Summaries page of the web portal (My Summaries for the host, Shared with me for everyone else). Only the host can edit or delete it, and deletion can't be undone.
Data: Zoom says it does not use customer audio, video, chat or screen-share content to train its own or third-party AI models, but the meeting transcript is sent to third-party model providers to generate the summary and may be processed in US data centres.

Transcribing a Zoom meeting on a Mac with QuietNote

All three Zoom options depend on the host's plan and settings, and the transcript or summary lives in Zoom's cloud. If you want a transcript of a Zoom call you didn't host, on a free account, or kept entirely on your own disk, you can transcribe it on your Mac instead.

During the call: QuietNote records your microphone and the Mac's own audio next to Zoom. No bot joins, nothing appears in the participant list, and nothing records until you press Start. Tell the other participants; Zoom won't do it for you. See is it legal to record a meeting.
The transcript: produced on the Mac by a Whisper model that ships with the app, so it works offline. Turns are labelled You (microphone) and Others (call audio) with timestamps, and the meeting is a plain Markdown file in a folder you choose.
Summaries: optional. A local model through Ollama keeps everything offline; Claude with your own API key sends only the transcript text, only when you ask.
Existing recordings: import a Zoom video.mp4 or audio.m4a (or other common audio and video formats) and it is transcribed on your Mac through the same pipeline into the same Markdown output.

QuietNote is for Mac (macOS 14.2 or later), with no account, no server and no analytics in the app. The first signed Mac release isn't out yet; leave your email for the first Mac release.

Which one fits

You host on a paid plan and want a searchable transcript next to the recording: Zoom's cloud audio transcript.
You need text during the meeting, or a quick .TXT before you leave: automated captions and Save transcript.
You want a shareable recap for invitees without reading a transcript: AI Companion meeting summary, accepting that the transcript goes to Zoom's model providers.
You aren't the host, are on Basic, or want the transcript offline and on your own disk: QuietNote on your Mac.

Zoom cloud transcript, AI Companion and QuietNote compared
	Zoom cloud transcript	AI Companion summary	QuietNote
Plan	Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise with cloud recording	Zoom Workplace Pro and above (Basic: 3 hosted meetings a month)	No Zoom plan needed
Who sees it	The host, and viewers the host shares the recording with	Host, plus the recipients the host chooses among signed-in invitees	You; it's a file you can share however you like
Where stored	Zoom's cloud, as a VTT file with the recording	Zoom's cloud (Summaries page, email, Zoom Chat)	A Markdown file in a folder on your Mac
Works offline?	No	No	Yes; transcription runs on the Mac

Questions

How do I get a transcript from a Zoom recording?

If it was a cloud recording on a paid plan with Create audio transcript enabled, open Recordings & Transcripts in the Zoom web portal and download the VTT file next to the recording. If it was a local recording, Zoom doesn't transcribe it; import the MP4 or M4A into a transcription tool such as QuietNote, which transcribes it on your Mac.

Can I get a Zoom transcript on the free plan?

Zoom's audio transcript needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording, which the Basic plan doesn't include. Zoom's pricing page does list automated captions on Basic, so the host can save the live transcript as a .TXT during the meeting. Otherwise, transcribe locally on your Mac.

Does Zoom transcribe local recordings?

No. Zoom states that the audio transcript applies only to cloud recordings, not recordings saved to your computer, and that audio transcription isn't supported for computer recordings.

Who receives the AI Companion meeting summary?

The host, plus whoever the host's sharing setting includes: co-hosts and alternative hosts, invitees within the organisation, or all invitees. Recipients must have been on the invitation and signed in to Zoom during the meeting; ad hoc joiners don't get it. Only the host can edit or delete it.

Can I save Zoom's live captions as a transcript?

Yes, during the meeting. The host opens View full transcript from the captions menu and clicks Save transcript to download a .TXT file. Zoom's page doesn't say the live transcript is kept after the meeting, so save it before the meeting ends.

Sources

Checked on the “Last updated” date above. Vendors change their settings and prices often; follow the links for the current version.