How to transcribe a Zoom meeting

Your options at a glance

Zoom's plans and settings were checked on Zoom's support site in October 2026. Zoom changes its features often, so if a setting is missing, your plan or your admin may be the reason.

1. Zoom's audio transcript for cloud recordings

Zoom can transcribe its own cloud recordings. You need a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording enabled, and an owner or admin to switch the feature on.

Turn it on

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an owner or admin.
2. Go to Account Management > Account Settings and open the Recording tab.
3. Make sure Cloud recording is on.
4. In the advanced cloud recording settings, tick Create audio transcript and save.

Get the transcript

1. In the meeting, click More > Record > Record to the cloud.
2. After the meeting, wait for Zoom to process the recording. The transcript comes after the video.
3. Open Recordings & Transcripts in the web portal and choose the meeting.
4. Download the transcript, a .vtt file with timestamps. You can also edit lines in Zoom's player.

Zoom's transcript only exists for cloud recordings, so it won't help if you recorded to your computer or don't host the meeting.

2. Live captions and AI Companion

Live captions show what people are saying during the meeting, which helps you follow along, and hosts can let people view the full caption history while the meeting runs. Whether anyone can save captions afterwards depends on the host's settings and plan, so don't count on it as your transcript.

Zoom AI Companion is included with paid Zoom plans and can write a meeting summary with next steps. It's a good fit if your company already pays for Zoom and is happy for Zoom to process meeting content. A summary isn't a word-for-word transcript, though.

3. Transcribe a Zoom local recording

Recording to your computer works on free accounts (see how to record a Zoom meeting). Zoom saves the files in Documents/Zoom, one folder per meeting, including an audio-only .m4a. Use that file: it's smaller than the video and has the same sound.

Then pick a transcription tool:

• Online services (Otter, Rev, Descript and many others) upload the file and send back a transcript. Easy, but your meeting audio goes to their servers, and free tiers usually cap minutes.
• Local apps transcribe on your computer, so the audio never leaves it. MacWhisper is popular on Macs; Hark runs on Windows, Mac and Linux and adds speaker names. More in local AI transcription.

Tip: in Zoom's Settings > Recording, "Record a separate audio file for each participant" gives you one file per person, which makes it obvious who said what.

4. Use a recorder that transcribes

If you want a transcript of every meeting without thinking about it, there are two kinds of tool:

• Meeting bots such as Otter and Fireflies join the call as a participant, record it in their cloud and send you a transcript and summary. They work well for teams that want shared notes; everyone sees the bot, and some hosts block them.
• Desktop recorders record on your own computer. Nothing joins the call, so they work as a guest too, but they don't announce themselves, so you should.

How to transcribe Zoom meetings with Hark

Hark is a free desktop app that records and transcribes meetings on your computer. Speech recognition runs locally (NVIDIA's Parakeet model), so the audio isn't uploaded, and there are no minute limits.

Record and transcribe a live Zoom call

1. Download Hark and sign in with a free account. The first run downloads the speech models (about 730 MB) once.
2. Start recording in Hark and join your Zoom call. A live transcript appears as people speak.
3. Stop when the call ends. Hark makes a second, more accurate transcript and splits it by speaker.
4. Play a short clip of each voice and give it a name. Hark recognises those people in future meetings.
5. Click any word to jump to that moment, fix any line by hand, and export the transcript.

Transcribe a Zoom recording you already have

Drag the .m4a or .mp4 from Documents/Zoom into Hark, or use File > Import. It's transcribed and split by speaker just like a live recording. This is the best route on a Mac, where Hark records the microphone only.

Limits to know

• English only.
• Live recording of both sides works on Windows and Linux; on a Mac, Hark records the microphone only.
• AI meeting notes and proofreading by Claude are part of the $12/month subscription (2-day preview for new accounts) and send the transcript text, not audio, to Claude. The transcript itself is free.

Curious how the speaker names work? Read speaker labels in transcription.