How to get a Zoom meeting transcript

Two transcripts, both owned by the host

Zoom has two ways to make a transcript, and they are easy to mix up:

• Audio transcript of a cloud recording. When a meeting is recorded to the cloud, Zoom transcribes the audio and puts a separate VTT file next to the video in the host’s recordings list. It needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording on, and an admin may need to enable it first (Zoom Support: audio transcription for cloud recordings). Recordings saved to a computer get no transcript at all (Zoom Support).
• Meeting transcript. The host starts it in the meeting with More → Transcript. Participants can click Request transcription, and the host approves or declines. It is not on by default: a host or admin has to switch it on (Zoom Support: meeting transcripts).

In both cases the host decides. You can only get the file if they record, if they turn the transcript on, and if they let you see or save it.

Live captions are not a transcript any more

Until May 2026 many people saved Zoom’s captions as a makeshift transcript. That is gone: Zoom now treats captions as a live accessibility feature that cannot be saved after the meeting, and moved saving to the meeting transcript (Zoom Support: captions and transcript updates, May 2026). The admin chooses who may save it: only the host, host and co-hosts, everyone who is not a guest, or all participants.

So if the Save button is missing for you, it is not a bug. Your role does not have it in this meeting.

If you are the host: where the file is

1. 1Record to the cloud and make sure Create audio transcript is on in your recording settings.
2. 2Wait for two emails. Zoom first says the cloud recording is ready, then that the audio transcript is ready. Long meetings take longer.
3. 3Open Recordings in the Zoom web portal. The transcript is a separate VTT file in the list. You can read it next to the video, edit it, and download it.
4. 4Check the language. Transcripts are made in English by default. If the meeting was in another of the 19 supported languages, choose Change Language on the file and Zoom transcribes it again.

A VTT file is full of timing lines. Our VTT to text tool turns it into clean text with names, ready for minutes.

If you are a participant: the browser path

You cannot change the host’s settings, but you can keep your own transcript. Trippi Notes is a Chrome extension that works with Zoom in the browser, so the first job is to open the meeting there and not in the app.

1. 1Open the Zoom link in Chrome. Click the meeting link. When the page asks to open the Zoom app, click Cancel.
2. 2Choose Join from your browser. At the bottom of the page, click Join from your browser, type your name and join. The host or admin can switch this link off; then ask them to allow it.
3. 3Click the Trippi Notes icon. Once you are in the call, click the Trippi Notes icon in the Chrome toolbar. From that click it hears the meeting tab and writes each line with the speaker and the time.
4. 4Read the transcript and summary after the call. When the call ends, the transcript, a summary with decisions and tasks, and a follow-up draft are in your journal.

The Join from your browser link is on by default in Zoom, but account owners and admins can switch it off (Zoom Support: Join from your browser). The extension cannot hear the Zoom desktop app, and that is why the browser matters.

It does not join the call: no extra participant appears and the host gets no request. Still, tell people you are taking notes. It is good manners, and in some places it is the law: AI note taker consent.

What a line looks like

Priya, 14:06 — The vendor moved delivery to the 20th, so testing starts a week late.
Tom, 14:07 — Then I will tell the client today and send the new plan by Friday.

After the call that becomes a decision (testing moves by a week) and a task with an owner (Tom: new plan to the client by Friday) in the summary.