Built-in note-taker
Is Zoom keeping a transcript of your meeting? Captions versus transcripts
Since May 2026 Zoom separates live captions, which nobody can save, from meeting transcripts, which are a saved record. Transcripts are off unless a host or admin turns them on — but an admin can turn them on for every meeting.
Part of Zoom's own app
Read on 10 November 2026
How it got into your call
- The host, or the company's Zoom admin, switched meeting transcripts on. Admins can set them to be on for every meeting in the company.
- Separately, a meeting recorded to Zoom's cloud can be transcribed from the recording afterwards.
Turn it off
- Transcripts are off by default. A host or admin has to switch them on, so the host or admin is who to ask to keep them off.
- During the meeting, the host controls whether a transcript is available.
Stop it in a call that is running
- Captions on your screen are not the same thing: they are live only, you can scroll back about three minutes, and participants cannot save or download them after the meeting.
- A transcript is the saved record. If you are unsure whether one is being kept, ask the host — they manage it during the meeting, and participants may be able to ask them for access to it.
What it keeps
A meeting transcript is kept according to the company's Zoom settings. A transcript made from a cloud recording sits with that recording, with the host.
In Zoom's own words
Captions cannot be saved
Zoom“Captions are a live accessibility feature, and users will no longer be able to save captions after a meeting ends.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Not by participants either
Zoom“Participants cannot retain, save, or download captions as a post-meeting asset.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Three minutes back
Zoom“with the ability to scroll back to review captions from the past 3 minutes”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Transcripts are the record
Zoom“Transcripts are the saved record of meeting content.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Off unless switched on
Zoom“Transcripts aren't enabled by default—a host or admin must explicitly turn them on.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
The host manages it
Zoom“Meeting hosts can manage transcript availability during meetings, and participants may be able to request transcript access during a meeting.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Always on, if the company says so
Zoom“Admins can configure transcripts to always be on for all meetings in their organization.”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
From a cloud recording
Zoom“automatically transcribes the audio of a meeting or webinar that you record to the cloud”
support.zoom.com/hc/en/article
Read on 10 November 2026 from Zoom's own help pages. Something changed? Tell us.
A meeting with nothing to remove
On Meetful the notes are written by the meeting itself, from each person's own microphone, so no extra guest joins. Anybody can leave themselves out of the notes and stay in the call.
Other notetakers
ChatGPT RecordChatGPT's record mode runs in the ChatGPT app on its user's Mac and hears the meeting through their computer. Nothing joins the call, and OpenAI puts the duty to ask for consent on the person recording.Productive NotetakerProductive, the agency management tool, has a notetaker that joins calls as a visible participant and announces itself in the chat. Once the meeting has started, its own user can no longer stop it from Productive.AudioCodes Meeting Insights (Mia)Meeting Insights is AudioCodes' meeting recorder, sold to companies. Its bot, Mia, joins under a name the company sets — often somebody's first name followed by “Meeting Assistant” — and removing it stops the recording.Motion AI NotetakerMotion, the calendar and project app, has an AI Notetaker that joins Zoom, Google Meet and Teams calls as a visible participant. Motion says anybody in the meeting, not just the host, can remove it — though its user can send it back.Speak AI Meeting AssistantSpeak AI's Meeting Assistant joins Zoom, Google Meet, Teams and Webex calls from its user's calendar, under whatever name and picture they give it. A company can bar it from another organisation's calls altogether.AskElephantAskElephant's notetaker records sales and customer calls on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet. It keeps recording after its user leaves, for as long as anybody else is still in the call.
Try Meetful
Meetings that take their own notes
Free video meetings in the browser: every line of the transcript under the name of who said it, and the summary and action items when you hang up. Nothing to install — guests just open the link.