Zoom transcription on your Mac: a local AI note taker for Zoom

Zoom has good transcription built in, but it comes with conditions. You need the right plan, the host has to start a cloud recording, and the transcript is processed and stored in Zoom’s cloud. If you are a participant on someone else’s call, or on a free account, that often means you don’t get a transcript at all. This page explains what Zoom offers natively and how to get a Zoom transcript on a Mac with TranscribeX instead.

Recording etiquette: TranscribeX does not announce itself in the call, so letting people know is up to you. Recording-consent laws differ by country and state — some require everyone’s permission — so tell participants and get consent before you record. More in the FAQ.

What Zoom’s built-in transcription requires

Zoom has two kinds of text output, and they work differently.

• The transcript. Zoom generates an audio transcript after a cloud recording finishes and saves it as a VTT file next to the recording. It needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise plan with cloud recording and audio transcription enabled, and it supports 19 languages. Cloud recording is paid-only, and only the host or a co-host can start it.
• Live captions. Automated captions are on by default for paid accounts. The host can restrict who turns them on, in which case participants have to ask.

Zoom’s AI Companion meeting summary needs a licensed seat on a paid Zoom Workplace plan, or the standalone $10 per month add-on. Only the host or a co-host can start it. The free Basic plan has a 40-minute limit on group meetings and no cloud recording. Zoom Pro is $15.99 per user per month on monthly billing.

Local recording to your computer is available on free and paid plans in the desktop app, but by default only the host can start it. A participant needs the host’s permission.

Zoom vs TranscribeX for Zoom transcription

Zoom details from Zoom’s support articles on audio transcription, cloud and local recording, automated captions and AI Companion, and the Zoom Workplace Pro page, checked October 2026. Plans and features change often, so check Zoom’s help center for your account. Tell us at support@transcribex.io if anything here is out of date.

How to transcribe a Zoom meeting on Mac with TranscribeX

1. Install TranscribeX. Download it from this site or run brew install --cask transcribex. Automatic meeting recording is part of Pro.
2. Grant the macOS permissions. When asked, allow TranscribeX under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Screen & System Audio Recording, so it can hear the other people on the call, and allow Microphone access, so it can hear you.
3. Turn on detection for Zoom. In the detection settings, enable Zoom and choose audio only or audio and video. Pick a transcription model, and decide whether the summary, export and email should run on their own.
4. Join the call and let people know. Recording starts a moment after the meeting begins. When it ends, TranscribeX saves the recording and transcribes it on your Mac.

For a first test, use a short call and leave automatic email off, then check that both sides are audible and the speakers are labelled correctly. If you want text while the call is still going, open the live transcript window, which runs on NVIDIA Nemotron streaming models.

How to get a Zoom transcript without Zoom recording

Zoom’s own transcript is tied to its cloud recording, so if the host doesn’t record to the cloud, there is no Zoom transcript. TranscribeX doesn’t depend on Zoom recording anything. It captures the audio on your Mac and makes its own local recording, which stays on your machine as the source for the transcript. You don’t need host permission or a paid Zoom plan for that, but you should still ask the people on the call.

How to transcribe a Zoom recording you already have

If you have a Zoom recording file on your Mac, from a local recording or one you downloaded, you can transcribe it without recording anything new:

• Open TranscribeX and drag the file in. It imports MP4, M4A, MOV, WAV, MP3 and other common audio and video formats.
• Choose a model. The free version uses Whisper Tiny and Apple’s on-device model with no limits. Pro adds larger Whisper models, Parakeet and Qwen3 ASR.
• With Pro, turn on speaker diarization to label who said what.
• Export as TXT, Markdown, PDF, SRT, VTT, CSV or JSON.

An AI note taker for Zoom without a bot

Many AI note takers for Zoom, including Otter’s Notetaker and the Fireflies bot, join the call as an extra participant. Zoom gives hosts several ways to keep bots out, such as sign-in requirements, blocked domains and a waiting room. Because TranscribeX runs on your Mac, those controls don’t affect it, and nothing extra appears in the participant list. Otter, Fathom and Fireflies also offer bot-free desktop capture now, so the bigger difference is where the work happens. TranscribeX transcribes and summarizes on your Mac and is paid for once. See the Otter comparison.