How To Transcribe a Zoom Meeting Recording: A Complete Guide

Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing platforms for on-site, hybrid, and remote teams. The platform offers a transcription feature designed to convert spoken words into searchable text, but relying on manual note-taking or basic transcription often leaves teams scrambling for context weeks after a meeting ends.

The real question isn't just how to transcribe Zoom recordings. It's how to turn those conversations into searchable intelligence your entire team can access.

Already losing context between meetings? Fellow is the AI meeting assistant that records, transcribes, and summarizes your Zoom calls automatically, so decisions, commitments, and accountability don't disappear when the meeting ends.

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What is Zoom meeting transcription?

Transcription converts spoken words from your Zoom meetings into written text. This helps participants who retain information better through reading, accommodates those who are hard of hearing, and creates a reference document for anyone who missed the meeting.

Zoom introduced its transcription feature in 2018 to improve meeting efficiency and accessibility. With transcripts, both attendees and absentees can access centralized meeting documentation to review whenever they need it.

How do you enable audio transcription for Zoom recordings?

Before enabling audio transcription, you need a Zoom Business, Education, or Enterprise license. These grant access to premium features like Cloud Recordings so you can record meetings. Your account admin must also change the transcription settings for everyone using the licensed profile.

Here's how each employee can toggle transcription:

1. Log in to your Zoom account

2. Choose "Account management" from the navigation menu

3. Tap "Cloud recording" from the "Recording" tab and make sure the setting is "On"

4. Click the "Status" toggle to enable recording, then select "Turn on" to confirm

5. Tick the "Audio transcript" checkbox in the "Advanced" cloud recording settings and click "Save"

6. Tap the lock icon and choose "Lock" to set cloud recording and transcription for all users under the account

What are the pros and cons of Zoom's built-in transcription?

When evaluating Zoom's transcription feature, consider how these benefits and limitations affect your team's workflow.

Benefits of Zoom transcription

1. Already built-in: The transcription feature is fully integrated into the platform, so you don't need to download additional software

2. Improves accessibility: Transcriptions accommodate participants who are hard of hearing and those who prefer reading over listening

3. Automates basic note-taking: Zoom automatically transcribes meetings without manual effort

4. Transcribes in real-time: Live transcription lets you see text as the conversation happens, which helps when audio quality is poor

5. Includes timestamps: Each video includes timestamps for navigation

Limitations of Zoom transcription

1. Basic formatting only: The platform's formatting options are fairly limited, with timestamps and a simple search feature, making it challenging to find information in longer meetings

2. Restricted editing: Zoom's editing tools aren't as user-friendly or intuitive as dedicated AI meeting assistants, causing frustration when correcting transcripts

3. Accuracy issues: Zoom might misinterpret words or omit punctuation and capitalization

4. No intelligent summaries: You get raw transcripts but no automatic extraction of decisions, action items, or key takeaways

5. Single platform only: Zoom's transcription doesn't help with meetings on Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, or in-person conversations

If losing context between meetings, tracking action items, or finding specific decisions sounds familiar, Fellow was built specifically to solve these problems.

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How does Fellow improve Zoom meeting transcription?

For teams that need more than basic transcription, Fellow's Zoom integration handles the entire meeting lifecycle: collaborative agendas before the call, AI-powered note-taking during, and summaries with action items right after.

1. Turn meeting insights into action across your tools

Fellow connects directly to the systems your team already relies on. Sync meeting summaries and action items to project management tools like Asana, Jira, and Notion. Update your CRM automatically with Fellow pushing insights to Salesforce and HubSpot based on what was discussed, so your pipeline stays accurate without manual data entry.

2. Automate workflows from every conversation

With 50+ native integrations, plus connections to 8,000+ apps through Zapier and n8n, Fellow turns meetings into workflows at scale. Automatically create tasks, update records, and trigger follow-ups based on what happens in your calls. The Fellow API and MCP Server let teams build custom automations that fit exactly how they work.

3. Query your meeting history with Ask Fellow

Ask Fellow lets teams query meetings, generate outputs, and trigger workflows based on the meetings they already have access to. Ask questions like "Where are projects getting blocked?" or "What commitments are at risk?" and get answers from across your entire meeting history.

4. Record with our without a bot joining the call

Fellow records meetings the way teams actually work, with or without bots. You can choose botless recording through Zoom's native capture, which records meetings without a visible participant joining, or use Fellow's traditional note-taker. Either way, you get the same accurate transcripts and AI-generated recaps.

Install Fellow from the Zoom Marketplace to connect directly with your Zoom account and turn every conversation into searchable knowledge.

5. One recording library for every conversation

Fellow captures meetings across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, and even in-person conversations, then centralizes everything in a single recording library. No matter where your team meets, you get the same accurate transcripts, AI-generated summaries, and automatic action item extraction. This means no more scattered notes across platforms or hunting through different tools to find what was decided. Your entire meeting history becomes searchable from one place, with Ask Fellow letting you query across all your conversations to surface decisions, commitments, and context instantly.

How do you view, edit, and save meeting transcripts on Zoom?

If you prefer using Zoom's built-in features, follow these steps to access and edit transcripts:

1. Log in to your Zoom web portal

2. Choose "Recordings" from the navigation menu

3. From the list of recorded meetings, select the one you want to edit and click the "Play" icon

4. Text will appear on the right side of the recording as it plays

5. Hover your mouse over any phrase you want to edit and click the pencil icon

How do you generate live captions in Zoom meetings?

Captions are another way to improve meeting accessibility, ensuring all attendees catch important details in real time:

1. Log in to your account and head to the Zoom web portal

2. Under "Account settings," toggle auto-generated captions

3. The platform will automatically produce live captions in your next meeting

4. You can also click the "Show captions" button in Zoom's toolbar before your meeting starts

How does Fellow AI compare to Zoom's built-in feature?

Frequently asked questions

What is the best way to transcribe Zoom meetings?

The best way to transcribe Zoom meetings depends on your needs. For basic transcription with a premium Zoom license, enable Zoom's built-in audio transcript feature in your cloud recording settings. For comprehensive meeting intelligence including automatic summaries, action items, and searchable recordings across all your meetings, use an AI meeting assistant like Fellow that integrates directly with Zoom and provides organization-wide search capabilities.

Can I transcribe Zoom recordings for free?

Zoom's built-in transcription requires a paid Business, Education, or Enterprise license. Free Zoom accounts don't include cloud recording or transcription features. However, Fellow offers a free trial that includes full transcription capabilities, AI summaries, and action item extraction for your Zoom meetings without requiring a premium Zoom license.

How do I record Zoom meetings without a bot joining?

Fellow supports botless recording for Zoom meetings through Zoom's native capture feature. Install the Fellow app from the Zoom Marketplace, enable the "Share realtime meeting content with apps" setting in Zoom, and Fellow will record your meetings natively without a visible bot participant. This maintains the same transcript and summary quality while keeping your meeting participant list clean.

Is AI meeting transcription secure for enterprise use?

Enterprise-grade AI meeting assistants should be SOC 2 Type II certified, HIPAA and GDPR compliant, and should never train AI models on your data. Fellow meets all these requirements, with permission-based access aligned to organizational roles ensuring only authorized team members can access specific recordings. Your meeting data stays private and is never shared or used to train external AI models.

How do I search across multiple Zoom meeting transcripts?

Zoom's built-in search is limited to individual recordings with basic keyword matching. For comprehensive search across all your meetings, use Ask Fellow to query your entire meeting history with natural language. Ask questions like "What did we decide about the Q3 roadmap?" or "What action items are assigned to the marketing team?" and get instant answers from across all your recorded conversations.

Does Fellow work with platforms other than Zoom?

Yes. Fellow records and transcribes meetings across Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, and even in-person meetings with consistent accuracy and the same AI summaries and action item extraction. This means your team has one unified recording library regardless of which platform each meeting uses.

Turn your Zoom meetings into searchable intelligence

While Zoom's built-in transcription feature provides a starting point, teams that need to find decisions, track accountability, and surface insights across their meeting history need more than raw transcripts.

Fellow transforms every Zoom meeting into shared, searchable intelligence. Your conversations become a queryable knowledge base where decisions, commitments, and context are always accessible.

Join teams at Shopify, HubSpot, Vidyard, and Motive who've made their meetings searchable. Start your free trial →