Short answer: Yes, Microsoft Teams transcribes its own live meetings in real time, with speaker names and timestamps, and it saves that transcript with the recording. But it is gated behind a paid business or enterprise Microsoft 365 license, free and personal Teams gets no saved transcript, and Teams will not transcribe an audio or video file you upload. If you have a recording on disk or any other file, Teams is the wrong tool.
This page is about meeting transcription, turning the audio of a call into a text document. That is a different question from dictating text by voice inside Teams, which is voice typing. If you want to type by speaking into a Teams message box, that is a separate topic we cover elsewhere. Here we are strictly answering: can Teams turn a meeting, or a recording, into text?
Does Teams transcribe live meetings?
Yes. Teams has built-in live meeting transcription. During a call, an organizer or presenter turns on transcription (or it starts automatically if your admin configured it that way), and Teams produces a running transcript in real time. The transcript includes speaker attribution, so each line is tagged with who said it, plus timestamps. When the meeting ends, that transcript is saved alongside the meeting recording.
Do not confuse this with live captions. Captions are a separate real-time feature that shows text on screen during the call for accessibility. Teams does not save captions. Transcription is the feature that produces a document you can go back and read.
The transcription runs in Microsoft’s cloud, server-side. Nothing runs on your machine, and the audio and text live in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Teams supports roughly 50-plus locales for transcription.
The catch: it needs a paid Microsoft 365 license
This is the part most people miss. Teams meeting transcription is not a free feature. It is available on business and enterprise Microsoft 365 plans, including Office 365 E1, E3, and E5, the A1, A3, and A5 education plans, F1 and F3 frontline plans, and Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium.
Basic transcription does not require a Copilot license. Any qualifying plan can do it. Your admin enables it through a Teams meeting policy, and it is on by default for new policies, so in most managed organizations it just works. One extra: live translated transcription, where the transcript appears in a different language than the spoken one, requires Teams Premium on top.
The gap that hurts individuals and small setups: free and personal Teams accounts do not get a saved transcript. You can record a meeting, and you can turn on live captions during the call, but the Transcript option that produces a saved, searchable document is business-and-enterprise only. Personal Teams users finish a call with a recording and no transcript.
Can you upload a file to Teams and have it transcribed? No.
Here is the hard limit. Teams only transcribes its own live meetings. There is no upload button, no drag-and-drop, no way to hand Teams an existing recording and get text back.
That means:
- An MP3 of a phone call or interview: Teams will not take it.
- An MP4 you downloaded from somewhere: Teams will not transcribe it.
- A Teams meeting recording you already saved to your disk: even this cannot be fed back into Teams for transcription.
If you missed turning on transcription during the live call, you cannot fix it afterward by uploading the recording. The transcript had to be captured live.
Microsoft’s own answer for transcribing a file points to a completely different product: Word for the web, using Dictate, then Transcribe, which lets you upload an audio file and get text, capped at 300 minutes per month. That is not Teams, and it is worth not conflating the two. If someone tells you “Microsoft can transcribe your file,” they mean Word, not Teams.
Copilot recap: a second paywall on top
Teams also offers an AI layer often called Intelligent recap or Copilot in Teams: AI-generated meeting summaries, action items, and notes generated from the transcript. This is genuinely useful, and it is genuinely a second paywall.
Copilot in Teams requires Teams Premium or a separate Microsoft 365 Copilot license, added on top of the Microsoft 365 plan you already pay for. So the layers stack: you pay for Microsoft 365 to get basic transcription, then you pay again for Premium or Copilot to get the AI summary. Basic transcription gives you the raw text; the polished recap costs more.
Where the transcript lives and how to export it
Once a meeting is transcribed, the transcript is stored with the recording in OneDrive or SharePoint, inside your Microsoft 365 tenant. To find it, open the meeting chat, go to Recap, then Transcript. You can play the recording back with the transcript synced in Stream.
To get the transcript out as a file, organizers and co-organizers can download it in two formats:
- .docx with speaker labels and timestamps, a readable Word document.
- .vtt, a subtitle file.
By default, only organizers and co-organizers can download the transcript. Regular attendees can read it in the recap but not export it, unless the organizer changes access. So if you were just a participant in someone else’s meeting, you may be able to see the transcript but not take a copy of it.
Teams meeting transcription vs SnailText
These two tools do not do the same job, and it is worth being precise about it. Teams transcribes live meetings it hosts, with speaker names and, on Copilot, AI recap. SnailText transcribes files that already exist. Here is the honest side-by-side:
| Microsoft Teams | SnailText | |
|---|---|---|
| Transcribes live meetings | Yes, real time with speaker names | No, not a meeting bot |
| Transcribes an uploaded file | No, live meetings only | Yes, any local audio or video file |
| Transcribes a downloaded Teams recording | No | Yes |
| Speaker labels / diarization | Yes | No |
| AI meeting summary | Yes, with Copilot or Premium (extra) | No |
| Where it runs | Microsoft cloud, server-side | On your device, nothing uploaded |
| License needed | Paid Microsoft 365 (business/enterprise) | Free tier, no Microsoft 365 |
| Free / personal use | Recording only, no saved transcript | Full transcription, free tier |
| Export formats | .docx, .vtt (organizers only) | SRT, VTT, TXT, MD, JSON |
| Languages | ~50-plus locales | 99 languages |
| Platforms | Web, desktop, mobile | Mac, Windows |
SnailText runs the Whisper model (and Parakeet TDT on Pro) locally on Mac or Windows. You drag in a file, or a whole folder, and it writes out the transcript. Nothing is uploaded to any server, there is no Microsoft 365 license, and there is no Copilot add-on. The free tier is unlimited with compact models. Pro is $7.49/month or $89/year.
To be fair to Teams: SnailText does not do live captions, it does not label speakers, and it is not a bot that joins your call. If you need who-said-what attribution during a live meeting, Teams (paid) is the right tool and SnailText is not.
Honest verdict
If you want to transcribe a live Teams meeting and you are on a paid business or enterprise Microsoft 365 plan, Teams does this well: real-time transcript, speaker names, timestamps, saved automatically, exportable as .docx or .vtt. If you also want AI summaries, budget for Teams Premium or Copilot on top. If you are on free or personal Teams, you get captions during the call but no saved transcript, and that limit is not going away.
If you want to transcribe a recording or any file (a downloaded Teams .mp4, an interview, a phone call, a podcast), Teams simply will not take an upload. That is where a local file transcriber fits. SnailText transcribes any local file on your own device, free, with no Microsoft 365 license and no Copilot add-on, and exports SRT, VTT, TXT, MD, or JSON. It is a file transcriber, not a meeting assistant, so use it for the recordings Teams leaves behind, not for the live call itself.
The two are complements, not rivals. Let Teams handle the live meeting if you pay for it. Use a local tool for the files.
Details reflect Microsoft Teams behavior as of mid-2026. Microsoft updates plan gating and features periodically, so confirm current license requirements before relying on them.
Related reading:
- Transcribe audio and video files locally: drag in any file, including a downloaded Teams recording, and get SRT, VTT, or plain text
- Download SnailText for Mac or Windows: free tier, nothing uploaded