Best AI Meeting Assistant for Microsoft Teams (2026)

Choosing an AI meeting assistant for Microsoft Teams is a different problem from choosing one for Zoom or Meet, and the reason is corporate policy rather than features.

Teams is where regulated industries, government and large enterprises hold their meetings. Those are exactly the organisations most likely to prohibit third-party bots, and that single fact eliminates most of the market before you compare anything.

Start with what Teams already includes

Before adding a vendor, know what your licence covers. Microsoft lists meeting recordings with transcripts from Teams Essentials at $4.00 per user per month upwards; Microsoft 365 Business Basic at $7.00 and above adds live captions in over 30 languages, where Essentials is English only. Transcription itself supports 51 language variants.

The free Teams plan does not include recording or transcription at all — its feature list covers 60-minute meetings, 100 participants and 5 GB of storage.

Where the built-in option wins is friction and permission. No extra vendor to get through security review, no participant added to the call, and it inherits whatever retention, compliance and eDiscovery settings your administrator has already configured. In a regulated environment that is not a minor convenience — it is often the only route that gets approved.

The two policies that make it look broken

This is the part that sends people looking for alternatives when they did not need one.

Transcription in Teams is both a per-organiser and a per-user policy. Microsoft's admin documentation is explicit: for a meeting to include a transcript, the organiser must have the setting on, and the person starting the transcript must have it on too.

So a licensed user can find the button greyed out for reasons that have nothing to do with their licence:

• Their own meeting policy has transcription off
• They are in someone else's meeting and that organiser's policy has it off
• They are a presenter or attendee rather than an organiser or co-organiser
• They are on the mobile app, which can view a transcript afterwards but not start one

There is also a trap worth knowing: if the organiser turns off Microsoft 365 Copilot for a meeting, recording and transcription go off with it.

The full walkthrough, including where the file lands, is in transcribing a Microsoft Teams meeting.

Where the transcript goes, and who can actually get it

Transcripts are stored alongside the recording in OneDrive and SharePoint — specifically the meeting organiser's OneDrive for Business. Participants can read it from the meeting chat and the Recap tab until the organiser deletes it.

Two consequences that matter when choosing a tool:

Guests do not get a copy. If you were not the organiser, the file lives in someone else's storage and you have to ask.

Downloads are restricted by default. Organisers and co-organisers can download it as a .docx or .vtt; everyone else needs that permission widened. Transcripts can also be set to expire automatically, so an old meeting may simply no longer be there.

Live translated transcription — the transcript rendered in a language other than the one spoken — is a Teams Premium feature, separate from ordinary transcription.

Third-party assistants, and the question that decides them

Otter, Fireflies and Fathom all integrate with Teams the same way: by joining the meeting as a visible participant that records it.

Their current free tiers, from each provider's own pricing page:

All three are competent products. Whether any of them is available to you is not a feature question:

Will your organisation permit a bot to join the call?

In Teams-heavy environments the answer is very often no — because the conversation is confidential, because consent becomes legally complicated when a vendor's software is party to a call, or because the vendor has not passed security review. Ask this before comparing anything else. It is the most common reason a tool is chosen, procured and then never used.

What is left when bots are blocked

Two routes, and both are permitted precisely because they add nobody to the meeting.

The transcription your licence already includes. Covered above. Free of extra vendors and already inside your compliance boundary.

Transcribing the recording yourself. If you have the file, you can transcribe it in your browser free — no account, no minute cap, and the recording is never uploaded, because the speech model downloads into the page and runs on your own machine.

That last property is the one that matters in an enterprise context. The audio never reaches a third party's servers, which means the approach works for recordings you would not be permitted to send anywhere — and there is nothing to meter, because no server is paying for the compute.

What to evaluate, in order

1. Bot policy. It removes options faster than price does. Ask first.
2. Your licence. Essentials and above already include transcripts; you may be paying for this twice.
3. Both transcription policies. If the button is greyed out, that is usually the cause, not the licence.
4. Owners and dates, not summaries. Nearly everything produces a recap. Far fewer produce commitments with an owner and a date you would send to the room unedited — and on more than one tool here that sits in the paid tier.
5. What happens off-platform. Phone calls, corridors, client visits. Nothing that joins a Teams invite will ever see them.

Frequently asked questions

Does Microsoft Teams have a built-in AI meeting assistant?

Teams includes transcription and meeting recap natively, with recordings and transcripts starting at Teams Essentials, $4.00 per user per month. The free Teams plan does not include recording or transcription. Custom AI summary features in Meeting Recap require a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence.

Why can I not start a transcript in Teams even though we pay for it?

Transcription is both a per-organiser and a per-user policy and both must be on. You may also be a presenter or attendee rather than an organiser or co-organiser, or on the mobile app, which can view a transcript but not start one.

Can I use Otter or Fireflies with Microsoft Teams?

Technically yes — they join as a participant and record the call. Whether you may is a policy question, and in Teams-heavy organisations the answer is frequently no. Check the bot policy before the pricing page.

Where does Teams save the meeting transcript?

In the meeting organiser's OneDrive for Business, alongside the recording, reachable from the meeting chat and the Recap tab. Organisers and co-organisers can download it as .docx or .vtt; other participants need that permission widened, and transcripts can be set to expire.

What is the best option if my company blocks meeting bots?

The transcription included in your Teams licence, and transcribing your own recordings for anything it does not cover. Neither adds a participant to the call, so neither runs into the policy.

Does Teams transcription work on mobile?

Not for starting one. Live transcription is available on Teams for desktop; the mobile app supports viewing a transcript after the meeting has ended.