Best Free Transcription App for Meetings: Zoom, Meet, Teams

The best free transcription app for meetings depends on your platform and whether a bot may join. If a bot is allowed, Fathom and tl;dv list unlimited free transcription on Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, while Otter's free plan stops at 30 minutes a conversation. If bots are blocked, Tactiq's Chrome extension (10 transcripts a month) or Meetings Brief live notes (desktop Chrome or Edge, no minute cap) transcribes the meeting in the browser with no bot in the call. The platforms themselves give little for free: Zoom Basic includes AI summaries for three hosted meetings a month and three My Notes sessions that can save a transcript, but not Zoom's meeting transcript feature, and free Google Meet and Microsoft Teams have no built-in transcript at all.

The word "free" in meeting transcription almost always comes with a footnote. This guide reads them platform by platform. Every plan limit below comes from the vendor's own pricing or help page, checked in October 2026. For the general picture across any kind of audio, not just live meetings, see what "free" really means across AI transcription apps.

The short answer, by platform

Two things stand out. The platform's own meeting cap matters as much as any transcription limit: no app can transcribe minute 45 of a meeting the platform has already ended. And a free web-page tool can only hear a meeting that is open in a browser tab, not in a desktop app, because a browser tab's audio is what these pages are built to capture. The no-bot routes that skip the browser tab are desktop note takers, such as Zoom's My Notes (three free uses a month) and Fathom's bot-free Mac beta.

Zoom: what the free plan covers

Zoom Workplace Basic, the free plan, includes meeting summaries for three hosted meetings a month, AI note-taking (called My Notes) three times a month, and 20 AI queries a month, according to Zoom's pricing page. Meetings end at 40 minutes. These are the features Zoom used to brand as AI Companion; since June 2026 they are called by what they do, and Zoom's ZoomMate pricing lists this free allowance as ZoomMate Basic, with the full ZoomMate sold as a paid add-on.

What Basic does not include is Zoom's meeting transcript feature. Zoom's meeting transcripts need a Pro, Business or Enterprise account, and audio transcription of cloud recordings needs Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise with cloud recording switched on. Basic does get one smaller route: My Notes, in the Zoom desktop app, can generate a transcript that stays saved in your Zoom account, three times a month. Live captions are no longer a workaround, because since late May 2026 captions cannot be saved after a meeting ends. Pro costs $16.99 per user a month billed monthly and makes meeting summaries unlimited.

The free routes on Zoom:

• Record to your computer, then transcribe the file. Computer recording works on Basic in the desktop app, but the host has to record or give you permission. The full walkthrough is in turning a Zoom recording into text on the Basic plan.
• Transcribe live from the browser. Join through Zoom's web app rather than the desktop app and capture the tab's audio (see below).
• Use My Notes sparingly. Zoom says My Notes works on Zoom, Teams and Google Meet with no bot, but the free allowance is three uses a month. In a Zoom meeting, the host and participants see a banner when its transcription is on.

Google Meet: nothing built in on a personal account

Meet transcripts are included only in Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Starter, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Teaching and Learning Upgrade, Education Plus and Workspace Individual, per Google's Meet help. A personal Google account is not on that list. Where the feature exists, the transcript goes to the organizer's Google Drive, supports eight languages (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish), and can be used on a computer or an Android device, but not on an iPhone.

Gemini's "Take notes for me" has the same shape. Google says it needs an eligible Workspace edition or Google AI plan, so a free personal account does not get it.

Personal accounts also cap meetings of three or more people at 60 minutes; one-on-one calls can run 24 hours.

On a computer, Meet runs in the browser, which makes it the easiest platform for browser-based transcription. Open it in a normal Chrome or Edge tab, not the window of the installed Meet app. On a paid plan with the option still missing, why the Google Meet transcript button is missing and how to work around it covers host settings and guest access.

Microsoft Teams: the free version has no transcription

Microsoft's page for the free version of Teams describes meetings that are free for up to 60 minutes and does not list recording or transcription. The cheapest plan that does is Teams Essentials at $4.00 per user a month, paid yearly, which lists "team meeting recordings with transcripts and live captions (English)" on Microsoft's plan comparison.

Even on a paid plan, live transcription starts only from Teams for desktop. The mobile app can view a transcript after the meeting ends. If you have a license and the Start transcription button is still grayed out, the cause can be a meeting policy, your role or your device. The four reasons Teams transcription is grayed out goes through each one.

For a live transcript with no bot on the free version, open the meeting in Teams on the web rather than the desktop app.

What bot-based apps give you for free

Bot-based note takers send a participant into your call, record it, and transcribe it on their servers. Their main advantage is that one account covers Zoom, Meet and Teams. Here is what each free plan gives, from the vendor's own pricing page:

Read the third column first. A one-hour meeting is longer than a single free Otter conversation allows. Fireflies' unlimited transcription depends on letting its bot auto-join your calendar meetings; with auto-join off, accounts opened since September 1, 2026 get 3 meeting transcriptions. Its 400 minutes of storage are shared by the whole team. Fathom and tl;dv go furthest on raw transcription, but both limit the parts that turn a transcript into a to-do list, and tl;dv's free plan keeps data for up to 3 months.

Check one thing before the limits: whether a bot is allowed at all. The bot appears in the participant list. Some organizations block external meeting guests by policy, which means the bot cannot join, and in a client call an unrecognized participant can raise questions you would rather not answer. Choosing a paid service on accuracy and privacy instead? See how the major meeting transcription services compare on accuracy and privacy.

Free ways to transcribe with no bot in the call

There are three types, and each has a catch:

• Browser extensions. Tactiq is a Chrome extension for Google Meet, Zoom and Teams that says no bot joins the call. Its free plan gives 10 transcripts and 5 AI credits a month. Fireflies' free plan also includes a Chrome extension that captures Google Meet, and only Meet, without its bot.
• Desktop note takers that record your computer's audio. Zoom's My Notes gives three free uses a month. Fathom offers bot-free capture alongside its bot, marked as a beta feature for Mac.
• A web page that transcribes the meeting tab. This is how Meetings Brief live notes works, described next.

The no-bot browser route: Meetings Brief live notes

Meetings Brief live notes transcribes a Google Meet, Zoom or Teams call by listening to the browser tab the meeting is in. It is built by KCF LLC, free to use with no paid tier, and needs no account.

1. Open the meeting in a browser tab: Google Meet, Zoom's web app or Teams on the web, in Chrome or Edge on a desktop.
2. Open live notes in a second tab, press start and allow the microphone. Your microphone carries your voice; the shared tab carries everyone else.
3. Share the meeting tab with "Also share tab audio" on. Choose the tab, not a window, which carries no sound.
4. Leave the tab open. The transcript builds about every 30 seconds and is saved on your device.

The speech model downloads into your browser once and runs on your computer, so the meeting audio never leaves your device. When you stop, you can email yourself a brief with a summary, the topics covered, action items with an owner where one was named, open questions, and the full transcript attached. To write that brief, the transcript text (not the audio) is sent to Anthropic's API. It is not used to train models.

The limits:

• Desktop Chrome or Edge only. Firefox and Safari cannot share tab audio, and no phone browser can. There is no iPhone or Android app.
• It is built for a meeting in a browser tab, not a desktop app. Switch to the browser version, or record the call and drop the file into Meetings Brief transcribe, which processes it in your browser without uploading it.
• No speaker labels. You get continuous text, not who said what.

Already have a transcript from another tool? The meeting summary generator turns up to about 1,300 words at a time into one of six formats, from a follow-up email to full minutes. Summarize a longer transcript in sections.

Tell people at the start that you are transcribing. Recording-consent rules differ by location, and live notes sends no notice of its own to the other participants.

Which to use, by situation

Your organization already pays for Zoom Pro, Workspace Business Standard or Teams Essentials, and every call happens there. Use the built-in transcript: nothing to install, and it follows your admin's retention settings. It is stored in the cloud and tied to that platform.

Your calls are spread across platforms, bots are allowed, and you want speaker names. A bot-based free tier fits. Fathom suits heavy use, tl;dv does too if you save what you need within its 3-month data retention, and Otter suits calls shorter than 30 minutes.

Bots are blocked, or the call is too sensitive to upload. Use the browser-tab route on a desktop computer. Speaker labels are the trade-off.

It is not a meeting at all. Ideas, reminders and memos recorded on the move are a different job. See free transcription for your own voice notes.

Your team has a budget and complex needs. Paid plans add what free tiers lack, such as Salesforce and HubSpot integrations on Otter's Pro plan, longer history and team administration.

The practical test

Run any of these on a real meeting, not a demo clip, then answer four questions:

1. Was the transcript accurate enough to build a summary from?
2. Did the setup cause a problem in the meeting itself, such as a bot appearing unexpectedly or a recording notice that raised questions?
3. Is the output in a form you can use straight away, something you can send to participants or act on?
4. If you did this every day, would the free tier last the month?

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free transcription app for meetings?

It depends on your platform and whether a bot may join. Bot-based apps such as Fathom and tl;dv list unlimited free transcription across Zoom, Google Meet and Teams, but add a visible participant. If bots are blocked, a browser tool that transcribes the meeting tab, such as Meetings Brief live notes, works on all three in desktop Chrome or Edge, with no bot and no account.

Which meeting platforms include free transcription?

None gives its full meeting transcript on a free plan. Zoom's free Basic plan includes AI summaries for three hosted meetings a month and three My Notes sessions that can save a transcript, but the meeting transcript itself needs Pro, Business or Enterprise; see the free routes on Zoom. A personal Google account has no Meet transcript, which starts with paid editions such as Business Standard and Workspace Individual; see the Google Meet workarounds. The free version of Teams lists no recording or transcription, and Teams Essentials, at $4.00 per user a month paid yearly, is the cheapest plan that does; see the Teams transcription guide.

Which free transcription apps work without a bot in the call?

For free, a Chrome extension such as Tactiq (10 transcripts a month) or Fireflies' Meet-only extension, or a web page that captures the meeting tab's audio, such as Meetings Brief live notes, adds nothing to the participant list, as long as the meeting is open in a desktop browser. Zoom's My Notes gives three free bot-free uses a month in the Zoom desktop app, and Fathom's bot-free mode is a Mac beta. On a paid plan, your platform's built-in transcript also adds no participant.

Will a free plan transcribe a one-hour meeting?

Often not, because of the meeting platform's own limit. Zoom Basic meetings end at 40 minutes, and group calls on a personal Google account and on free Microsoft Teams end at 60. Otter's free plan stops at 30 minutes per conversation. Fireflies' free plan records up to 2 hours and tl;dv's up to 3 hours per recording, and Fathom lists unlimited recordings. Meetings Brief live notes sets no time limit of its own, because transcription runs on your computer, but the platform's limit still applies.

Can I transcribe a meeting on my phone for free?

Not with browser-based tools, because no mobile browser can share a tab's audio. Teams mobile can view a transcript but not start one, and paid Google Meet transcripts work on Android but not iPhone. A bot-based app works whatever device you join from, because the bot joins the call itself. Otherwise, record the call with consent and transcribe the file on a computer.