How to Record a Zoom Meeting (and a Teams Meeting), Step by Step

Here is how to record a Zoom meeting: click Record in the meeting controls and pick where the file goes: your computer or the Zoom cloud. That is the whole method for the host. Computer recording works on every Zoom account, including the free one; cloud recording needs a paid account. If you are only a participant, you record when the host lets you. Microsoft Teams works the same way in spirit: More actions, then Record, with transcription starting on its own, as long as your work license and your IT admin allow it.

Before you press Record

Recording other people is not only a button. Zoom shows a recording indicator, and Teams tells everyone automatically when a recording starts. That notice is the floor, not the whole job. Say at the start of the call that you are recording and why, and give people a chance to object. The rules on who must agree differ by state, and our guide to call recording laws and consent explains them in plain terms. This article covers the clicks.

Decide one thing before the meeting starts: where the recording should live. A computer recording stays on your own disk. A Zoom cloud recording sits in your Zoom web portal, where you can share and download it. A Teams recording lands in OneDrive or SharePoint. Pick the place that matches who needs the file afterward.

How to record a Zoom meeting as the host

Zoom offers two kinds of recordings. Computer recordings come with all Zoom accounts. Cloud recordings come with paid accounts. Both give you standard MP4 video, M4A audio and chat text files.

Turn on computer recording once

Computer recording is a setting in the web portal. It is available on a Basic (free) account or above, on the Zoom desktop app for Windows, macOS or Linux^[1]. It does not run on iPhone, iPad or Android.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. Click your profile picture or initials in the top-right corner, then Settings.
3. Open the Recording tab.
4. Under General, switch on Record to computer files. Confirm with Enable if a dialog appears.
5. Optionally select Save chat messages from the meeting/webinar and choose who can request host permission to record, then click Save.

If the toggle is grayed out, an admin locked it at the group or account level. Ask your Zoom admin.

Record during the meeting

1. Start the meeting.
2. Click Record in the meeting controls. On some app versions it sits under More.
3. If cloud recording is enabled, choose Record to this Computer or Record to the Cloud.
4. Wait for the recording indicator and the word Recording on screen.
5. Use the pause and stop icons when you need them.

Computer recordings land in your Documents folder, in a folder named zoom. Automatic recording exists but is off by default.

Cloud recording: who gets it

Zoom's cloud recording page lists the requirement as a licensed user on a Pro, Business or Enterprise account^[2]. Its getting-started page also names Education plans. Cloud recording is enabled automatically for paid subscribers, and it works from the desktop app and the mobile app. Only hosts and co-hosts can start it. After the meeting, Zoom processes the file, usually in about twice the recorded length and occasionally as long as a full day. Then it shows up in Recordings & Transcripts in the web portal and in Zoom Hub.

Record a Zoom meeting as a participant

Here the honest answer is short. You record only if the host allows it. There is no built-in Zoom setting that lets a guest record behind the host's back.

Zoom gives hosts and admins a setting called Who can request host permission to record. It sits under Record to computer files and covers internal participants, external participants, and participants from specified domains. Each group can also be set to auto-approve, so their requests go through without a click from the host.

1. Ask the host before the meeting. Tell them you want a computer recording and why.
2. In the meeting, click Record. The host approves the request, unless the account is set to auto-approve it.
3. Record on a Windows, macOS or Linux desktop app. Computer recording does not run on phones or tablets.

Cloud recording is different. A participant cannot start it at all. The host must make you a co-host, and even then the file appears in the host's recording list, not yours. If the host says no, respect it. Recording anyway, with a screen recorder, moves you from a settings question into a consent problem.

How to record a Teams meeting

In a Teams meeting, one person can record at a time^[3]. Everyone is notified automatically when the recording starts.

1. Start or join the meeting.
2. Select More actions, then Record in your meeting controls.
3. Specify your spoken language and what you want to record.
4. Select Confirm.

For sound only, open the Choose what to record dropdown and pick Audio only before you confirm. To stop, select More actions, then Recording.

Which accounts can record in Teams

Microsoft lists the conditions plainly. You can start or stop a recording if the organizer's cloud recording policy is on and you have one of these licenses: Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5, F3, A1, A3, A5, M365 Business, Business Premium or Business Essentials. Your IT admin must have enabled recording. You also cannot be a guest or from another organization. The organizer does not need to be present.

Choosing who may record when you schedule the meeting (organizers and co-organizers, presenters too, or no one) needs Teams Premium or a Copilot license.

Most recordings go to the organizer's OneDrive for Business. Channel meetings go to the team's SharePoint site. The recording also appears in the meeting chat. Guests and external attendees see it only if someone shares it with them.

How to record and transcribe a Teams meeting

In Teams the transcript rides along with the recording. When you record a meeting, transcription starts automatically, with each speaker's name and a time stamp^[4]. Want text without video? Start transcription alone.

1. Select More actions in your meeting controls.
2. Select Transcribe.
3. Confirm the language everyone is speaking.
4. Select Confirm.

All participants see a notice that the meeting is being transcribed. When it ends, the transcript appears in the meeting event on your calendar. To download it, open Chat, then the past meeting chat, then Recap, then Transcript, and pick .docx or .vtt from the arrow next to Download. By default, only organizers and co-organizers can download. People who call in by phone cannot view the transcript. Live translated transcription is a Teams Premium feature.

Where the free way stops working

The built-in recorders do their job well. They stop at four points, and each one is concrete.

You are not the host. On Zoom, a guest records only with the host's permission and can never start a cloud recording. On Teams, a guest or someone from another company cannot record at all. A recruiter, consultant or sales rep who spends the day on other people's calls hits this wall weekly.

Your account does not qualify. Free Zoom gives you computer recording only, on a desktop. Teams recording needs one of the listed work licenses plus an admin who switched it on.

A Zoom recording is not notes. A computer recording gives you video, audio and chat files. Somebody still has to watch it, pull out decisions and send the recap. At two or three recorded calls a day, that backlog grows faster than anyone clears it.

Files scatter. Recordings end up on one laptop, in a Zoom portal, in OneDrive. Finding what a client said last month means opening files one by one.

Past those points, a meeting assistant joins the call itself and writes the notes. Our guide to recording meetings automatically compares the whole field. Three that fit the guest problem:

Otter.ai joins Zoom, Teams and Meet with its Notetaker, even when you are not the host on Teams and Meet. Fireflies.ai auto-joins your calendar meetings whether or not you host; on Zoom, Zoom asks a host who is not a Fireflies user to allow recording. Krisp records from its desktop app with no bot and writes bot-free meeting notes, which still leaves the duty to tell people.

The bottom line

For most people, the built-in recorder is enough. On Zoom, turn on Record to computer files once and click Record; move to Pro, Business or Enterprise only if you want the cloud. On Teams, More actions and Record give you a recording and a transcript together, provided your license and admin allow it. As a participant, ask the host. When you are rarely the host, or recordings pile up unwatched, an assistant that joins as a visible notetaker is the next step, with the same duty to tell everyone.