Transcribe a Zoom recording

What file Zoom gives you

Zoom can save a meeting two ways. A local recording is written to the computer of the person who recorded, usually as an MP4 video file with an M4A file next to it that holds only the audio. A cloud recording lives in your Zoom account and is downloaded from the web portal, again as MP4 and audio files. Cloud recording is tied to the plan of whoever hosts the meeting, so if you do not see it, ask the host. Both MP4 and M4A are accepted here as they are, with nothing to convert.

Getting the file out, step by step

1. If you recorded locally, find the folder Zoom saved to when the meeting ended; Zoom's recording settings show where that folder is.
2. If it was a cloud recording, sign in to Zoom in a browser, open your recordings list, and use the download option on the meeting. If you were only a participant, the host has to share the file or allow downloads.
3. Choose the audio-only file if there is one: it is smaller to upload and is all the transcript needs.
4. Come back here and drop that file in the box above.

Menu names and where options live change between app versions, plans and operating systems, so treat the steps as the general route and check the app's own help page for the current wording.

Recording other people: get permission

A Zoom meeting has other voices in it. Zoom announces when a recording starts, but that is not the same as everyone agreeing to a transcript existing. Only upload meetings you ran, took part in with the host's agreement, or have permission to use. The file goes to our server to be transcribed, so for a confidential board or client call, read how to keep meeting recordings private first, or look at self-hosted transcription.

Long meetings

Without an account one file can be up to 15 minutes and 25 MB. A free account lifts those per-file limits and keeps your transcripts in a library, so for anything longer than a short clip, create one rather than cutting the file up. A typical hour-long call as an audio file is much smaller than the video of the same call, which is the other reason to pick the audio file.

What the transcript looks like

Each line has a start time. When several people speak, speaker labels (up to eight) come with a free account and can be renamed to real names in one step. Fix the names and product terms Zoom's chat would have spelled for you, then export plain text for minutes, or SRT and VTT if the recording will be shared as a video with captions. For action items and minutes, see meeting to text.