// HOW-TO · REPURPOSING

How to enable Microsoft Teams live captions and transcripts (2026)

Turn on live captions and a saved transcript in a Teams meeting, download it as .docx or .vtt, and reuse the words as content. The 2026 step-by-step.

Last verified · 2026-10-23 · by Moe Ameen

Published 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-23

Short answer

To get live captions in a Teams meeting, select More actions, then Captions. Teams doesn't save captions, so if you want a record, select More actions, then Transcribe, and confirm the spoken language. After the meeting, open Recap in the meeting chat and download the transcript as a .docx or .vtt file. By default, only organizers and co-organizers can download it.

Key takeaways

Captions vanish when the meeting ends. Only transcription gives you a file.
Teams recognizes more than 50 spoken languages for captions and transcription.
Translated captions cover 27 languages and need Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Download from Recap: .docx if you want to edit it, .vtt if you want subtitles.
Tell people you're transcribing, and get their OK before you reuse what they said.

Microsoft Teams can do two different things with the words in a meeting, and people mix them up constantly. Live captions put speech on screen in real time so people can follow along — but Teams throws them away when the meeting ends.

Transcription writes the same speech to a saved, timestamped record with each speaker's name, and that file survives the call: you can download it as a Word document or a subtitle file afterward. If your goal is a record you can reuse, captions alone will leave you with nothing.

This guide covers both, in the order you actually need them: switch on captions for the room, start transcription so the meeting is captured, get the language and consent right, then download the transcript and put it to work. Menu names here were checked against Microsoft's support pages in October 2026 — menu paths and licensing shift, so if an option is missing it is almost always an admin policy, which the gotchas cover.

How do you turn on Teams live captions and transcription?

Turn on live captions for accessibility. In your meeting controls select More actions, then Captions (on mobile it is More options, then Turn on live captions). Captions appear instantly at the bottom of the window and need no license. On desktop you can adjust caption font size, color, position, and height. Remember what this does not do: Teams does not save captions, so this step is for people in the room, not for a record you keep.
Start transcription to get a record you can keep. This is the step that produces a reusable file. Select More actions, then Transcribe, and confirm the language everyone is speaking. The transcript builds in real time next to the video, tagged with each speaker's name and a timestamp, and it keeps running whether or not you also hit record. You can start it without recording the video if all you want is the text. This is the only path to a downloadable transcript — turning on captions in the previous step is not enough.
Set the spoken language before you rely on it. Accuracy hinges on the language setting matching what is actually being said. Teams recognizes more than 50 spoken languages for captions and transcription; confirm the meeting's spoken language when you start transcription so it is not transcribing English audio as something else. If your audience needs another language, live translated captions cover 27 languages — but that is a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot feature, so check availability before you promise it.
Get consent before you capture anything. Teams shows participants a notification when recording or transcription starts, but a banner is not the same as consent. Say out loud that the meeting is being transcribed and why, especially with external guests or customers. Some regions require every party to agree before you capture a conversation, and a meeting you plan to turn into public content raises the bar further — you want clear permission on record before a word leaves the call.
Download the transcript after the meeting. When the meeting ends, the transcript is available in the meeting event on your calendar and in the chat. Open the past meeting chat, select Recap, then Transcript, then use the dropdown beside Download to choose .docx or .vtt. Pick .docx for a Word file with speaker labels and timestamps you can read and edit; pick .vtt if you want a subtitle file to sync onto a video. By default only the organizer and co-organizers can download unless your admin has widened that.
Clean the transcript and turn it into content. Raw transcripts carry crosstalk, filler, and misheard names and jargon, so do a fast editing pass before reusing anything. Then treat the file as a source: the strongest lines become quote graphics or text posts, a walked-through explanation becomes a short or a blog section, and the whole thing becomes an outline for a recap article or newsletter. One recorded meeting or webinar holds a week of posts once the words are on the page — the transcript is the raw material, not the finished piece.

What do people get wrong about Teams captions and transcripts?

Captions and transcription are not the same feature. Live captions are never saved; only transcription produces a file you can download after the meeting.
If Transcribe is greyed out or missing, your IT admin has probably restricted it. Organizations can limit recording and transcription to organizers, to organizers and presenters, or to no one.
By default only the organizer and co-organizers can download the transcript; other attendees need permission granted through admin policy.
Accuracy falls with distance from the mic, background noise, and people talking over each other. Names, brand terms, and jargon almost always need a manual fix.
Live translated captions (27 languages) require Teams Premium or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, not standard Teams.
On personal or free Teams, recording and transcription depend on your plan and settings; do not assume the option is there.

Legal note

Transcribing or recording a conversation can carry consent obligations. Teams notifies participants, but some jurisdictions require all-party consent, and using someone's words in public content is a separate permission. Announce transcription, and get explicit sign-off before repurposing a meeting with customers, guests, or anyone who did not expect to be published.

How can you turn a Teams transcript into content with Kompozy?

A downloaded Teams transcript is the cheapest content source you will ever have — a full meeting, webinar, or client call already written down with speaker names and timestamps — and it is exactly where most teams stop. The words sit in a .docx in someone's downloads folder and never become anything. Kompozy is built to close that gap.

It is a full AI content generation and multi-platform publishing engine, not a note-taker: you paste the transcript in as a source and it produces 20 output formats across video, image, text, blog, and newsletter from that single input.

The strongest quotes become Quote Graphics and Text Posts, a well-explained answer becomes a captioned Persona Short or a Carousel, and the whole session becomes an outline for a recap Blog Article and an Email Newsletter — all held to one voice by a Persona Brief so a rough spoken transcript comes out reading like your brand, not like a raw recording.

Then Autopilot schedules the batch across the eight social platforms plus blog and email behind a per-post review gate, so a human approves every piece before it ships. The discipline that matters most here is the review step: a transcript can contain things a participant never expected to see published, so the per-post gate is the point, not autopublish. Starter ($199/mo for 5,500 credits, 4 platforms) suits a solo operator turning a weekly meeting into a content set; Pro ($499/mo for 18,000 credits, 9 platforms) fits a team fanning every webinar and call across every platform on autopilot; Enterprise is available through Contact Sales for agencies repurposing recorded sessions across many brands.

What does this look like in Kompozy?

A quote graphic generated in the Kompozy workspace. It shows the format a strong line from a transcript could become, but it wasn't made from a Teams meeting or for this guide.

Quote graphic generated in Kompozy — Real output · Kompozy Quote graphic format · from the Kompozy workspace

Who is this for, and who should skip it?

Best for:

Meeting organizers who need captions in the room and a saved record afterward
Teams running webinars or client calls worth reusing as content
Anyone who wants a subtitle file (.vtt) for a recording

Not ideal for:

Attendees who aren't organizers and don't have download rights
Organizations where IT has switched transcription off
Meetings where participants haven't agreed to be published

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between live captions and transcription in Teams?

Live captions show speech on screen in real time for accessibility and are discarded when the meeting ends. Transcription creates a saved, timestamped record with speaker names that you can download afterward as a .docx or .vtt file. Turning on captions does not give you a transcript.

Are Microsoft Teams live captions saved?

No. Teams does not save captions — they exist only during the meeting. If you want a record of what was said, you have to start transcription, which is a separate Transcribe control under More actions.

Do I need Teams Premium or a license for transcription?

Standard live transcription is available on many Teams plans but is governed by an admin policy, so it can be turned off for your organization. Live translated captions require Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot, and live translated transcription is part of Teams Premium.

What file formats can I download a Teams transcript in?

Two: .docx, a Word document with speaker labels and timestamps for reading and editing, and .vtt, a subtitle file for syncing captions onto a video. You choose from the dropdown beside Download in the meeting Recap.

Who can download a Teams meeting transcript?

By default, only the meeting organizer and co-organizers can download the transcript. Your IT admin can grant download rights to other participants through policy, but that is not on by default.

How many languages do Teams captions and transcripts support?

Teams recognizes more than 50 spoken languages for live captions and transcription, including speaker attribution and timestamps. Live translated captions cover 27 languages and require Teams Premium or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

How do we know this?

On 2026-10-23 we checked the menu paths, language counts, download formats and download permissions against Microsoft Support's pages on live captions and live transcription in Teams. Kompozy plan details come from kompozy.io/pricing.

Sources

Microsoft Support: Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings (read 2026-10-23)
Microsoft Support: View live transcription in Microsoft Teams meetings (read 2026-10-23)
Kompozy: Pricing (read 2026-10-23)