Guide
How to transcribe a meeting on a Mac
You can get a transcript while the meeting happens, from the meeting app or a note taker, or afterwards from a recording. On a Mac, some of the best options are free and never leave the machine. Here’s each one, what it costs, and where your audio goes.
Checked against each product’s own pages on November 6, 2026. We make Cachejay, one of the options below, so weigh that accordingly.
The short answer
- Your company pays for Teams, Zoom or Google Workspace: turn on the meeting app’s transcript before the meeting starts. It’s the least work.
- You already have a recording: open it in MacWhisper, free, on your Mac.
- An in-person meeting: the Notes app, with the Mac on the table.
- You want it every time without thinking about it: a note taker that runs on your Mac and catches every call.
The options, compared
| Option | When | Cost | Where it’s processed | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom audio transcript | After a cloud recording | Pro, Business, Education, Enterprise | Zoom’s cloud | Not for local recordings |
| Teams transcription | During the meeting | A work license with transcription | Microsoft 365 | Admin policy decides; can’t be added afterwards |
| Google Meet transcripts | During the meeting | Eligible Workspace editions | 8 languages; saved to the organizer’s Drive | |
| Notes app | Live | Free (M1 or later) | On the Mac | Treat it as microphone-only |
| MacWhisper | From a file; Pro records meetings | Free version; Pro €64 once | On the Mac | You need the recording first |
| whisper.cpp | From a file | Free, open source | On the Mac | Command line; 16-bit WAV input |
| Bot-free note takers | Live, every call | Varies | Mostly cloud | Check where audio goes |
During the meeting
Zoom
Zoom’s audio transcript comes from cloud recordings, and needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording turned on. Turn on Audio transcript in the cloud recording settings in the Zoom web portal, record to the cloud, and the transcript arrives with the recording. A free account’s local recording gets no transcript from Zoom; see from a recording.
Microsoft Teams
Start recording with transcription from More actions › Record, or turn on live transcription. Whether you can depends on your license and your admin’s meeting policy. Turn it on in the meeting: Teams doesn’t make one afterwards from the recording, and you’re left transcribing the recording file yourself.
Google Meet
On a computer or Android device, the host or co-hosts (or, if host management is off, anyone in the host’s organization) can turn on Transcripts. It needs Business Standard or above, Enterprise, Workspace Individual or some Education licenses. It supports English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, and saves to the organizer’s Drive, in the Google Meet folder.
The Notes app
In a note, click the attachment button, then Record Audio, and you get a live transcript. It needs a Mac with M1 or later and a supported device language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean or Chinese). Apple doesn’t say it captures other apps’ sound, so treat it as microphone-only: fine in a meeting room, not reliable for a call on headphones.
A note taker on your Mac
Bot-free note takers listen to your microphone and the Mac’s system audio, so they transcribe both sides in any meeting app without joining it. They also write the notes. Compared here.
Cachejay is one. It notices calls in Zoom, Meet, Teams and FaceTime on its own. You see a live transcript from Apple’s speech engine on the Mac while you talk. For the finished transcript, your side is transcribed on the Mac where it can be, and the other side goes through OpenAI’s transcription, which tells speakers apart; Cachejay keeps no audio. Plans include 20 hours of cloud-transcribed calls a month; past that, calls are transcribed on the Mac. How call notes work.
After the meeting, from a recording
Have a Zoom local recording, a Teams file from OneDrive, or a voice memo? Transcribe the file on your Mac:
MacWhisper
A Mac app that runs Whisper models locally: drop in an audio or video file and get a transcript, with nothing leaving the Mac. There’s a free version and a one-time €64 Pro license; recording meetings and app audio are listed with the Pro features. The easiest offline option if you don’t want a terminal.
whisper.cpp
The free, open-source (MIT) engine underneath many of these apps. On Apple silicon it runs on the GPU through Metal. It takes 16-bit WAV, so convert first with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i meeting.m4a -ar 16000 -ac 1 -c:a pcm_s16le meeting.wav
./build/bin/whisper-cli -m models/ggml-base.en.bin -f meeting.wavBigger models are slower and more accurate. Build steps are in the repository.
Upload it to a service
Most cloud note takers take uploads too, usually counted against the same monthly minutes as live calls. Read the service’s training and retention terms before uploading a client call.
On your Mac or in the cloud
“Local” transcription means the audio is turned into text on your Mac and never uploaded: Notes, MacWhisper and whisper.cpp work this way. It’s private and free, but you’re limited by your Mac’s speed, and telling speakers apart is weaker.
Cloud transcription is usually better at separating speakers and handling crosstalk, which matters for meetings more than for dictation. The trade-off is that your audio goes to a provider. If a meeting is under NDA, check the provider’s terms, and your client’s, before using either.
Getting a better transcript
- Wear a headset or use a decent mic. The Mac’s built-in mic across a room is the biggest source of errors.
- Use the language setting. Teams, Meet and Whisper do better when told the spoken language.
- Keep names nearby. Transcription mangles names and product terms. Fix them in one find-and-replace pass.
- Check what matters against the audio: numbers, dates, owners and anything you’ll quote.
What to do with it
A transcript is the raw material. Ask an AI app for the decisions, the actions with owners, and what was suggested but not agreed. Five follow-up prompts do that, and meeting notes in Claude and ChatGPT shows how to keep calls where your assistant can find them. Still need the recording? See how to record a meeting on a Mac.
Sources: Zoom: audio transcription for cloud recordings · Microsoft: record a meeting in Teams · Google: use transcripts with Meet · Apple: record and transcribe audio in Notes · MacWhisper · whisper.cpp. Checked November 6, 2026. Something out of date? Email hello@cachejay.com.