Need a Microsoft Teams meeting transcript without adding a bot to the call? You can get a full transcript and AI summary for your Teams meetings using Teams’ own Live captions and a browser extension that runs in the background—no extra participant, no "who’s that?" moment. This guide walks you through the options and then the exact steps for the no-bot approach.
Ways to get a Teams meeting transcript
You have two main paths to a Microsoft Teams meeting transcript.
1. Native Teams recording and transcription. If your org allows it, the meeting organizer can turn on Record and transcribe in meeting options. After the meeting, the recording and transcript appear in Microsoft Stream (or OneDrive/SharePoint, depending on your tenant). This is built-in and works for everyone who has access—but it’s post-meeting only, and some organizations restrict recording or don’t allow it on sensitive calls. There’s also no real-time transcript panel in the meeting.
2. Live captions plus a no-bot extension. When you join Teams in the browser (Teams on the web), you can turn on Live captions. A Chrome extension can then capture those captions and show them in a transcript panel—and after the call, you get a full transcript plus an AI summary. Nothing joins the meeting as a participant. This is the approach we recommend if you want a Microsoft Teams meeting transcript without a bot and without depending on org recording policies.
How to get a Microsoft Teams transcript without a bot
Follow these steps to get a Teams meeting transcript using Live captions and a no-bot extension.
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Join Teams in the browser. Open Microsoft Teams on the web (e.g. teams.microsoft.com) and join your meeting from Chrome, Edge, or another Chromium-based browser. The extension approach works with Teams in the browser (including Light Meetings), not the desktop app.
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Turn on Live captions. Once you’re in the call, click the ellipsis (⋯) in the meeting toolbar and choose Turn on live captions. Microsoft’s support article on live captions has more detail if your tenant has different settings. The captions appear on screen; the extension will use this stream.
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Install a no-bot meeting notes extension. Install a Chrome extension that captures the meeting from your browser (e.g. from the meeting tab or captions) without joining as a participant. Install it once, sign in if required, and ensure it’s allowed to run on teams.microsoft.com.
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Start or allow capture. Depending on the tool, it may auto-detect the Teams meeting and start capturing when Live captions are on, or you may need to click “Start” in the extension. No bot joins the call—only you see the transcript panel.
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Use the transcript panel and get your summary. During the meeting you can follow along in the transcript panel. After the call, open your dashboard to get the full Microsoft Teams meeting transcript, speaker identification, timestamps, and an AI-generated summary and action items.
What you get
With the no-bot, Live-captions approach you still get the same kinds of outputs you’d expect from a meeting notes tool:
- Full transcript – Complete text of what was said in the Teams meeting
- Speaker identification – Who said what, where possible
- Timestamps – Jump to any part of the conversation
- AI summary – Short overview and key points
- Action items – Extracted next steps and owners
- Export – To Notion, Slack, email, or PDF, if your tool supports it
Same outcomes as bot-based tools, without a visible participant in the call. That matters in sales and regulated contexts: meeting notes without a bot avoid the trust and compliance issues that often come with a bot joining the room.
Does Teams have built-in transcription?
Yes. Microsoft Teams has built-in transcription when you use Record and transcribe in meeting options. The transcript is generated after the meeting and is available with the recording in Stream (or your org’s configured storage). Some tenants also support Live captions (real-time subtitles); those are visible during the meeting but aren’t automatically saved as a transcript by Teams alone.
So you have two built-in options: post-meeting transcript via recording, or live captions during the call. If you want a saved transcript and AI summary without recording (or without a bot), use Live captions plus a no-bot extension that captures the captions and builds the transcript and summary for you. For a comparison of real-time vs post-meeting approaches, see real-time vs post-meeting transcription.
Key takeaways
- You can get a Microsoft Teams meeting transcript in two main ways: native recording + transcription (post-meeting in Stream) or Live captions + a no-bot browser extension (real-time transcript panel + AI summary).
- The no-bot approach uses Teams on the web, Live captions turned on, and a Chrome extension that captures captions without joining as a participant.
- You get a full transcript, speaker ID, timestamps, AI summary, and action items—without a bot in the call—which helps with trust and compliance.
- Teams does have built-in transcription when recording is enabled; for a saved transcript and AI summary without recording or a bot, use Live captions plus an extension.
Get AI meeting transcription for Microsoft Teams (and Meet and Zoom) with no bot in the call—try the W3copilot Chrome extension for a transcript panel and AI summaries from your next Teams meeting.