How to Transcribe Zoom Calls: A Guide for Irish SMEs

Zoom can transcribe a call in four ways: a live meeting transcript started by the host, an automatic transcript attached to a cloud recording, AI Companion notes and summaries, and a live transcript on a Zoom Phone call. Only one of those leaves a written file behind automatically, and that route needs a paid Zoom Workplace plan, so the plan a business holds decides what is possible. This guide covers how each option works, how to switch it on, how to share the output, and what an Irish business should settle before pressing record.

The four routes Zoom offers#

1. Live meeting transcription. Zoom Support sets out that, with meeting transcript enabled and the current Zoom app in use, the host starts or stops the transcript from More > Transcript during the meeting; that the Transcript panel fills in as people speak; that participants can request transcription and the host can decline or start it; and that Save transcript writes a .TXT file to the Zoom folder in Documents.

2. Cloud recording transcripts. Zoom Support explains that audio transcription for cloud recordings requires a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account with cloud recording enabled, that it is switched on with the Create audio transcript option in the recording settings at account, group or user level, that it supports English only, and that the transcript appears as a separate VTT file in the list of recorded meetings.

3. AI Companion notes and summaries. These sit beside the transcript rather than replacing it, and what each plan includes is set out below with the plans themselves.

4. Zoom Phone live transcription. Zoom Support describes how an admin enables call live transcription, after which a user can turn it on during a call or set it to start automatically in Settings > Phone; real-time translation needs the Customer Engagement Pack add-on; and Zoom does not retain transcripts created this way.

Note: The cloud recording route is the only one that builds a written record on its own, and it stops working entirely if cloud recording is switched off at account level.

Free plan versus paid plan#

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Zoom Workplace Basic is a free plan, and it includes meeting summaries for three hosted meetings per month and 20 AI queries per month, as listed by Zoom. Paid access is priced in US dollars per user per month at the time of writing in October 2026: Zoom lists Pro at $14.16 billed annually or $16.99 billed monthly, and Business at $18.33 billed annually or $21.99 billed monthly, with euro billing potentially differing from those dollar amounts. That pricing page also shows that Basic allows 40 minutes per meeting and local recording only, that recording transcripts are listed for Pro, Business and Enterprise rather than for Basic, and that Pro includes 10 GB of cloud storage per user and unlimited meeting summaries.

The practical effect is that a business wanting automatic transcripts of recorded meetings needs a paid plan, because Basic keeps recordings on the local machine and the cloud recording transcript option sits with the paid tiers. A host on Basic may still be able to run a live meeting transcript and save it as a .TXT file, since the meeting transcript article does not tie the feature to a particular plan; that is best tested on the account in question rather than assumed either way.

Turning transcription on, step by step#

1. Confirm the plan and the recording setting. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an account admin and open the recording settings. Cloud recording has to be enabled before any automatic transcript can be created, and the Create audio transcript option can sit at account, group or user level.
2. Set the option at the level where calls actually happen. Switching transcription on at account level while leaving the group or user setting inactive is the most common reason a transcript never appears.
3. Check the meeting transcript setting before the call. Open the Zoom desktop app, confirm that meeting transcript is available for the account and the signed-in user, and update the app if the option is missing.
4. Run the transcript during the meeting. The host opens More > Transcript and stops it at the end of the call. The panel fills in as people speak, and Save transcript writes the .TXT file to the Zoom folder in Documents.
5. Repeat the check for Zoom Phone. An admin enables call live transcription first, and each user then either turns it on during a call or sets it to start automatically in Settings > Phone.
6. Read the first transcript produced. Check that the file is complete, that turns are attributable to the right people, and that the audio was clear enough for the text to be worth keeping.

Tip: Run one internal call with transcription switched on and read the output before rolling the setting out across a team, because account, group and user settings all have to agree for it to work.

Downloading, saving and sharing transcripts#

Meeting transcripts behave like any other document. The host saves the .TXT file described above, it lands in the Zoom folder in Documents on that machine, and it is then the business’s copy to look after.

Cloud recordings work differently: the transcript arrives as a separate VTT file and sits in the list of recorded meetings alongside the recording itself, which makes it easy to find later but also easy to overlook when recordings are cleared out.

Phone calls leave nothing behind, because Zoom does not retain the live transcripts created on a call, so any written record has to be captured while the call is running or built from notes afterwards.

For internal sharing, a short house style saves trouble: rename each file with the date and the client or project, keep transcripts in one shared location rather than personal downloads, restrict access to the people who need it, and avoid pasting sensitive call content into chat tools that sit outside the business’s control.

Using transcripts inside the team#

A transcript is at its most useful when it feeds the work that follows the call. Sales teams read back what a prospect actually asked for, operations teams turn a supplier call into actions with owners, and managers use past transcripts to bring a new starter up to speed without replaying recordings. Transcripts become considerably more valuable when the follow-up lands inside the systems a business already runs, including lead generation and CRM automation, because that is where a promise made on a call turns into a task, a quote or a follow-up date.

Irish privacy: what to check before you record or transcribe#

Recording or transcribing a call means processing personal data, so GDPR applies, and the Data Protection Commission is the Irish supervisory authority for data protection. In practice a business should be able to point to the lawful basis it relies on, should tell participants that the call is being recorded or transcribed before it starts, should keep transcripts only for as long as they are needed, and should store them somewhere with proper access controls. Consent is one possible basis and not the only one, and which basis fits depends on the relationship and the purpose; that judgement belongs to the business, not to Zoom and not to this guide.

Watch out: Deleting the recording does not delete a transcript that has already been downloaded or emailed, so retention and deletion have to cover both.

Real-time or recorded? Meetings or phone? Free or paid?#

Putting call transcription to work in an Irish business#

A transcript sitting in a folder changes little. The gains come from connecting it to the tools already in use: pushing call notes and next steps into the CRM so a sales follow-up is not lost, attaching summaries to client records in the accounting or practice system, and triggering internal workflows such as a quote draft or a handover note.

Moving old notes is usually the slow part. Teams often hold years of typed notes, spreadsheets and voice memos, and those have to be mapped to the same fields the new transcripts use, or the search benefit never appears. Approvals matter too: someone has to decide which calls are transcribed, who can read the output and how long it is kept, because a recording and its transcript often fall under different retention decisions. Staff need a short briefing on where the files go and what should never be pasted into a personal channel.

Off-the-shelf tools also handle some cases poorly. Heavy regional accents, Irish-language conversations, poor mobile lines and meetings on platforms other than Zoom all produce weak text, and calls that never touch Zoom have to be captured another way. This is where outside help often pays for itself, because the work is integration rather than software: matching transcripts to CRM records, building search across past calls, and setting retention, deletion and approval rules that fit how the business operates. AI call transcription and the surrounding set-up is the kind of work a specialist handles, and because this is usually new off-the-shelf software, the Local Enterprise Office Grow Digital Voucher may part-fund the subscription together with its set-up and training.

Where to start#

The sensible first step is a decision about which calls are worth transcribing and what has to happen to the text afterwards, because a transcript with no destination is just clutter. From there, confirm the plan level, switch the setting on at account, group and user level, run one internal call as a test, and only then extend it to customer conversations. That sequence keeps the privacy questions answerable and the cost tied to a real use. Baikou helps Irish businesses with AI call transcription and the automation that puts transcripts to work, and more detail is available on the Baikou home page.

FAQ#