Direct answer — How do you transcribe a Zoom or Teams recording offline on Mac? Get the recording file onto your Mac first: Zoom saves local recordings to Documents/Zoom, Teams recordings download as MP4 from OneDrive or SharePoint, and Google Meet recordings download from Google Drive. Then drop the file into an on-device app such as Weesper Transcribe, set the language, review the editable transcript and export it. Nothing is uploaded and no meeting bot is involved.
You already have the recording. It sits in a Zoom folder, in someone’s OneDrive, or in a Drive link the organiser sent you. What you want now is text: a record of decisions, quotes for a report, or minutes you can search later. And for a client call, an HR conversation or a board meeting, you would rather not send that audio to yet another service.
This guide shows how to transcribe a Zoom recording on Mac, and how to transcribe a Teams recording offline, starting from the saved file. It covers where each platform stores recordings, how to download them, how the on-device workflow works step by step, and how it compares with built-in cloud transcripts and meeting bots.
Where do Zoom, Teams and Google Meet save meeting recordings?
It depends on whether the recording was made on your computer or in the platform’s cloud. Local Zoom recordings are already on your Mac; Teams and Google Meet recordings live in the organiser’s cloud storage and need downloading first.
Zoom local (computer) recordings
Zoom’s support documentation says computer recordings are “available with all Zoom accounts” and are saved directly to your computer. On a Mac, the default path is /Users/[Username]/Documents/Zoom. To find it, open the Zoom desktop app, go to Settings, then the Recording tab, and click Open next to the storage location.
Each meeting gets its own folder. According to Zoom’s file-format page, the audio and video file is named video[random number].mp4 by default, and the audio-only file is named audio[random number].m4a. Zoom notes that computer recordings should convert automatically when the meeting ends, so wait for that before you grab the file.
Zoom cloud recordings
Cloud recording is available on paid Zoom plans. The files sit in the Recordings tab of the Zoom web portal, where Zoom says you can share and download them. Download the MP4 or the M4A to your Mac, and it becomes an ordinary local file.
Microsoft Teams meeting recordings
Teams does not save recordings to your computer. Microsoft Learn explains that recordings of scheduled meetings are stored in the organiser’s OneDrive, in a folder called Recordings, while channel meeting recordings go to the team’s SharePoint site under Documents/Recordings.
To download one, Microsoft’s support page gives these steps: open the meeting chat or channel, select the Shared tab, find the recording, then choose More options > Download. The recording is an .mp4 file. Two caveats from the same page: “Only the meeting organizer can download the meeting recording”, and recordings expire after a period set by your IT admin. If you attended but did not organise, ask the organiser for the file before it expires.
Google Meet recordings
Google’s Meet Help states that recordings are “saved in the meeting organizer’s Google Drive in the ‘Google Meet’ folder”, and that the link is emailed to the organiser and to the person who started the recording. In Drive, select the file, choose More > Download, and save the video to your Mac. The same process works for a Google Meet recording transcript on Mac.
Why not just use the platform’s built-in transcript or a meeting bot?
Often you can, and for routine internal meetings that is fine. The trade-off is where the audio and text live: built-in transcripts stay in the platform’s cloud, and meeting bots add another company that receives the conversation.
Microsoft Learn, for example, notes that Teams recordings and transcripts are stored together in OneDrive or SharePoint. That suits organisations that already manage data there. It suits a solo consultant less well when the call was with a client who expects confidentiality, or when transcription was not switched on during the meeting at all.
A meeting bot joins the call as an extra participant and processes the audio on its provider’s servers. For meeting recording transcription privacy, the question to ask is simple: does this conversation need to reach one more third party? When the answer is no, transcribing the saved file on your own machine keeps the circle as small as it already was.
How do you transcribe a meeting recording with Weesper Transcribe?
Drop the file in, pick the language, review, export. Weesper Transcribe is a Mac app for files you already have. Its App Store listing states that “Transcription runs on your Mac with on-device Whisper models. Nothing is uploaded, no audio leaves your machine.” There is no account to create.
- Add the file. Drag the MP4 or M4A into the app. MP3, WAV, M4A, MP4, MOV and other formats macOS can read are accepted, so a Teams video or a Zoom audio file works as is.
- Choose the language. Transcription supports 57 languages. Setting the meeting’s language explicitly avoids misfires when someone switches language briefly.
- Review against the audio. With Pro, clickable timestamps jump to the matching moment in the recording, and you can fix names, acronyms and figures inline; edits save automatically.
- Export what you need. Nine formats are available: TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, DOCX, PDF, HTML, CSV and JSON. DOCX or PDF suits minutes; SRT or VTT suits a recorded presentation you plan to share, as covered in our guide to creating SRT and VTT subtitles offline.
- Batch the backlog. If you have a month of recordings, Pro queues a whole folder and processes it in sequence. Our walkthrough on batch transcribing a folder of audio and video files shows the setup.
- Search later. Every transcript stays in a private history. Keyword search finds an exact phrase; meaning-based search finds “the part where we agreed to delay the launch” even if nobody used those words. See how semantic search across transcripts works.
The app runs on macOS 13 or later, on Apple Silicon with Metal acceleration and on Intel Macs with AVX2 support. It is Mac only.
What Weesper Transcribe does not do
Being clear about scope saves you a wrong purchase. Weesper Transcribe:
- does not join calls or record meetings;
- does not capture system audio;
- does not add speaker labels or write AI summaries;
- is not a live dictation app. Speaking new text into any app in real time is the job of its sister app, Weesper Neon Flow.
Free tier or Pro for meeting recordings?
The free download transcribes files up to 15 minutes at full quality, one at a time, to plain text. Most meetings run longer, so the free tier is best for testing accuracy on a short call or a clip.
| Meeting task | Free | Pro (one-time purchase) |
|---|---|---|
| Test accuracy on a short recording | ✅ Up to 15 minutes | ✅ |
| Transcribe a full one-hour meeting | ❌ | ✅ Unlimited length |
| Process a folder of recordings | ❌ | ✅ Batch processing |
| Edit inline with clickable timestamps | ❌ | ✅ |
| Export DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT and more | ❌ Plain text | ✅ Nine formats |
| Search the whole history | ❌ | ✅ Keyword and semantic |
Pro is a one-time purchase, never a subscription. The App Store shows the current price before you buy.
Who is responsible for recording consent?
The person who records. Transcribing a file does not change whether it was lawfully made, so consent is settled at recording time, normally by the organiser.
Platforms help with notice: Google’s Meet Help states that “Participants get a notification when the recording starts or stops.” Rules on recording calls still vary by country and sector, so check your organisation’s policy before you record. Our overview of voice recording consent and AI disclosure rules covers the main frameworks. If you only received a recording, use it for the purpose it was shared for.
How do you get the most accurate meeting transcript?
Start from the cleanest audio you can get, and tell the app the right language. A few habits help:
- Prefer the M4A for Zoom. The audio-only file is smaller than the video and carries the same speech, so it is quicker to move around.
- Use separate tracks when they exist. Zoom can record a separate audio track for each participant on computer recordings, named
audio[Name][random number].m4a. Transcribing each track gives you a cleaner per-person text, a practical workaround since the app does not label speakers. - Set the language explicitly for each file rather than relying on detection, especially in bilingual teams.
- Check names and numbers. Proper nouns, product names and figures are where speech recognition errs most; the timestamps make checking fast.
- Let long files run. Multi-hour recordings are supported, so you do not need to split a long workshop into pieces.
Comparing your options for meeting transcripts
Each route fits a different situation. The table compares them on the points that matter for a recording you already have.
| Platform cloud transcript | Meeting bot | On-device file transcription | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Needs to be set up before the meeting | Usually, transcription must be on | Yes, the bot must join | No, works on any saved file |
| Where the audio is processed | Platform’s cloud | Bot provider’s servers | Your Mac |
| Extra third party | No | Yes | No |
| Works on old recordings | Only if transcribed at the time | No | Yes |
| Speaker labels and summaries | Varies by product | Varies by product | No, transcript only |
| Works offline | No | No | Yes |
For sensitive work, journalists and researchers face the same choice; our guide to offline interview transcription under GDPR goes deeper on that angle.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Zoom save a local recording on a Mac?
Zoom’s support documentation gives the default path as /Users/[Username]/Documents/Zoom. You can open it from the Zoom desktop app under Settings, Recording tab, Local recording storage, then Open. Each meeting folder holds an MP4 audio and video file and an audio-only M4A file, both of which you can transcribe.
How do I download a Microsoft Teams meeting recording?
Open the meeting chat or channel, select the Shared tab, find the recording, then choose More options and Download. Microsoft’s support page states that the recording is an .mp4 file and that only the meeting organizer can download it, so attendees usually need to ask the organizer for a copy.
Can I transcribe a Google Meet recording on my Mac?
Yes, once you download it. Google’s Meet Help says recordings are saved in the meeting organizer’s Google Drive, in the ‘Google Meet’ folder. Select the file in Drive, choose More and Download, then drop the downloaded video into an on-device transcription app.
Does Weesper Transcribe record meetings or join calls?
No. Weesper Transcribe works only on audio and video files you already have. It does not join calls, does not record meetings and does not capture system audio. Record with the meeting platform’s own feature, with everyone’s consent, then transcribe the saved file on your Mac.
Is the free version enough for a one-hour meeting?
No. The App Store listing states that ‘The free tier transcribes files up to 15 minutes, one at a time, to plain text.’ That is enough to test accuracy on a short recording. A one-time Pro purchase, never a subscription, unlocks unlimited length, batch processing, document and subtitle exports, editing and search.
Does Weesper Transcribe identify who is speaking?
No, it does not add speaker labels, and it does not write AI summaries. It produces an accurate, editable transcript with timestamps, which you can correct, search and export in nine formats: TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, DOCX, PDF, HTML, CSV and JSON.
Conclusion
Turning a Zoom recording to text on Mac with no upload takes two moves: get the file out of Zoom, Teams or Drive, then transcribe it locally. You skip the meeting bot, you work on recordings made weeks ago, and the conversation stays between the people who were in it.
Have a meeting recording waiting? See what Weesper Transcribe does and what the free tier covers, then get it from the Mac App Store: free to download, with a one-time Pro upgrade and no subscription. Setup questions are answered in the Weesper help centre.