Transcribe a Google Meet recording
Workspace cloud recording, OBS local capture, or browser tab record — every path produces an MP4 that we can transcribe with speaker labels in 5–8 minutes. No Workspace admin required, no Meet plan upgrade. $2 per hour.
Works on free Meet
Free Google Meet doesn't include built-in transcription or cloud recording. Record locally with QuickTime/OBS, upload here. We don't care which path you took.
Speaker labels
Google Meet records all speakers to one mixed track. Our diarisation separates them after the fact, even on cross-talk that confuses the in-Meet captions.
No Workspace admin needed
Built-in Meet transcription requires Business+ Workspace and an admin to enable it org-wide. We need none of that — just the recording file.
$2/hour, flat
A daily standup costs $2. A weekly 2-hour planning session costs $4. No subscription, no per-seat fees.
From Google Meet recording to transcript in 3 steps
Get your recording
Workspace admin enabled cloud recording? Find the .mp4 in the meeting organiser's Google Drive (Meet Recordings folder). Free Meet? Record locally with QuickTime, OBS, or a screen-record extension.
Upload to TranscribeCat
Drop the .mp4 into the upload area. We extract the audio automatically. Files up to 500 MB / 10 hours work directly.
Download the transcript
Most Meet recordings under 1 hour finish in 4–6 minutes. Copy as text, export as SRT (for video captions), or download as Word with speaker labels.
The three ways to record Google Meet (and which one to use)
Recording Google Meet is one of the most-asked questions in the entire workplace collaboration space, and the answer depends on your Workspace plan.
- Workspace Business Standard or higher: Built-in cloud recording. The host clicks Activities → Recording → Start. The recording lands in the host's Google Drive under
My Drive → Meet Recordings. File is .mp4. This is the cleanest option if you have it. - Workspace Business Standard or higher with built-in transcript: The host can also click Activities → Transcripts → Start. Google produces a Doc-format transcript automatically — it's decent for English-only routine meetings but lacks proper speaker labels and exports. You can still record cloud-side and use TranscribeCat for the multilingual or speaker-label workflow.
- Free Google Meet or Workspace Starter: No built-in recording at all. Your options:
- QuickTime (Mac) → New Screen Recording → record the tab.
- OBS (cross-platform, free) → Window/Display Capture → record.
- Loom, CleanShot, or another screen recorder.
- Browser extensions like Vmaker, Tactiq, or Otter (paid) that capture the tab.
Always announce that the meeting is being recorded. Google Meet shows a recording indicator for cloud recordings; for local screen captures, it doesn't — you have to tell people verbally. Two-party consent jurisdictions (CA, FL, IL, MA, MD, MT, NV, NH, PA, WA in the US; most of Europe) require all participants to know. Don't skip this step.
Google Meet vs Zoom vs Teams — recording quality compared
All three platforms record at 720p H.264 + AAC audio for cloud recordings, but the audio quality differs subtly:
- Zoom: Highest audio bitrate of the three. Best speaker isolation in cross-talk. Slightly better for transcription accuracy on chaotic multi-party calls.
- Microsoft Teams: Comparable to Zoom. Speaker labels work well.
- Google Meet: Slightly lower audio bitrate by default. On clean 1:1 or small-group calls, transcription is essentially identical. On large group meetings with cross-talk, you may see slightly more confusion between speakers — diarisation still works, but rename speakers in the editor afterwards if needed.
Local screen recordings (QuickTime, OBS)can actually be higher quality than the cloud recording because they capture system audio at full quality. If you have very important calls and your Workspace plan doesn't include cloud recording, OBS with system audio capture is the highest-fidelity path.
What Google Meet transcription costs
$2 per hour of meeting audio. Real examples:
$2
Daily 25-min standup
$4
Weekly 90-min review
$8
4-hour all-hands
Workspace Business Standard is $14/user/month — for a 10-person team, $1,680/year. At $2/hour, you'd transcribe 840 hours of meetings before that gets cheaper.
Frequently asked questions
Where does Google Meet save my recording?+
Cloud recordings (Workspace Business+) go to the meeting organiser's Google Drive in a folder called "Meet Recordings." Free Google Meet doesn't support cloud recording — you need to record locally with QuickTime, OBS, or a browser extension.
Can I transcribe Google Meet on the free plan?+
Yes — record the meeting locally (QuickTime on Mac, OBS on any platform, or a browser extension), then upload the resulting .mp4 or .mov. We don't care whether the recording came from cloud or local capture.
Does Google's built-in transcript work as well?+
It works for English-only routine meetings but lacks proper speaker labels and the export is a Google Doc rather than SRT/Word. If you need other languages, exports, or strong speaker labels, TranscribeCat is the better answer.
How long does a Google Meet recording take to transcribe?+
Most 30–90 minute Meet recordings finish in 4–8 minutes. We extract the audio from the .mp4 first, then run diarisation and transcription. The page updates automatically; you can leave the tab and come back.
My Workspace admin disabled Drive sharing — can I still upload?+
Yes. Download the recording from Google Drive to your local machine first (right-click → Download), then upload from your computer to TranscribeCat. We don't connect to Drive directly.
What about meetings with international participants in different languages?+
Whisper-class models handle code-switching reasonably well — if a meeting starts in English and switches to Spanish, the transcript follows. For meetings primarily in non-English languages, our pipeline auto-detects the language and transcribes natively. 90+ languages supported.
Can I get an automatic transcript every time I record a Meet?+
Not yet automated end-to-end. Today the workflow is: record, download, upload to TranscribeCat. We're evaluating Google Drive integration for direct sync — track the roadmap on /changelog.
Related meeting and video resources
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Speaker-labeled transcripts in minutes. $2 per hour. Works on free Meet.
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