How to Record a Teams Meeting: 3 Options for 2026

You've probably been in this situation before: a Teams meeting ends, everyone leaves with partial notes, and days later, there’s no agreement on what was decided. The meeting wasn't recorded, and now the team is relying on imperfect memory to reconstruct commitments.

This guide breaks down three distinct ways to record a Teams meeting and also explores which options give your team a recording people will actually use.

Each approach serves different team needs and workflows, so choosing the right one depends on how your team actually works.

TL;DR

• Native Teams recording captures meetings with transcription included, but AI summaries require Teams Premium ($10/user/month) or Copilot ($30/user/month).
• AI assistants like Read AI build a personal knowledge graph across meetings, emails, messages, and cloud storage, turning hour-long recordings into quick summaries with extracted action items. You can also sift through the data using cross-platform search or chat.
• Bot-free tools can be less obtrusive while still respecting privacy requirements. 

Option 1: Native Microsoft Teams Recording

Teams has a built-in function for recording meetings. If you have a Microsoft 365 business license, you can record Teams meetings right now, no extra software needed. 

How to Record With Native Teams

The recording process works identically across desktop, web, and mobile:

1. Join your Teams meeting
2. Click More actions (•••) in the meeting controls
3. Select Record and transcribe → Start recording
4. Teams notifies all participants automatically that the recording has started
5. To stop: More actions (•••) → Record and transcribe → Stop recording

Your recording shows up in the meeting chat a few minutes after you stop recording. For regular meetings, Teams saves recordings to the organizer's OneDrive for Business. For channel meetings, Teams saves recordings to the channel's SharePoint document library.

What You Get

Native Teams recording captures active speakers, shared screens, and meeting chat. When you start recording, automatic transcription with speaker attribution begins, creating a searchable text version of the interaction. You can play, pause, and scrub through the timeline. You can edit transcripts and search for specific words or phrases, helping people locate relevant moments without having to watch the entire recording. Recordings count against your OneDrive or SharePoint storage and auto-delete after 120 days by default.

What's Missing for Distributed Teams

Native recording captures and transcribes meeting notes, but the limitations include:

• No automatic extraction of action items: Clear ownership assignments and commitments aren't identified automatically
• No organized chapters or automatic topic segmentation: Topics aren't separated, making it hard to navigate to specific discussions
• No AI summaries or extracted action items without Teams Premium ($10/user/month) or Copilot ($30/user/month)
• Single language per meeting: No administrative control to change the default transcription language
• No automatic capture when you're double-booked: You can't send a notetaker to attend on your behalf; someone in the meeting must start the recording, or the organizer must enable auto-record in advance
• No automatic sharing of recordings to absent invitees: Recordings save to the organizer's OneDrive, and people who missed the meeting often need the link manually shared with them

When Native Recording Works

Consider native recording when your team is small and only has a couple of meetings per month.

However, for distributed teams with 10+ people across multiple time zones, or organizations recording multiple meetings daily, native recording creates a new problem: accumulating hours of video that people don't have time to watch.

Option 2: AI Assistants for Workplace Information

AI meeting assistants help you catch up on hour-long meetings in minutes, with written summaries, extracted action items, and searchable meeting intelligence.

For example, instead of watching hours of recordings or messaging five different people, you can ask: "What decisions were made about the Q4 launch timeline?" The assistant returns the relevant segment from Tuesday's planning meeting and summarizes the key points. Need a broader view? Ask "What progress did we make on Q4 launch this week?" and get a synthesized answer that pulls from Monday's standup, Wednesday's design review, and the email thread that followed."

When AI Assistants Help Distributed Teams

AI assistants and notetakers are necessary are a necessity for distributed teams who deal with:

• Time zone conflicts
• High meeting volume
• Action item tracking
• Onboarding new team members who need access to previous meetings

How to Record a Teams Meeting With Read AI

Read AI can record via a visible meeting bot (web/mobile) or ambient recording from your device (Desktop app). Either way, setup is simple:

1. Sign up for Read AI via the web, desktop app (Mac/Windows), or mobile app (iOS/Android)
2. Connect your Microsoft Teams account through the app settings
3. Configure your meeting preferences (automatic joining, notification settings)
4. Recording begins automatically when your meeting starts
5. After the meeting ends, access your AI-generated meeting report through your preferred interface

Read AI maintains security and privacy with SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance. Meeting reports appear within minutes of the meeting ending, including transcription, summary, action items, and topic chapters.

What You Get

Read AI automatically joins Teams meetings to generate meeting reports, including full transcriptions with speaker identification through Transcription 2.0 technology, AI-extracted summaries, action items, and topic-based chapters. 

Search Copilot allows employees to surface key information from meetings, emails, and Teams messages, creating a searchable knowledge base that improves team productivity.

Initial setup takes just 20 minutes, but it can save up to 20 hours of productivity each month.

Five features help distributed teams catch up asynchronously:

• Short recaps replace 60-minute recordings: AI-generated video summaries distill key points without requiring full recording review
• Extracted action items show immediate ownership: Action items automatically extracted with clear ownership provide visibility without watching the full recording.
• Proactive briefings through features like Monday Briefing and Topics, plus Recommendations that suggest action items and next steps based on your interactions.
• Chapters enable direct navigation: Teammates jump directly to the 2-minute timeline discussion instead of scrubbing through an hour of video.
• Sentiment analysis prioritizes what matters: Engagement signals help surface the most important moments in summaries and action items so critical points don’t get buried alongside routine discussion. 

Read AI also provides meeting scores and engagement insights, helping distributed teams identify which meetings deliver value and which could be turned into async updates.

Platform and Integration

Read AI integrates with more than 20 platforms, including Slack, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, Gmail, Outlook, Zoom, Google Meet, Google Drive, OneDrive, Confluence, and Asana. For distributed teams using multiple collaboration platforms, Read AI's cross-platform intelligence helps connect meeting insights to where work actually happens.

Option 3: Bot-free Recording Tools

Bot-free recording tools record meetings without being visible as a participant. They are useful for recording any type of meeting, including WebEx, webinars, and other video formats. However, they can cause compliance issues if attendees are unaware they are being recorded, especially in states like California, where two-party consent is required.

How to Record a Teams Meeting With a Bot-free Tool

Most bot-free recording tools follow a similar setup pattern, though implementation varies based on the specific tool type:

1. Download and install the recording software or browser extension on your device
2. Grant the software the necessary permissions

4. Recording begins either automatically when you join or via a manual trigger
5. Access recordings and transcripts through the tool's dedicated interface

When Bot-free Recording Tools Help Distributed Teams

Bot-free meeting recording is useful when participants or organizations prefer not to have a visible notetaker in their meetings. They are also helpful when you need to take notes in-person or hybrid conversations. Read AI’s desktop app offers bot-free recording with built-in consent language for such scenarios. 

Which Team Recording Option Should You Choose?

To record Teams meetings, choose AI assistants like Read AI when:

• You are a fast-growing company or enterprise where employees schedule dozens of meetings per week
• Employees need to catch up in 5 minutes instead of watching 60-minute recordings
• Action items and decisions get lost between meetings
• Your organization needs a knowledge base that connects decisions across meetings, emails, and messages

Choose native Teams recording when:

• You are part of a small team where recordings serve only as a backup reference
• Budget constraints prevent additional software subscriptions

Choose bot-free tools if:

• Participants prefer not to have a visible notetaker present or if you are capturing an in-person conversation. However, participants should still be notified that the conversation is being recorded. 

Choose the Right Teams Recording Approach with Read AI

Recording meetings becomes a problem if it accumulates hours of video that nobody has time to watch. For distributed teams, the value comes from recordings that turn into searchable, actionable information teammates can consume asynchronously.

Native Teams recording provides the foundation: capture audio, video, and automated transcription with speaker attribution.

AI assistants like Read AI extend capabilities with cross-platform connections that link meetings, emails, messages, and documents into a personal knowledge graph.

Start using Read AI to turn your Teams recordings into searchable content that integrates with meetings, emails, messages, and documents.

FAQs About How to Record a Teams Meeting

Do I need special permissions to record Teams meetings?

Yes. You need meeting organizer or presenter permissions to start recording. All Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise licenses include recording capabilities. Recordings save to the organizer's OneDrive (regular meetings) or the channel's SharePoint (channel meetings). Organization admins can turn off recording through Teams policies. The Read AI desktop app works differently, recording directly from your device without requiring in-meeting permissions.

Can people see if I'm recording a Teams meeting?

Yes. Teams automatically notifies all participants when recording starts, and a recording indicator remains visible throughout the meeting. You cannot record Teams meetings without participant notification, as this is a compliance and privacy requirement built into the platform. With the Read AI desktop app, recording happens in the background without a visible notetaker as a participant. Read AI provides consent language to help you notify participants appropriately.

How long are Teams recordings stored?

By default, Teams recordings auto-delete after 120 days to manage storage. Administrators can adjust this retention period from 30 to 99,999 days through OneDrive and SharePoint retention policies. Recordings count against your OneDrive or SharePoint storage quota.

What's the difference between Teams transcription and AI meeting summaries?

Transcription creates a searchable text version of everything said in the meeting with speaker identification. AI summaries extract key decisions, action items, and topics without requiring that you read the full transcript. Native Teams provides transcription with all licenses but requires Teams Premium ($10/user/month) or Copilot ($30/user/month) for AI summaries. AI assistants like Read AI provide summaries, action items, and cross-meeting search and chat without premium Microsoft licensing.

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