How to Transcribe a Zoom Recording (Without Paying for Zoom AI Companion)

Updated 24 Apr 2026 · TranscriptX editorial

Quick answer: If your Zoom recording is in the cloud, share the link and paste it on TranscriptX. If it’s on your laptop, drop it into Google Drive, share the Drive link, and paste that. Either way, no Zoom AI Companion needed.

Zoom has its own transcription now, but it’s tied to a paid AI Companion seat. If you already have the recording, you don’t need it.

The 30-second answer

Zoom recording in the cloud? Grab the share link and paste it. Recording on your laptop? Upload to Google Drive, share the link, paste that.

Step-by-step — Zoom Cloud recording

1) Go to zoom.us → Recordings

Sign in, click Recordings in the left nav, and find the meeting you want.

[Screenshot: Zoom Recordings page with one meeting highlighted]

2) Share it publicly (no passcode)

Click Share. Turn on Share this recording publicly. Turn off Passcode — our servers can’t type passcodes for you. Copy the link.

[Screenshot: Zoom Share dialog with public sharing on and passcode off]

3) Paste into TranscriptX

Drop the link on transcriptx.xyz, hit Transcribe. Done.

Step-by-step — local recording (.mp4 on your laptop)

Zoom saves local recordings to ~/Documents/Zoom/. The cleanest path is to drop it into Google Drive and share from there.

Common things that break

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