Transcribe Zoom Meetings in Real Time
Kalima transcribes your Zoom meeting live by capturing your computer's audio. You get a real-time transcript with separated speakers, and no bot ever joins the call.
Live translation and AI summaries run on the same audio, so your written record and follow-up are ready the moment the call ends.
Transcribe Zoom without adding a bot to the call
Most Zoom transcription tools join your meeting as a visible participant. Kalima works differently. It captures the sound playing on your computer, so nothing new appears in the participant list and you decide what gets recorded.
Capture happens on your own machine, whether you host the meeting or only joined it. Zoom's captions are the host's to switch on and its recording transcript exists only for cloud recordings in the host's account; a transcript built on your device needs neither, and you can start or stop it whenever you like.
Let's lock the launch date before we wrap.
Works for me, I'll prep the release notes.
Can we get this transcript in Spanish too?
¿Podemos tener esta transcripción también en español?
Why transcribing Zoom calls is harder than it looks
Zoom gives the host captions, a cloud recording and a transcript that arrives later. Everyone who depends on the written record tends to hit the same limits.
Only the host controls the native transcript
Captions and the live transcript are enabled by the host or a co-host within what the account admin allows, and the recording transcript exists only for cloud recordings, which land in the host's account. A participant who needs the record has to ask for it.
Bots announce themselves in the call
Many transcription add-ons join as a named participant. On client and candidate calls that can feel intrusive, and it is not always allowed.
Cloud transcripts arrive late and depend on a setting
Zoom writes its transcript after processing, roughly as long as the meeting again, and only when the audio transcript option was on before the meeting started. Switch it on afterwards and nothing is backfilled.
Multilingual meetings get lost
When people switch languages mid-call, a single-language transcript drops or garbles the parts it cannot follow.
How to transcribe a Zoom meeting with Kalima
The steps are the same whether you host or join, and the same for a webinar you only attend. Capture the sound playing on your computer, then follow the transcript as it appears.
Join the meeting, then start capture
Open the Kalima desktop app and start a live session, or accept the Meeting detected prompt it shows when Zoom is running. Choose Meeting audio to transcribe everyone else, or Mic + meeting audio to include your own voice, and Kalima hears the whole Zoom call, not just your microphone.
Watch the transcript build live
Speech is transcribed in real time with speaker labels. Turn on live translation and a call with international clients stays readable, original and translation side by side.
Get notes the moment you leave the call
When the meeting ends, an AI summary with decisions and action items is ready, with no processing queue to wait for. Export the transcript as SRT, VTT, PDF, JSON, or text, or share a read-only link.
What you get from bot-free Zoom transcription
Capturing system audio locally, instead of joining the call, changes what your transcript can do.
No extra participant on the call
Nothing joins the meeting, so your calls look exactly as they would without transcription.
Works when you are not the host
Kalima never touches Zoom's caption or recording settings, so a participant, a guest and a webinar attendee get the same live record the host would.
Live, speaker-labeled record
See who said what as the meeting happens, instead of waiting for a cloud transcript afterward.
Translation and summaries in one place
Live translation and an AI summary run on the same audio, so your follow-up is ready right away.
Feature fit for Zoom meetings
The jobs teams usually need a Zoom transcript to do, and how Kalima handles them.
Zoom transcription questions
Common questions about transcribing Zoom meetings with Kalima.
Further reading
Related solutions
Transcribe your next Zoom meeting
Start for free and get a live, translated transcript of your next call, with no bot in the room.