How to record and transcribe a meeting in Apple Notes on a Mac

Yes. In a note, click the attachment button in the toolbar, choose Record Audio and click Record. On a Mac with M1 or later, Notes writes a live transcript as people talk, and with Apple Intelligence it can summarize it afterwards. It's free and already on your Mac.

It's made for what your Mac's microphone hears: a meeting in the room, a lecture, a voice memo to yourself. Apple's guide doesn't say whether Record Audio also picks up the sound of a call your Mac is playing, so test it before you rely on it for Zoom or Teams. FaceTime audio calls and iPhone calls are different: Apple's Call Recording saves those into Notes by itself.

Apple's details here come from its own user guides, checked October 16, 2026. We make Koi, which also records meetings, and say below where it differs.

From Apple's Notes guide:

1. Open Notes and make a note for the meeting.
2. Click the attachment button in the toolbar and choose Record Audio.
3. Click Record.
4. Click the Transcription button to see the words as they're said.
5. Use Pause and Resume for a break. To add more later, click Record at the end of the recording.
6. When the meeting ends, click Pause, then Done.

The recording sits in the note as an attachment. To keep a copy of the audio somewhere else, Control-click it and choose Save Attachment, or share it.

Click the More button on the recording for these:

• Find in Transcript, to search what was said.
• Add Transcript to Note, to put the words in the note itself.
• Copy Transcript, to paste it somewhere else.

One thing to watch: deleting the recording deletes its transcript too. If you want the words to stay, add them to the note first.

For a summary, double-click the recording and click Summary. That needs Apple Intelligence, which Apple says isn't available in every language or region, with usage limits on some features.

Apple says transcription needs a Mac with M1 or later, with the device language set to one it supports: English (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK and the US), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. If the Transcription button is missing, your Mac may not meet those, or Notes didn't detect a supported language.

Apple's guide describes recording audio into a note and says nothing about calls in other apps. So before a call that matters, make a one-minute test: start a recording in Notes during a call, with the headphones you normally wear, and play it back to hear whether the other people are in it.

Two of Apple's call recorders do save into Notes. During a FaceTime audio call with one other person, or an iPhone call answered on your Mac, click More, then Call Recording. Both people hear a notice, and the recording goes to a Call Recordings folder in Notes, with a transcript. More in how to record a FaceTime call.

For Zoom, Meet and Teams, the apps' own recordings tell everyone and capture every side. See recording a Zoom meeting, recording Google Meet and recording a Teams meeting.

Koi's Record has two modes, and one of them is close to Notes. In person records a meeting, class or talk through your microphone, transcribes it on your Mac in any of 100 languages, and keeps the sound on the page to play back. The difference is what happens at the end: it asks “Summarize this recording?”, and with a yes, Koi's AI, which runs online, writes the summary, the decisions and your to-dos as checkboxes, or for a class the key points and flashcards.

The other mode, Online call, is for Zoom, Meet and Teams. It records your microphone as You and what the Mac plays as Them, films the screen if you pick Audio and video, and adds a follow-up email to the notes. No bot joins.

1. Tap Fn + ⌃, or click Record on Koi's dock.
2. Pick In person for the room, or Online call for a call.
3. Tap the keys again, or click stop on the dock, when it's over. The document is in Recents.

Where Notes wins: it's free, and it's in the app you already keep notes in. Koi has no phone app and no sync. Where Koi wins is the write-up and the calls. Its notes go through Koi's AI online, only when you say yes, and its server checks your plan before each recording starts. See Record calls and the plans.

Apple's guide describes no notice when you record in a note, and Koi doesn't announce itself either. In many places, recording a conversation needs everyone's agreement, in a room or on a call. Laws differ, so check yours: this isn't legal advice. Ask at the start, wait for a yes, and don't record if anyone says no.

• Your Mac has an Intel chip. Transcription needs M1 or later.
• Your device language isn't one Apple supports for transcription.
• Notes didn't detect a supported language in the recording.
• You deleted the recording, which deletes its transcript too.

• A meeting or class in the room, on an M1 Mac or later, and a transcript is enough? Notes is a fine choice.
• A FaceTime audio call or an iPhone call? Apple's Call Recording, which saves to Notes and tells the other person.
• Want the summary, decisions and to-dos written up, or both sides of a Zoom, Meet or Teams call? Koi's Record, once everyone has said yes.

More ways to record, app by app: how to record a meeting on a Mac, and for the room, how to record an in-person meeting.