How to Enable Closed Captions in Zoom

Zoom can display live captions during a meeting so participants can read what is being said. Captions can come from Zoom's automated speech recognition, from a participant assigned to type them, or from a third-party captioning service. This guide covers how to enable captions, show or hide them during a call, and fix the most common reasons they do not appear.

Before you start

• A Zoom account and an up-to-date desktop or mobile app. Caption features and their labels have changed across versions, so updating first avoids missing options.
• Host or admin rights for the setting. The meeting host controls whether captions are available, and an account administrator can enable, disable or lock the option for everyone in an organization.
• A working microphone selected in Zoom. Captions are generated from the audio Zoom receives, so the wrong input device or a muted microphone produces no captions.
• Awareness of where processing happens. Automated captions are generated by Zoom's service, not locally on your device, which means meeting audio is processed by Zoom. How caption text and transcripts are stored or retained depends on your account settings and Zoom's current policies, so check those and your organization's rules before relying on captions for sensitive meetings.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Turn on captions in your account settings

• Sign in to the Zoom web portal with the account that will host the meeting.
• Open Settings and stay on the Meeting tab.
• Find the captioning option. In current versions it is usually called Automated captions; in older account layouts it appears as Closed captioning in the advanced in-meeting section. Use the settings search field if you cannot find it.
• Switch the toggle on. If it is greyed out with a lock icon, an administrator has fixed the value at the account or group level and must change it.
• Optionally enable the related controls shown next to it, such as allowing participants to save captions or showing a full transcript panel. These sub-options vary by account type.

2. Show captions during a meeting

• Start or join the meeting in the desktop app.
• Select the Captions or Show Captions button in the meeting toolbar. On narrow windows it may be hidden under More.
• If prompted, choose the language being spoken in the meeting. This tells the recognition engine what to listen for; it is not a translation setting.
• Captions appear near the bottom of the video area. Participants can usually turn captions on or off for their own view without affecting others.
• To stop, select the same button again and choose Hide Captions. As the host, you can also disable captions for the meeting from the captions menu.

3. Use a manual or third-party captioner instead

If you need human captioning, open the captions menu in the meeting as the host. From there you can assign a participant to type captions, or copy an API token to give to a professional captioning service so it can send captions into the meeting. These options appear only if manual or third-party captioning is allowed in the account settings.

4. Mobile apps and version differences

On the Zoom mobile app, look for captions under the More menu during a meeting, or in the app's meeting settings outside a call. Older clients used the name Live Transcript and sometimes required participants to request captions from the host; newer clients generally let each participant enable captions directly once the host allows them. If your screen does not match these descriptions, update the app before changing other settings.

Check the output

• Speak a short sentence and confirm the text appears under your video with your name attached.
• Check that the spoken-language setting matches the language people are using. A mismatch produces nonsense words rather than no captions at all.
• Open the full transcript panel, if enabled, to confirm earlier lines are being kept during the meeting.
• If saving is allowed, use the save option in the captions or transcript panel and confirm the client reports where the file was written. Saved captions are plain text, not a timed subtitle file for video editing.
• Expect errors with names, technical terms, strong background noise and people talking over each other. Automated captions are an aid, not a verified transcript.

Common problems and next steps

• No Captions button: the host has not enabled captions, an administrator has locked the setting off, or the app is outdated. Check the account setting first, then update the app and rejoin the meeting.
• Button visible but no text appears: confirm Zoom is using the correct microphone in its audio settings and that the speaker is not muted.
• Captions are inaccurate: reduce background noise, use a headset or a closer microphone, and ask participants to speak one at a time. Verify the spoken-language setting.
• Participants cannot save captions: the host or account settings do not permit saving. Only the host or an administrator can change this.
• Translated captions are missing: showing captions in a different language from the one spoken is a separate feature that depends on your plan and may require an add-on. Basic automated captions do not translate.
• Captions are needed in a recording: live captions and recording transcripts are controlled by separate settings, so check the recording options in your account if you need text alongside a saved recording.