Does Microsoft Teams have a built-in AI note taker?
Yes, three of them, and each needs a paid add-on licence on top of Teams. Intelligent recap writes AI notes and follow-up tasks after a meeting; Copilot answers questions during and after it; and Facilitator, a Copilot agent, writes live notes that everyone in the meeting except external participants can see. Microsoft's admin article on intelligent recap says users need a Teams Premium licence or a Microsoft Copilot licence, on top of a Microsoft 365 subscription that includes Teams (checked 5 Nov 2026).
| Built-in tool | What you get | Licence needed | Needs a transcript? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligent recap | AI notes, recommended tasks, speaker and name-mention markers, in the Recap tab | Teams Premium or Copilot | Yes, unless the organiser has Copilot and runs recap without transcription in a scheduled meeting |
| Copilot in meetings | Private prompts such as who said what, plus suggested follow-ups | Copilot | Only for use after the meeting |
| Facilitator | Shared live notes, agenda timer, decisions and open questions | Copilot, to add or turn it on | Only to ask it about the meeting afterwards |
The licence prices, from Microsoft's own pages on 5 Nov 2026: Teams Premium is $10.00 per user per month, paid yearly, and requires a Teams licence. The Microsoft 365 Copilot Business add-on is shown as $18.00 per user per month, paid yearly, down from $21.00, as a discount offer running from 1 July to 31 December 2026 that applies to the first year only. That add-on is only for existing Microsoft 365 customers on an eligible Business plan.
What does Teams AI note-taking cost a small team?
Licence only the people who run the calls. A worked example with a sample company: Acme Ltd has five people on Microsoft 365 and two of them take customer calls.
| Option for the 2 call-takers | Arithmetic | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Premium | 2 × $10.00 × 12 | $240 |
| Copilot Business add-on, first year at the offer price | 2 × $18.00 × 12 | $432 |
| Copilot Business add-on at $21.00 | 2 × $21.00 × 12 | $504 |
Teams Premium is the cheapest route to AI notes after a meeting. Copilot costs $192 to $264 a year more for the pair and adds Facilitator's live notes, in-meeting questions and recap without saving a transcript. Licensing all five on Teams Premium would be 5 × $10.00 × 12 = $600 a year. Microsoft's recap help page says people in your org can see an intelligent recap if they were invited, so check with your admin whether unlicensed invitees see the AI notes in your tenant before you buy for everyone.
How do you turn on AI notes in a Teams meeting?
Start transcription, because recap's AI summary needs it. Steps from Microsoft's help pages, checked 5 Nov 2026:
Start transcription (Teams desktop)
Select More actions in the meeting controls, select Transcribe, confirm the language everyone is speaking, then select Confirm. Recording a meeting starts transcription automatically. Everyone sees a notification that the meeting is being transcribed (Microsoft's transcription article).
Start transcription (Teams mobile)
Tap More options, then Transcription, then Confirm.
Add Facilitator when scheduling (Copilot licence)
In Calendar select New, turn on the Teams meeting toggle, select Options, then Copilot and other AI. Set Allow Copilot and Facilitator to Only during the meeting or During and after the meeting, turn the Facilitator toggle on and select Apply. During a meeting, organisers and presenters on web or desktop can use More actions, then Turn on Facilitator (Facilitator article).
Find the notes afterwards
On desktop, open Chat, open the meeting chat and select Recap; on mobile, open the meeting chat and tap Apps, then Recap. The AI summary needs a transcript in a supported language and a meeting of at least five minutes.
With a Copilot licence there is a third route: in a scheduled meeting, select Meeting AI at the top of the window and turn on Intelligent recap, and Teams summarises from the audio without saving a transcript. Microsoft's help page for recap without transcription says participants get a banner when it is turned on or off. For more on Copilot's side, see our sibling post can Copilot take meeting notes.
Which admin settings control Copilot and transcription?
The Copilot setting in your meeting policy, and the transcription policy underneath it. In the Teams admin center go to Meetings, then Meeting policies, pick a policy, and find Copilot in the Recording & transcription section. Microsoft's Copilot meeting admin article gives four values (checked 5 Nov 2026):
| Admin center value | Organiser's default | Can organisers change it? |
|---|---|---|
| On | Only during the meeting | Yes |
| On with saved transcript required (the default) | During and after the meeting | No |
| On with transcript saved by default | During and after the meeting | Yes |
| Off | Off | Yes |
Two details matter. When an organiser turns Copilot off for a meeting, recording and transcription are turned off too. And if transcription is off in the user's policy with During and after the meeting set, licensed users can't use Copilot unless another participant with permission turns transcription on.
On data, Microsoft's Copilot privacy page says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Copilot. Transcripts are stored in the meeting organiser's OneDrive for Business, according to the transcription article.
Can you transcribe a Teams meeting without being the host?
Only if you're in the organiser's organisation. Microsoft's transcription article (checked 5 Nov 2026) sets out who can do what:
| Participant | Start or stop | View live | View afterwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organiser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Person from the same organisation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Person from another tenant | No | Yes | No |
| Anonymous | No | No | No |
With Teams Premium or Copilot, organisers can also limit recording and transcribing to organisers and co-organisers, add presenters, or allow no one. So on a customer's Teams call you can watch the live transcript but you won't get it afterwards. That is the gap third-party note takers fill, and why Teams admins now screen them.
How do third-party bots join Teams, and how do admins control them?
They join as external participants, and since a rollout that began in June 2026 Teams tries to spot them. Microsoft's external bots admin article (last updated 11 June 2026) describes a meeting policy setting, Manage external bots and their access to meetings, in the Meeting join and lobby section, with two options:
- When detected, require approval before joining (the default): detected bots are marked and held in the lobby until someone admits them, even in meetings where people can bypass the lobby.
- Do not detect bots: bots appear like any other external participant.
Microsoft's Teams blog post of 29 June 2026 adds that the lobby splits people into Waiting and Suspected threats, identified bots get no one-click Admit, and Admit all warns you when bots are included. Microsoft says some bots may not be detected and some humans may be flagged; an organiser can admit a person and mark them with This is not a bot.
Registered bots are treated differently. Through the Teams Bot Identification Program, in public preview and at capacity as of 5 Nov 2026, vendors add a marker so Teams can recognise them. The blog names Maestro Labs, Otter.ai, Read AI and Recall.ai as partners registering their bots, and lists blocking external bots entirely as a control it is still exploring.
To get rid of a note taker on your own calls: leave it in the lobby; ask your admin to keep the default setting; and set Who can admit from lobby to organisers and co-organisers only, as Microsoft's blog recommends, so a presenter can't let it in.
Which third-party note takers work with Teams, and what do they cost?
If your team is on Microsoft 365 but joins customers' Teams, Zoom and Meet calls, a third-party tool may cover more calls than a Microsoft licence. Prices from each vendor's pricing page in US dollars, checked 5 Nov 2026:
| Tool | Free plan | Paid starting price and basis | 2 call-takers, per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fireflies | Yes, limited AI summaries | Pro $10 per seat per month billed annually ($18 monthly) | 2 × $10 × 12 = $240 |
| Read AI | Yes, 5 meeting transcripts a month | Pro $15 per user per month billed annually ($19.75 monthly) | 2 × $15 × 12 = $360 |
| Notta | Yes, 120 transcription minutes a month, but up to 3 minutes per conversation | Pro $97.99 a year, billed annually, one seat per account (shown with a 40% off label); the team plan, Business, is $16.67 a month billed annually | 2 × $97.99 = $195.98 |
Notta's page also offers a bot-free desktop recorder for Mac and Windows. If your attendees are spread across states, remember the consent rules: Washington's RCW 9.73.030, for example, needs every participant's consent and treats a recorded announcement as consent. This isn't legal advice; tell people at the start. Before you buy, compare the general options in our sibling roundup of the best AI note takers.
For that last step, use our guide to meeting notes that turn into action items. Siela's meeting notes take a different route: they record on your own device from the desktop app (Windows and macOS), so there is nothing in the lobby to admit. For calls you'd rather not take yourself, see how buyers react in would buyers meet an AI agent.
Frequently asked questions
Does Microsoft Teams have a built-in AI note taker?
Yes, with an add-on licence. Intelligent recap gives AI notes and tasks after a transcribed meeting with Teams Premium or a Copilot licence. Facilitator writes shared live notes and needs a Copilot licence to add it. Without either licence, a recap still holds the recording and transcript, but Microsoft lists the AI notes as part of Teams Premium or Copilot.
How do I invite Teams Maestro to a meeting?
Maestro is a third-party product, so follow the vendor's own instructions; the Microsoft pages we checked on 5 Nov 2026 give no steps for it, and Microsoft says to contact the vendor first about third-party bots. Microsoft's Teams blog lists Maestro Labs among the partners registering bots in its Bot Identification Program. If your organisation keeps the default bot-detection setting, the organiser may need to admit a detected bot from the lobby.
Is there a Facilitator app for Microsoft Teams?
Facilitator is built into Teams as a Copilot agent, so there's nothing separate to install. With a Copilot licence, turn it on when scheduling under Options, Copilot and other AI, or during a meeting from More actions, Turn on Facilitator. It works only in scheduled meetings, not channel meetings, instant meetings or calls.
How do I get rid of an AI note taker on Teams?
If you organise the meeting, don't admit it from the lobby, and set Who can admit from lobby to organisers and co-organisers so presenters can't let it in. Admins can keep the default policy that holds detected bots in the lobby. If the bot comes from your own connected account, turn off auto-join in that tool's settings.
Who can see intelligent recap in Teams?
Microsoft's help page says people in your org can access an intelligent recap if they were invited to the meeting. Anyone who wasn't invited or isn't in your org can't, even with the recording link. Organisers, co-organisers and presenters can share the AI summary by Outlook email, including with people outside the organisation.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: Intelligent recap for Teams calls, meetings, and events (updated 9 Jul 2026; checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Recap in Microsoft Teams (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Use intelligent recap without transcription (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Manage Copilot in Teams meetings (transcription) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Facilitator in Microsoft Teams meetings (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Start, stop, and download live transcripts in Teams meetings (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Data, privacy and security for Microsoft Copilot (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Teams Premium pricing (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Copilot for Business pricing (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Manage external bots and their access to meetings (updated 11 Jun 2026; checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Teams Blog: Introducing smarter bot protection in Teams meetings (29 Jun 2026; checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Teams Bot Identification Program (updated 26 Aug 2026; checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Fireflies pricing (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Read AI plans and pricing (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Notta pricing (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Washington RCW 9.73.030 (checked 5 Nov 2026)