Can Copilot take meeting notes in Teams?
Yes, in three different ways, and they are easy to confuse. All three run inside Teams and need a paid licence: Microsoft 365 Copilot, or Teams Premium for intelligent recap.
| Feature | What it writes | Who sees it | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot in the meeting | Answers to your prompts: key points, who said what, where people disagree, suggested action items | Only you (each licensed person's chat is private) | During the meeting, and after it if there's a transcript |
| Facilitator agent | Live AI notes on a shared Loop page, decisions, open questions and follow-up tasks | Every participant except external ones | Live; notes start a few minutes in |
| Intelligent recap | AI meeting notes, recommended tasks, name mentions, speakers and chapters | Licensed users, in the meeting's Recap tab | After the meeting ends |
Microsoft's Copilot in Teams meetings help page says Copilot "summarizes key discussion points, including who spoke and what they said", suggests action items and answers questions in real time during or after a meeting. The Facilitator help page describes real-time AI notes that everyone can co-author, plus summaries of key decisions and open questions. If you want notes your whole team can see and edit, Facilitator is the one that behaves like a note taker; plain Copilot is closer to a private assistant you question.
Two limits from the same pages: Copilot won't work in meetings hosted outside the participant's organisation, and Facilitator can only be added to scheduled meetings, not channel meetings, instant meetings or Teams calls.
Which Copilot licence do you need, and what does it cost?
You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. The free Copilot Chat isn't enough: on Microsoft's enterprise pricing page, the comparison table ticks Copilot in Teams and the Facilitator agent only for Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the FAQ says those come when you add a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Prices as shown on Microsoft's US pages, checked 5 Nov 2026:
| Plan | Price per user/month | Billing basis |
|---|---|---|
| Copilot Chat | No additional cost | With an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription; no Copilot in Teams meetings |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot Business (add-on) | $21.00, shown as $18.00 under a promotion | Paid yearly; $25.20 on a monthly subscription |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard with Copilot | $23.50 | Paid yearly; $28.20 monthly |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium with Copilot | $32.00 | Paid yearly; $38.40 monthly |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot (enterprise add-on) | $30.00 | Paid yearly; needs a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan |
The fine print on the business pricing page: the $18 Copilot Business price runs from 1 July to 31 December 2026, needs an annual commitment and applies to the first year only, and the add-on is only for existing customers with an eligible Business plan. Every plan also says some advanced AI features are billed on usage, beyond the licence fee.
Worked example for a five-person team already on a Microsoft 365 Business plan:
- Copilot Business for all five at the promotional price: $18 × 5 × 12 = $1,080 for the first year.
- At the $21 list price: $21 × 5 × 12 = $1,260 a year.
- Month to month: $25.20 × 5 × 12 = $1,512 a year.
- One licence, for the person who runs most meetings: $18 × 12 = $216 in the first year, or $21 × 12 = $252 at list price.
The one-licence option works better than it sounds. A Copilot licence is needed to add or turn on Facilitator, but any participant other than external ones can see its live notes in Chat and Notes. And the organiser controls Copilot settings for meetings they organise even without a licence. What unlicensed colleagues can't do is ask Copilot their own private questions. Intelligent recap is also included in Teams Premium, a separate add-on; ask your admin for its price on your agreement.
Does Copilot need the meeting to be recorded or transcribed?
Not always. Microsoft's help page now says transcription isn't required to turn on Copilot, but to ask Copilot about the meeting or see your Copilot history after it ends, you need live transcription turned on during the meeting. The organiser picks one of three values under Online meeting options > Copilot and other AI (the setting is called Allow Copilot and Facilitator):
| Setting | What happens | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| During and after the meeting | Copilot starts when someone starts transcribing; stopping transcription stops Copilot | Sales calls and project meetings you'll want to search later |
| Only during the meeting | Copilot works from speech-to-text data that isn't kept; when the meeting ends, the untranscribed data and your Copilot chat are gone | Confidential meetings you don't want recorded |
| Off | Copilot is disabled, and so are recording and transcription | HR, legal and board discussions |
To set "Only during the meeting", the help page for using Copilot without recording gives these steps for the organiser in Teams: go to your Teams Calendar and select a meeting, select Options > More options, choose Only during the meeting in the Copilot section, then select Save. If the option isn't there, the page says to contact your IT admin. In that mode, copy anything you want to keep before the meeting ends, because Copilot won't appear in the Recap tab afterwards.
To start a transcript yourself on Teams desktop, the transcription help page says: select More actions in the meeting controls, select Transcribe, confirm the language everyone is speaking, then select Confirm. Recording a meeting starts transcription automatically.
How do you use Copilot to take notes during a meeting?
For shared live notes, add Facilitator. Steps 1, 2 and 4 are from Microsoft's Facilitator help page and step 3 from the Copilot in Teams meetings page, checked 5 Nov 2026, for Teams on desktop or web.
When scheduling
Select Calendar in Teams, then New. Turn on the Teams meeting toggle. Select Options > Copilot and other AI, make sure Allow Copilot and Facilitator is set to Only during the meeting or During and after the meeting, turn the Facilitator toggle on and select Apply.
During a meeting
Select More actions in the meeting controls, then Turn on Facilitator. Pick the meeting language if asked. Only organisers or presenters on Teams for web or desktop can turn it on or off; people on mobile can still watch the notes appear.
For your own questions
Select Copilot in the meeting controls to open a private chat, then use View prompts or type a question such as "list the action items with owners". If you join more than 5 minutes late while Copilot is active, it offers to catch you up.
After the meeting
Select Chat, open the meeting chat, select Recap, then Notes. The AI notes sit on a Loop page any participant can edit, and the AI summary tab adds a full-transcript summary. In Follow-up tasks, select Accept to sync to send tasks to Planner.
For in-person meetings, the same page gives a phone route on iOS and Android: open the Teams app, tap Calendar, tap the meeting, then tap Take notes with Facilitator. On iOS it also asks you to set Mic Mode to Standard from Control Center during a call. Then turn the notes into actions people actually do; our guide to meeting notes that turn into action items has a two-minute format.
What can Teams admins control?
Admins set the default in the Teams admin center, and it decides what organisers can choose. From the Microsoft Learn admin page (last updated 26 Oct 2026): go to Meetings > Meeting policies, select a policy or create one, find the Copilot setting in the Recording & transcription section, choose a value and select Save. The PowerShell equivalent is the -Copilot parameter of Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy.
| Admin value | Organiser's default | Can organisers change it? |
|---|---|---|
| On with saved transcript required (the default) | During and after the meeting | No, it's enforced |
| On with transcript saved by default | During and after the meeting | Yes, to Only during or Off |
| On | Only during the meeting | Yes, to During and after or Off |
| Off | Off | Yes, to Only during or During and after |
So if your organisers can't find "Only during the meeting", the tenant is probably on the default value. The transcription policy matters too: with the admin's transcription policy off and Copilot set to During and after, licensed users can't use Copilot unless another participant who can transcribe turns it on. The page also lists where Copilot isn't available: end-to-end encrypted meetings and GCC High.
What do attendees see, and who can start a transcript?
Everyone is told about a transcript; nobody sees your private Copilot questions. When transcription starts, the transcription help page says all participants see a notification that the meeting is being transcribed, and they can choose to hide their identities in captions and transcripts. Turning on Facilitator changes the Notes icon in the meeting controls to show AI notes are on.
Who can start a transcript, per the same page:
| Participant | Start and stop | See it live | See it after |
|---|---|---|---|
| Organiser | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Person from the same organisation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Person from another tenant | No | Yes | No |
| Anonymous | No | No | No |
So you don't need to be the host to transcribe a meeting your own company runs (unless the organiser has limited who can record and transcribe), but you can't start one in a client's meeting. Sharing works the same way: the Recap help page says you can share a recap link with anyone in your organisation, and organisers, co-organisers and presenters can email the AI summary and follow-up tasks to invitees, including people outside the organisation, through Outlook. On sales calls, tell the buyer at the start that notes are being taken; our post on whether buyers will meet an AI agent covers how people react and what the recording rules say.
What does Microsoft do with your meeting data?
Microsoft says it isn't used to train the foundation models behind Copilot. The Learn page on Copilot data, privacy and security (last updated 3 Nov 2026) says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph "aren't used to train foundation LLMs". It also says Copilot only shows organisational data a user already has at least view permission for.
- Stored: your prompts and Copilot's responses are kept as Copilot activity history, which is what lets you reopen your Copilot chat in a Teams meeting. Admins can search it with Microsoft Purview and set retention policies.
- Even without a transcript: the admin page says Copilot prompts and responses during meetings might be kept for compliance under your Purview retention policies, even when recording and transcription are off.
- EU users: traffic stays within the EU Data Boundary, though the page notes that models provided by Anthropic as a subprocessor are currently excluded from it.
- Accuracy: Microsoft's Recap page warns that AI-generated content might be inaccurate, incomplete or inappropriate. Read the notes before you send them to a client.
When is Copilot the wrong note taker?
When the meeting isn't a Teams meeting your organisation hosts. Copilot won't work in meetings hosted outside your organisation, so a buyer's Teams invite gets nothing from your licence, and the Microsoft help pages checked here (5 Nov 2026) cover Teams meetings only, not Zoom or Google Meet calls. And if your team doesn't otherwise pay for Microsoft 365, $21 a user is a lot to spend on notes alone.
For those cases, you need a note taker that doesn't depend on a Teams licence or on who hosts the call. Siela's meeting notes record on your own device through the desktop app for Windows or macOS and pull out decisions, owners and follow-ups. Whichever tool takes the notes, the follow-up is what wins the deal; our guide to what to send in the first 24 hours after a sales call covers that part.
This week: check which Copilot setting your tenant uses (organisers can see it under meeting options), try Facilitator on one internal meeting, and compare its notes with what you would have written.
Frequently asked questions
How do I use Copilot to take notes during a meeting?
In a scheduled Teams meeting, open More actions and choose Turn on Facilitator for shared live notes, or select Copilot in the meeting controls to ask private questions such as a list of action items. You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, and an organiser or presenter on desktop or web must turn Facilitator on.
Can you transcribe a Teams meeting without being the host?
Yes, if you belong to the organisation that is hosting the meeting. Microsoft's transcription page says the organiser and people from the same organisation can start and stop a transcript. Guests from another tenant can only watch the live transcript, and anonymous attendees can't see it at all, so you can't start one in a client's meeting.
Can I share a Teams meeting recap with anyone?
Inside your organisation, yes: open the recap, select Share and add names, or copy the link. People outside your organisation can receive the AI summary and follow-up tasks by email, which organisers, co-organisers and presenters can send through Outlook from the Recap tab. Some sensitivity labels and access settings block sharing.
Can AI take notes during a meeting?
Yes. In Teams, Copilot's Facilitator agent writes live notes that meeting participants from your organisation can see and edit, and intelligent recap adds notes and tasks afterwards. Separate note-taking tools exist for other platforms; compare their price, consent notices and data use. Whatever you use, tell people notes are being taken and check the summary before sending it.
Does Copilot work if a client hosts the Teams meeting?
No. Microsoft's help page says Copilot won't work in meetings hosted outside the participant's organisation. If a buyer sends the invite, your Copilot licence doesn't help, and you also can't start a transcript there as a guest. Take your own notes, or use a tool that records on your own device, with the buyer's knowledge.
Can Copilot take notes without recording the meeting?
Yes. Set Copilot to Only during the meeting in the meeting options. Copilot then works from temporary speech-to-text data that isn't saved, nothing is recorded unless someone starts recording or transcription, and your Copilot chat disappears when the meeting ends, so copy what you need first. Your admin's policy decides whether organisers see this option.
Sources
- Microsoft Support: Catch up on meetings with Microsoft Copilot in Teams (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Use Copilot without recording a Teams meeting (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Facilitator in Microsoft Teams meetings (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Recap in Microsoft Teams (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Support: Start, stop, and download live transcripts in Microsoft Teams meetings (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Manage Microsoft Copilot in Teams meetings and events (last updated 26 Oct 2026) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Intelligent recap for Teams calls, meetings, and events (last updated 9 Jul 2026) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft Learn: Data, privacy, and security for Microsoft Copilot (last updated 3 Nov 2026) (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft: Copilot pricing for business (checked 5 Nov 2026)
- Microsoft: Copilot pricing for enterprise (checked 5 Nov 2026)