Record Zoom and Teams meetings on Mac with system audio

You can record a Zoom or Microsoft Teams call on a Mac in three ways: with the meeting app's own recorder, with QuickTime plus a virtual audio device that routes the other participants' voices into the recording, or with an app that captures another app's audio directly through Core Audio. By the end of this guide you will have a local audio file of the whole call, your voice and theirs, that you can transcribe and keep, with no bot joining the meeting.

One rule before anything else: tell the people on the call that you are recording. Zoom shows a notice automatically when you use its recorder. With the other two methods nothing is shown, so say it out loud, and check the recording laws that apply where you and the other participants are.

Why system audio is the hard part

Your Mac records its microphone without any fuss. What it does not do out of the box is record what comes out of the speakers, which is where the other participants live. That is why a plain QuickTime screen recording of a Zoom call gives you a perfect capture of your own voice and silence where the other side should be.

There are three ways around this:

1. Let the meeting app record itself. It already has both audio streams.
2. Install a virtual audio device that pretends to be a speaker, send the call's output into it, and record from it as if it were a microphone.
3. Use a recorder that captures the meeting app's audio directly. This is a newer macOS capability that does not need a driver.

Each route is described below, from least to most setup.

Route 1: Zoom's built-in local recording

Zoom can record to your Mac's disk without any cloud account features. It is the least work when you are the host.

Steps

1. In the Zoom desktop app, open Settings, then Recording. Note the folder under "Store my recordings at". By default it is a Zoom folder inside Documents.
2. Start or join the meeting.
3. Click Record in the toolbar and choose "Record on this Computer". Participants see a recording notice.
4. Stop the recording, or simply end the meeting. Zoom converts the recording once the meeting ends and opens the folder.

You get a video file and a separate audio-only file. The audio-only file is the one to transcribe.

Limits

• Only the host can record locally, unless the host grants you permission during the meeting, and the account admin has to allow local recording in the first place. In many company accounts it is switched off.
• Local recording is a desktop feature. The mobile apps only offer cloud recording.
• If you are a guest in someone else's meeting and cannot get permission, this route is closed.
• The recording captures what Zoom sends to your speakers. If someone plays a video through screen share, the audio is there, but any other app on your Mac is not.

Microsoft Teams also has a recorder, but it saves to the organiser's OneDrive or SharePoint, is controlled by tenant policy, and notifies everyone. It does not give you a local file. If you need one from a Teams call, use route 2 or 3.

Route 2: QuickTime plus BlackHole

BlackHole is an open-source virtual audio driver for macOS. It shows up as a device that takes audio in on one side and hands it back out on the other. Combined with Audio MIDI Setup, the utility that ships with every Mac, it lets QuickTime, or any recorder, hear the call.

The idea in one sentence: you will send the call's sound to both your headphones and BlackHole at the same time, then record from a device that combines BlackHole with your microphone.

Step 1: Install BlackHole

With Homebrew installed, run:

brew install blackhole-2ch

macOS will ask you to allow the driver in System Settings under Privacy & Security, and you must reboot before the device appears. You can also download an installer from the BlackHole project page. The 2-channel version is enough for voice calls.

Step 2: Create a Multi-Output Device

This device plays the call through your headphones and into BlackHole at the same time.

1. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications, then Utilities, or search for it with Spotlight).
2. Click the plus button at the bottom left and choose "Create Multi-Output Device".
3. Tick your headphones or speakers first, then tick "BlackHole 2ch".
4. Enable "Drift Correction" for BlackHole so the two streams stay in step.
5. Rename it to something like "Call Output" so you recognise it later.

Step 3: Create an Aggregate Device

This device is what the recorder listens to. It merges your microphone and BlackHole into one input.

1. Click the plus button again and choose "Create Aggregate Device".
2. Tick your microphone (the built-in mic, or your headset) and "BlackHole 2ch".
3. Enable "Drift Correction" for BlackHole.
4. Rename it to something like "Call Input".

Step 4: Point the call at the Multi-Output Device

You have two options. Setting the Multi-Output Device as the system output (in System Settings, then Sound) routes every app through it, but macOS then disables the volume keys, because a multi-output device has no master volume. The cleaner option is to set it only inside the meeting app:

• Zoom: Settings, then Audio, then Speaker: pick "Call Output".
• Microsoft Teams: Settings, then Devices, then Speaker: pick "Call Output".

Leave the microphone setting in the meeting app as your real microphone, not the aggregate device, or the other side will hear themselves echo.

Step 5: Record with QuickTime

1. Open QuickTime Player and choose File, then New Audio Recording.
2. Click the small arrow next to the record button and choose "Call Input" as the microphone.
3. Click record. Join the call. Stop when the call ends and save the file.

If you want the video as well, choose New Screen Recording instead and pick "Call Input" under Options. Audio-only files are much smaller and transcribe just as well.

Limits

• Every macOS update can require re-approving the driver, and the devices occasionally disappear after a system update.
• Volume control gets awkward, as described above.
• The recording is one mixed track. Both voices are in it, so a transcription tool with speaker recognition can still tell them apart, but you cannot adjust the two sides separately after the fact.
• You have to remember to switch the speaker back after the call, or your next music playback will go silently into BlackHole.

Route 3: a recorder that captures the meeting app directly

Recent versions of macOS let an app record the sound of another app, or of the whole system, without any virtual driver. The first time an app uses this, macOS shows a permission prompt for system audio recording, and you can revoke it later in System Settings under Privacy & Security.

For a user this means: no driver to install, no Audio MIDI Setup, no device switching in Zoom or Teams, and the volume keys keep working. The recorder captures the meeting app's output and your microphone alongside it. The meeting app itself is unaware, and no extra participant appears in the call.

There is no built-in macOS app that does this for meetings, so you need a third-party recorder. ThinkScribe for Mac works this way: it records the microphone, the audio of apps like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, or both at once with echo cancellation, so your own voice coming back through the speakers is not recorded twice.

After the recording: getting a transcript

Whichever route you took, you now have an audio file. To turn it into text on the Mac itself, see transcribe audio to text on a Mac. If the recording has several people in it, speaker diarization explains how voices are told apart and why it works better on a clean, mixed recording than on a noisy room mic. For turning the transcript into minutes or action items without sending it anywhere, see summarizing transcripts with a local LLM.

If you would rather not maintain this

It needs macOS 26 or later on an Apple Silicon Mac with 16 GB of memory or more, so if you are on an Intel Mac, route 2 remains your best option.

Frequently asked questions

Can I record a Zoom meeting on a Mac without the host's permission?

Not with Zoom's own recorder: local recording is controlled by the host and the account admin. Routes 2 and 3 record what your Mac plays and what your microphone hears, so they work as a participant. Whether you may record is a separate question, so tell people and check the consent rules that apply to everyone on the call.

Does QuickTime record system audio on a Mac?

Not by itself. QuickTime records from an input device, and system output is not an input. You need a virtual device such as BlackHole to loop the output back in, or an app that uses a recorder that captures the app directly.

How do I record a Teams call on a Mac without a bot?

Teams' own recorder is cloud-only and policy-controlled, and meeting bots join as a visible participant. To get a local file with nobody extra in the call, either route Teams' speaker output through a BlackHole multi-output device and record the aggregate input with QuickTime, or use a recorder built on a recorder that captures the app directly.

Will the other participants know I am recording?

With Zoom's recorder, yes, Zoom shows a notice. With BlackHole or a direct recorder, nothing is displayed to the other side, which is exactly why you should say so at the start.