Comparison · checked against each vendor's own documentation on 2026-09-30

Translated captions in Teams, Zoom and Google Meet: what each one needs, and the option that needs nobody's plan.

Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Meet can all translate meeting captions live, including into Chinese, but in all three the translation is switched on by the account that hosts the meeting, not by you. Teams needs the organizer to have Teams Premium or a Microsoft 365 Copilot license; Zoom needs a Business Plus or Enterprise-tier plan or the Translated Captions add-on; Google Meet needs Business Standard or higher, and is still rolling out. All three also need the spoken language set correctly by hand. macOS Live Captions works in any app but only transcribes, it does not translate. The remaining option is software on your own computer that listens to the meeting's audio: Voice Translator for Mac is one, and it is what we make, so its row below says what it cannot do as well. This page compares the five on the questions that decide it.

What actually decides it: four questions

Language lists are long everywhere, so they rarely decide anything. These four do: who has to pay or switch it on (you, or the meeting host); whether it works in every meeting app you are invited to; who sets the spoken language, because a wrong setting produces confident nonsense; and where the audio goes.

Live translated captions options for meetings, compared on 2026-09-30
Option	Who pays / switches it on	Works in	Spoken language	Translates?	Other side sees it?	Audio goes to
Microsoft Teams live translated captions	Organizer with Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot; otherwise only licensed participants get "Translate to"	Teams meetings	Set by the organizer ("meeting spoken language")	Yes, including Chinese Simplified and Traditional	Each person picks their own caption language	Microsoft
Zoom translated captions	Host's Zoom Workplace Business Plus, Premier, Enterprise Essentials or Enterprise Plus plan, or the Translated Captions add-on	Zoom meetings and webinars	Each speaker sets their own "Speaking Language"	Yes, including Chinese Simplified and Traditional	Each person picks their own caption language	Zoom
Google Meet translated captions	Google Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard or Plus, or Google AI Pro for Education; still rolling out	Google Meet, on a computer	Set in the meeting	Yes, to and from 100+ languages including Chinese	Each person picks their own caption language	Google
macOS Live Captions	Free, built in; Apple silicon Macs only	Any app's audio, and the room	System setting	No — transcription only (translation is FaceTime-only)	No, only on your screen	Stays on the Mac
Voice Translator for Mac (ours)	You install it; free edition runs local models only, Pro from $49 adds cloud models	Any meeting app — Zoom, Teams, Meet, Tencent Meeting — via system audio, without joining the call	You pick it in the menu bar: English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese or Korean	Yes, into Chinese only	No, only on your screen	Local models stay on the Mac; Pro's cloud models go through our relay to the model vendor

Sources: Microsoft, Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings; Zoom, Introducing Zoom Translated Captions; Google, Use translated captions in Google Meet; Apple, Get captions of spoken and computer audio on Mac. Plans and prices change; each vendor's page wins over this table.

How do I use live translation in a Teams meeting?

Teams translates live captions when the meeting organizer has a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot license; in that case every participant can choose a caption language without a license of their own. If the organizer has neither, only participants who hold one of those licenses see the Translate to option. Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional are both on Microsoft's list of translation languages.

The step people miss is the meeting spoken language. Teams translates from the language it believes is being spoken, and Microsoft's own instructions tell you to make sure it is correct before turning translation on. If that setting does not match what people are actually speaking, the captions are wrong before translation even starts.

Suits: organizations already paying for Premium or Copilot, with one main spoken language per meeting. Does not suit: a guest in someone else's tenant whose organizer has no such license.

Does Zoom have real-time translated subtitles?

Yes. Zoom's translated captions are included in the Zoom Workplace Business Plus, Premier, Enterprise Essentials and Enterprise Plus plans, and Zoom sells them as an add-on for other paid accounts (USD 5 per user per month when Zoom announced it). Both Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional are supported.

Zoom asks each speaker to check their own Speaking Language in the captions menu. That is the weak point in a mixed-language call: the setting belongs to the person talking, not to you, the person reading. Zoom also has a separate voice translator for meetings, which speaks the translation aloud; see Zoom's support pages for which languages and accounts it covers.

Suits: hosts on those plans, and teams where everyone keeps their speaking language right. Does not suit: a participant in a free or Pro-plan meeting — the host's plan decides, not yours.

Google Meet translated captions: who gets them

Google lists translated captions for Workspace Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus and Google AI Pro for Education, with translation to and from more than 100 languages including Chinese. Google also says the feature is gradually rolling out and may not be available yet, and its instructions are for Meet on a computer.

Suits: Workspace organizations on those editions. Does not suit: personal Google accounts and meetings you only join as a guest.

How do I translate live captions on my Mac?

Not with the built-in feature alone. macOS Live Captions gives a real-time transcription of any app's audio and of people in the room, on Apple silicon Macs, processed on the device, but it does not translate. Apple's live translation of captions exists in FaceTime with Apple Intelligence, not in Zoom, Teams or Meet.

To get translated captions in any meeting app regardless of the host's plan, you need software that listens to your Mac's system audio. Voice Translator for Mac does that: it captures the meeting app's audio with Apple's ScreenCaptureKit, needs no virtual audio driver, does not join the call, and shows Chinese captions in an overlay on top of a full-screen Zoom, Teams or Tencent Meeting window. On one real 31-minute English meeting (2026-09-03, Doubao simultaneous-interpretation chain, which currently runs on your own API key), the end of a sentence to its final Chinese caption took 0.81 s at the median; the full latency data is on our measured latency page (Chinese), and on-device accuracy per language is on on-device translation, measured.

Suits: people who read Chinese and join meetings they do not host. Does not suit: anyone who needs captions in a language other than Chinese — it translates into Chinese only, and its interface is in Chinese. It needs macOS 26 on Apple silicon. The other participants see nothing, which also means they get no captions from it. How to record or capture system audio yourself is covered in record system audio on a Mac.

Which one to use

The host already pays for it: use the meeting app's own translated captions. Nothing to install, and everyone can read the same captions in their own language.
You only need a transcript in the language being spoken: macOS Live Captions, free and on-device.
You read Chinese and the host's plan is not yours to change: a system-audio app on your own Mac, such as Voice Translator.
Numbers matter (prices, dates, amounts): whichever you pick, check the figures against the source. In our own measurements a cloud model rewrote "30 %" as "70% of the price" in Chinese; the details are on the measurement page.

Questions people ask

Is there a live translator for Zoom?+

Yes: Zoom's own translated captions, available on Business Plus and Enterprise-tier plans or as a paid add-on, set up by the host. If the host does not have them, a participant can use an app on their own computer that listens to the meeting audio instead, such as Voice Translator for Mac, which shows Chinese captions only to you.

Can I get translated captions in Teams without Teams Premium?+

Only if you personally hold a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot license, in which case you see the Translate to option even when the organizer does not. Without either license, Teams shows captions in the spoken language only; translation has to come from outside Teams.

Does Mac have a built-in translator for meetings?+

Not for Zoom, Teams or Meet. macOS Live Captions transcribes any app's audio on Apple silicon Macs but does not translate it. Live translation of captions is built into FaceTime with Apple Intelligence.

Will other people in the meeting know I am using a translator?+

Not with an app that only listens to your Mac's audio. Voice Translator does not join the call as a bot or participant and draws its captions only on your own screen.