Translating live captions on a Mac

Where translation actually happens

Five places it could be, cheapest first. Only the last one is yours to switch on.

• Apple's Live Captions: captions, no translation. The panel under System Settings has no target language. It writes down what it hears, in the language it is set to, and stops there. Whatever Apple adds inside FaceTime or Messages stays inside those apps.
• Zoom: a paid add-on, on the host's account. Translated captions exist, but the host has to have the add-on and has to turn them on. Nothing on your side enables them.
• Google Meet: a Workspace edition, the host's. Translation is the one Meet caption feature that is gated, and it depends on the edition of the account that created the meeting, not on yours.
• Microsoft Teams: Teams Premium. Live translated captions sit behind the Premium licence, on the organiser's side.
• The Mac itself, since macOS 15. Subtitles captions what the Mac is playing in the language being spoken and translates it on the machine, through Apple's own translator, between any two of sixteen languages. On any call, from any account, and on the video that is not a call at all.

Translation inside the meeting apps

All three of the big meeting apps can translate their captions, and all three sell it to the person hosting. That is the part people miss: the setting that matters lives on an account you are probably not logged into, and there is no button on your side that summons it.

In Zoom it is a paid add-on on the host's account, switched on by the host, and it translates from the caption language the host chose, so a wrong speaking language gives a wrong translation. In Meet it follows the Workspace edition of whoever created the meeting: a personal account joining a company call may see it, and the same person hosting from a free account will not. In Teams it is a Premium licence on the organiser's side. When it is there, use it; it is already paid for. The Zoom and Meet guides cover the greyed-out cases.

What none of them reach is anything that is not a meeting. The video someone links to halfway through, the podcast, the lecture recording, the call in an app with no captions at all. For those, translation has to come from the Mac.

What to expect from live translation

Honest expectations, so that the first call is not a surprise.

• The last few words will change. Machine translation wants the whole sentence and live speech never gives it one. The end of a line moves as the speaker finishes it. That is the trade for reading it now rather than later.
• A translation somebody wrote is better. A streaming service's subtitle track was written, checked and timed. Where one exists in your language, use it. This is for the audio that never had one.
• Names, jokes and jargon are where it slips. When a line looks wrong, hold Control and read the original for a second. It is usually a name.
• Both ends have to be among the sixteen. Translation runs on the captions, so a language it cannot caption is a language it cannot translate.
• Nothing leaves the Mac to do any of this. Captioning runs on the Apple Neural Engine and translation through Apple's on-device translator. There is no account, no upload, and no transcript kept afterwards.

Questions people ask next

Does Apple's Live Captions translate on a Mac?

No. It transcribes in one language at a time and has no target language to choose. For translation you need the meeting app's paid feature, on the host's account, or an app that translates on the Mac.

Can I get translated captions in Zoom for free?

Not from Zoom. Translated captions are a paid add-on on the host's account, and the host has to turn them on. Subtitles translates any Zoom call on your own Mac, whatever plan the host is on.

Does the audio leave the Mac to be translated?

No. Subtitles captions on the Apple Neural Engine and translates through Apple's on-device translator. Nothing is uploaded, and once a language pair is downloaded it keeps working with the Wi-Fi off.

Which macOS does translation need?

macOS 15, because that is where Apple's Translation framework arrives. Captioning alone runs on macOS 14.2 or later, where the two translation rows are simply not in the menu.

Can it translate a YouTube video or a podcast?

Yes. It translates whatever the Mac is playing, so a video with no subtitle track, a podcast or a lecture recording work the same way a call does. Where the video already has a subtitle track in your language, that track is better.