Does turning on captions in Zoom turn them on for everyone?

No. Once the host has enabled automated captions for the meeting, Show Captions is a switch each person flips for themselves. Yours changes your screen and nobody else's, and nobody is notified.

Can the host tell that I have captions on?

No. The host is told when someone requests captions, because that request is addressed to them. Showing or hiding captions that are already available leaves no trace that anyone on the call can see.

Can I turn on Zoom captions as a participant if the host has not?

No. You can request them, which notifies the host, or caption the audio on your own Mac with Apple's Live Captions or with Subtitles, which asks nothing of anyone.

Are Zoom captions free?

Yes. Automated captions are included on every Zoom plan, free accounts included. Translated captions are the exception: a paid add-on, and again the host's to have and to turn on.

Will Apple's Live Captions or Subtitles show up in the meeting?

No. Both read what your Mac is already playing, outside Zoom. Nothing joins the call, nothing appears in the participant list, and neither needs your microphone for this.

Subtitles · Guides · Captions only for you

Zoom captions that only you can see

Show Captions in Zoom is a private switch. It puts captions on your screen and nobody else's, and nobody is told you pressed it. The catch is that the switch only does anything once the host has turned automated captions on for the meeting. Here is what each person sees, and how to caption the call from your own Mac when the host has not.

Who sees what Captions the host is not part of

The short answer

Four facts cover nearly every version of this question. The first three are about Zoom's own captions, and the fourth is the way round all of them.

Show Captions is yours alone. Turning it on or off changes your screen and nobody else's. No notice goes to the host, and nothing appears next to your name.
Automated captions are the host's. They have to be switched on for the meeting before your button does anything, and an account admin can block them above the host.
Request Captions does tell the host. When the button offers to request them instead of show them, clicking it sends the host a notification with your name on it. That is the one caption action in Zoom that is not private.
Captions from your own Mac involve nobody. Apple's Live Captions and Subtitles both read the audio your Mac is playing. Nothing joins the meeting, and nothing on the host's side has to change.

Who sees what

Zoom tells everyone when captions become available, the way it tells everyone a recording has started. Whether any one person then reads them is shown nowhere. Action by action:

You show or hide captions. You, and only you.
You change the caption size. You. It is a setting in your own Zoom app, under Accessibility.
You open the transcript panel. You, when the host has allowed it. Nobody is told you opened it.
You click Request Captions. The host, by name.
The host turns automated captions on. Everyone, once. From then on each person decides for themselves.
You caption the call with Apple's Live Captions or with Subtitles. Nobody. Neither is in Zoom at all.

Turning them on for yourself

Three things, and the first is usually the whole job.

Find Show Captions in the toolbar

It is the CC button in the meeting toolbar, and on a narrow window it moves under More. Click it and captions appear along the bottom of your Zoom window; click it again and they go. That is the entire procedure, and nobody else on the call is involved in it.

Make them readable

Caption size lives in your own Zoom settings, under Accessibility, and the slider there changes nothing for anyone else. What you cannot change is where they live: inside the Zoom window. Switch to your notes and the captions are behind them. That is the one thing a system-wide overlay fixes, and it is covered below.

If the button says Request Captions instead

Then the host has not turned automated captions on. Clicking sends them a request with your name on it; a line in the chat does the same thing more gracefully. There is nothing for the host to buy, since automated captions are included on every Zoom plan, and they turn them on from the same button you are looking at. If their button is missing as well, the account admin has captions switched off in the web settings, and that sits above both of you. The Zoom captions guide takes each of those cases in turn.

Captions the host is not part of

Both of these read the audio your Mac is playing, which a Zoom call is. Neither joins the meeting, neither is announced by Zoom, and neither cares what the host has or has not enabled.

Apple's Live Captions, free

On an Apple silicon Mac, under System Settings, Accessibility, Live Captions. Switch it on and a floating panel writes down whatever the Mac is playing, Zoom included. Apple's own documentation says it is not available in every language, country or region, and the panel is a window among your windows, so it can end up behind Zoom or behind your notes. If it offers your language and you do not mind the panel, it costs nothing, and you should try it first. When it is greyed out or missing, the Live Captions guide says why.

Subtitles, an overlay above every window

Subtitles reads the same audio and draws the captions above every window, letting clicks through, so you can be typing in your notes and still read the call. It works out which of sixteen languages is being spoken instead of waiting to be told, and on macOS 15 it can translate live between any two of them, on the Mac. Nothing joins the meeting, nothing appears in the participant list, and your microphone is never opened. Free for 7 days, then $9 once. The Zoom page has the detail.

What captions only for you cannot do

Three things, so that nobody finds them out mid-meeting.

They cannot caption you for the others. Captions from your Mac are on your screen only. If the person who needs captions is somebody else on the call, that is the host's automated captions, or a captioner the host assigns.
They are not in the recording. A cloud recording carries a transcript only if the host's account saves one, and captions from Apple or from Subtitles are never in it. Subtitles keeps nothing, on purpose. If a record is what you need, the notetaker page covers running one alongside.
Zoom's own captions will not follow you to another window. They are drawn inside Zoom's window and stay there. Reading the call from your notes is what the overlay is for.

Questions people ask next

Does turning on captions in Zoom turn them on for everyone?: No. Once the host has enabled automated captions for the meeting, Show Captions is a switch each person flips for themselves. Yours changes your screen and nobody else's, and nobody is notified.
Can the host tell that I have captions on?: No. The host is told when someone requests captions, because that request is addressed to them. Showing or hiding captions that are already available leaves no trace that anyone on the call can see.
Can I turn on Zoom captions as a participant if the host has not?: No. You can request them, which notifies the host, or caption the audio on your own Mac with Apple's Live Captions or with Subtitles, which asks nothing of anyone.
Are Zoom captions free?: Yes. Automated captions are included on every Zoom plan, free accounts included. Translated captions are the exception: a paid add-on, and again the host's to have and to turn on.
Will Apple's Live Captions or Subtitles show up in the meeting?: No. Both read what your Mac is already playing, outside Zoom. Nothing joins the call, nothing appears in the participant list, and neither needs your microphone for this.

The same overlay, elsewhere

Zoom captions not working

No button, greyed out, the wrong language, or gone when you switch apps. One cause each.

Subtitles on a Zoom call

What it captions, what it never joins, and the switch to your notes.

vs Apple Live Captions

macOS has this built in and free. Where it stops being enough.

Translating live captions

Where translation actually happens on a Mac, and who pays for it.

Deaf and hard of hearing

Captions on every app, without asking anyone to switch them on.

Real-time subtitles on a Mac

Every route to captioning system audio, free ones first.

Captions on your screen, and on nobody else's.

Try it free Buy for $9

Free for 7 days, then $9 once, every future update included · macOS 14.2 or later · Apple silicon
Unlimited live captions, for as long as you own the Mac. No minutes to buy, no account, no subscription.