How to Find Your Google Meet Recordings, Transcripts and Notes

You've just stepped out of a 45-minute meeting, your manager asked everyone to "check the recording afterwards", and now you're staring at Google Drive wondering where on earth that file went. Sound familiar?

Good news: it's not lost — it just lives in a specific spot. Here's the practical rundown on how Google Meet actually saves your files, and how to find them every time.

Where the files actually live

If you were the person who scheduled and recorded the meeting (often called the host or organiser), your files land in your own Google Drive. Specifically, they go into a folder named Meet Recordings inside the folder of the person who organised the meeting.

So if you scheduled a meeting from your work or school Google account, you'll find your recording at:

My Drive → [your meeting owner's folder] → Meet Recordings → [Meeting title]

A quick note on accounts: recording and AI features generally need a Google Workspace plan (the paid version of Google's tools used by most businesses and schools). Some features work on personal Google accounts, but availability varies. We'll cover how to check your access in a moment.

If you were an attendee rather than the host, you won't see the files appear in your Drive automatically. Instead, the host's Drive sends a link — typically by email, and sometimes posted in the meeting chat. Click that link and you'll be taken straight to the recording.

Tip: if the host shared the recording through Google Calendar, you can also find it by opening the calendar event and looking for the recording link attached to it.

What's inside that folder

Once you open the meeting's folder, you'll typically find three things when the relevant features were turned on:

• A video recording (an MP4 file you can play or download)
• A transcript — think of it as a written copy of everything said in the meeting. The transcript is generated automatically from the recording.
• Meeting notes — an AI-written summary of key points, produced by Gemini (Google's AI assistant, the same technology behind Gemini chat). These notes are written after the meeting ends.

You don't need to download anything. You can play the recording and read the transcript straight from Drive in your browser.

How to turn on recording, transcripts, and notes during a meeting

The folder only fills up if you actually switched these on during the call. Here's how each one works:

1. Recording: click the three dots (⋮) in the meeting controls toolbar (usually at the bottom-right of the screen on desktop, or in the overflow menu on mobile) and choose Record meeting. You'll see a small red icon appear when it's recording.
2. Transcripts: once your recording is running, look for ⋮ → Transcript → Start transcript. Click it once and Google Meet will produce a written copy of the conversation as the meeting happens. The finished transcript file appears in the same Drive folder once the meeting ends — you don't need to save anything manually.
3. "Take notes for me" (the Gemini-powered notes feature): click ⋮ → Take notes for me. Gemini will join the meeting as a note taker — everyone in the call gets a small notification that AI notes are active — and the summary appears in Drive after the meeting finishes.

A quick note on access: recording and the "Take notes for me" feature generally need a Google Workspace plan (the paid version of Google's tools used by most businesses and schools). If you're unsure whether your account has access, open Google Meet, start or join a meeting, and look at the three dots menu — if "Record meeting" appears, you're good to go. If it doesn't, your account likely doesn't have recording enabled.

Wrap-up

Google Meet saves recordings, transcripts, and Gemini-written notes to the meeting organiser's Drive — not to a shared "Google Meet" folder. Attendees get an email link instead. The easiest first step: record your next Meet, then head to Drive afterwards and look in the organiser's folder under Meet Recordings. From there, your transcript and AI notes will be waiting.