How to Record a Zoom Meeting on a Mac (With Audio)

There are three real ways to do this on macOS. Two of them quietly drop the other person’s audio. Here’s what actually works — and how to capture both sides without a bot or begging the host for record permission.

The short answer

To record a Zoom call with everyone’s audio on a Mac, you need something that captures your microphone and your Mac’s system audio at the same time. Zoom’s own recorder does this but needs host permission and saves to Zoom’s cloud on paid plans. macOS’s built-in ⌘⇧5 screen recorder does not capture system audio out of the box — a trap most people only notice after the meeting. A local recorder that grabs both tracks is the reliable path.

Consent first. Recording laws vary by country and state, and many are “all-party consent.” Tell participants you’re recording and get their OK. No bot appears in the call with a local recorder, which makes disclosure your job — not the tool’s.

Option 1 — Zoom’s built-in recording

If you’re the host (or the host grants it), click Record in the Zoom toolbar. “Record to this computer” saves a local MP4; “Record to the cloud” needs a paid plan.

Good: captures all participants’ audio cleanly, no setup.
Annoying: you must be host or ask for permission, everyone sees the recording indicator, and cloud recordings live on Zoom’s servers.
Doesn’t help when you’re a guest in someone else’s meeting.

Option 2 — macOS screen recording (⌘⇧5)

Press ⌘⇧5, choose to record the screen, and hit record. This is where people get burned: the built-in tool records your microphone but not the audio coming from Zoom. You end up with a video where you can hear yourself and no one else.

Getting system audio into ⌘⇧5 traditionally meant installing a virtual audio driver and routing outputs by hand — fiddly, and easy to misconfigure right before a call. We walk through the clean version of this in recording system audio on macOS.

Option 3 — a local meeting recorder (both sides, no bot)

This is the approach that just works as a guest: a menu-bar app records your mic and the meeting’s system audio together, saves to a folder on your Mac, and — because nothing joins the call — there’s no bot in the participant list.

With MeetingRecorder the flow is:

Start the recording from the menu bar, or accept the toast that appears when the Zoom call begins.
It captures mic + system audio (as one mix, or separate tracks).
When the call ends, one click gives you a transcript and a short summary with action items.

Everything stays local unless you choose to transcribe, and there’s no account to set up.

Rule of thumb: if you need the _other person’s_ voice and you’re not the host, use a local recorder that captures system audio. That’s the one method that doesn’t depend on Zoom’s permissions.

Which should you use?

You host regularly and don’t mind the cloud: Zoom’s built-in recorder is fine.
You just need your own voice + screen: ⌘⇧5 is enough.
You’re a guest, or you want both sides kept locally with a transcript: a local meeting recorder.

How to record a Zoom meeting on a Mac (with audio)

The short answer

Option 1 — Zoom’s built-in recording

Option 2 — macOS screen recording (⌘⇧5)

Option 3 — a local meeting recorder (both sides, no bot)

Which should you use?

Record your next call in one click.