In short
A transcript is the record of what was said, word by word, mistakes included. A summary is a short reading of it, by a person or an AI. Share the summary, quote the transcript, and keep the transcript while anyone might need to check what was said.
A meeting transcript is the record of what was said, word by word, including the recogniser's mistakes. A summary is a reading of that record, written by a person or an AI, a few hundred words at most. They answer different questions: the transcript tells you what was said; the summary tells you what it came to. Share the summary, quote the transcript, and keep the transcript for as long as anyone might need to check.
This guide sets out when each one is the right thing to keep, share or rely on. For minutes, the formal record of a meeting, see meeting minutes vs notes.
Transcript and summary compared
| Transcript | Summary | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Every word the recogniser heard, with who and when | A few paragraphs, decisions and action items |
| Made by | A speech recogniser, from the audio | A person or a language model, from the transcript |
| Kinds of error | Misheard words, wrong speaker, missing quiet speech | Everything in the transcript, plus omissions and statements nobody made |
| Good for | Quotes, disputes, research, checking | Catching up, follow-ups, action tracking |
| Personal data | A lot: everything anyone said | Less, if written with care |
| Reading time | As long as the meeting, roughly | A minute or two |
The important row is errors. A summary inherits every mistake in the transcript and can add its own. How AI meeting notes are made explains why: the model reads text, cannot hear the audio, and writes what is likely, which is usually but not always what was said.
When you need the transcript
- Quotes. When you put someone's words in a document, a report or an email, take them from the transcript and check them against the recording.
- Disagreements about what was said. "I never agreed to Friday." The summary cannot settle it; the transcript and the recording can.
- Research and interviews. User research, hiring and journalism rely on exact wording, hesitations and what was not said.
- Checking the summary. Every summary you act on should be checkable against something, and that something is the transcript.
- Finding things later. Search works on words. A summary drops most of them.
When a summary is enough
- Catching up. Someone who missed the meeting needs the outcome, not an hour of text.
- Routine meetings. A standup or status meeting rarely needs more than decisions and blockers.
- Action tracking. Owners, tasks and dates, in a list someone will look at next week.
- Sharing widely. A summary can be written to leave out asides and things said in confidence; a transcript cannot.
What to share
A reasonable default:
- Send the summary to attendees, with decisions and action items at the top.
- Label it if AI wrote it, and say whether someone checked it. How to label AI-written notes you share has wording.
- Offer the transcript on request, rather than attaching it. It contains everything everyone said, including things they would not want forwarded.
- Never forward audio by default. A recording is the most personal form of the meeting and the hardest to redact.
If people outside the meeting will read either one, the people who spoke should have known it was recorded, and it is worth reading the transcript before you share it.
Which to send, by kind of meeting
| Meeting | Send | Keep |
|---|---|---|
| Standup or status | Nothing, or three lines | Summary |
| Planning | Summary with decisions and owners | Transcript while the plan is live |
| Client call | A checked recap or follow-up email | Transcript until the work is signed off |
| Interview | Your own notes to the hiring panel | Transcript per your hiring policy |
| One-to-one | Agreed actions only | Your own notes |
| Board or committee | Approved minutes | Whatever your governing documents require |
Transcripts, summaries and minutes
Minutes sit between the two. Like a summary, they are shorter than a transcript and written for a reader. Unlike an AI summary, formal minutes are approved by the meeting, usually at the next one, which makes them the official record. An AI summary or a transcript can be a good source for drafting minutes; neither becomes minutes until someone with the authority to approve them does.
What to keep, and for how long
Each record has a different value over time:
- Audio is the most sensitive and, once the transcript is checked, the least often needed. Many teams delete it first.
- The transcript is what you check against and search. Keep it while decisions from the meeting are still live, or as long as your policy says.
- The summary is small and useful for longest: it is what you read to remember what was decided last quarter.
Retention is a policy decision, and in many places a data-protection one. How long to keep meeting recordings, transcripts and notes covers a schedule in detail.
Quoting and checking
Two habits make the pair work:
- Quote the transcript, not the summary. A summary paraphrases. An AI summary can put a commitment in someone's mouth. If you are about to write "as Tom said", find what Tom said.
- Check the summary against the transcript before acting on it. Especially commitments, numbers, names and dates. Can you trust an AI meeting summary? lists the patterns to look for.
How Notey keeps both
Notey keeps the recording, the transcript and any notes together on your Mac.
- The transcript is made on your Mac as you speak. After an English meeting, Notey reads the recording again on your Mac and keeps the words the recognisers agree on. Every line plays from its timestamp, so checking a quote against the audio is one click.
- Notes are written from the transcript when you ask: a summary with action items, minutes, tough questions, where you differed, a follow-up email. Each is labelled AI-generated, and your edits are marked. Only the transcript text and the names you gave people are sent to write them, never audio.
- Notes written automatically use the better transcript when one is coming. Notes you have not edited may be rewritten after the transcript improves; notes you edited are never touched.
- Export: the summary, any note or everything as Markdown; the transcript on its own as plain text.
- Deleting a meeting removes its recording, transcript and notes together. Keeping the transcript while deleting only the recording is not possible today, so export the transcript first if you want to keep it.
Frequently asked questions
Is a transcript better than a summary?
They do different jobs. A transcript is better as evidence of what was said. A summary is better for someone who needs the outcome in a minute. Most meetings benefit from both, with the summary pointing back to the transcript.
Should I send the full transcript to attendees?
Usually not by default. Send the summary with decisions and action items, and share the transcript when someone asks or needs the detail. A transcript contains everything anyone said, including asides.
Can I quote an AI summary?
Quote the transcript instead. A summary paraphrases, and an AI summary can state things nobody said. Find the words in the transcript and quote those.
How long should I keep meeting transcripts?
As long as you have a reason to, and no longer. The retention guide suggests a schedule per kind of record; many teams keep summaries longer than transcripts and audio shorter than both.
Can a transcript be used as meeting minutes?
It can be a source for them. Formal minutes are a summary approved by the meeting, not a full transcript, and a transcript is usually too long and too personal to circulate as the record.