Meeting Recording API for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams

What is a meeting recording API?

A meeting recording API captures a live video call in code and hands the media back to your app. One request, and the recording arrives at a URL when the meeting ends.

There are two ways to get there.

MeetStream is the second kind, built on the same meeting bot API that handles joining and streaming.

How to record a meeting with one API call

POST a meeting link. A bot joins under a name you choose, records, and fires a webhook when the call ends.

curl -X POST https://api.meetstream.ai/api/v1/bots/create_bot \
  -H "Authorization: Token $MEETSTREAM_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "meeting_link": "https://zoom.us/j/74648392",
    "bot_name": "Acme Recorder",
    "video_required": true,
    "audio_separate_streams": true,
    "video_separate_streams": true,
    "callback_url": "https://your-app.example.com/meetstream"
  }'

When the meeting ends you get the composed MP4. You also get a separate audio and video URL for every participant, so each speaker arrives ready to use.

Webhooks carry state. The get bot video endpoint returns the MP4, and the matching audio, stream and transcription endpoints return the rest.

API PLAYGROUND

What you get from every recording

Webhooks cover the bot lifecycle, the end of the call and participant joins and leaves. The real-time transcripts page covers acting during the call, and the meeting transcription API covers the text.

Per-participant capture is where recording APIs differ. Nylas documents its Notetaker output as MP4 at 1280x720 and 12 frames per second, one view of the meeting.

Plan to build highlight clips per speaker, or to measure talk time, and that difference decides the project.

Recording rules on Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams

Each platform sets its own rules about who may record, on which plan, and how a bot gets into the room. Every claim links to the platform's own documentation.

Zoom

Cloud recording needs a paid plan and is limited to the host or a co-host. The disclaimer stays on for guests and external participants.

Since 2 March 2026, Meeting SDK bots present an OBF token, and the user who authorized your app has to be in the meeting.

Realtime Media Streams reached general availability in June 2025. It delivers per-participant media with no bot, through a Marketplace app.

Google Meet

Native recording is limited to specific Workspace editions and runs for up to eight hours. Admission matters more here than anywhere else.

Google documents that when a host unchecks "Anyone can ask to join", third-party bots such as note takers are automatically denied.

The Meet Media API is a developer preview, for enrolled participants, and gives three audio streams that rotate between the loudest speakers.

Microsoft Teams

Teams applies the tightest bot rules. Its external bot access policy defaults to approval on detection, which sends external bots to the lobby.

Teams also fingerprints bots on join. Microsoft states a Graph media bot is written in C# and deployed on Windows Server in Azure.

A recording bot sits above all three. Same behaviour on each platform, any account or plan, one integration instead of three.

Each platform has a recording page of its own: the Zoom recording API, the Google Meet recording API and the Teams recording API.

Where your recordings are stored

Connect your own S3 bucket and your lifecycle rules, object lock and retention schedule govern the record. Setup is on the S3 storage page.

The default region is the United States, with other regions on request. Nylas documents a maximum of 14 days and Recall includes 7, as the price table shows.

STORAGE INTEGRATIONS

Meeting recording API pricing

Recording costs $0.35 per bot-hour, or $0.45 all-in with transcription, falling toward $0.25 at volume. Thirty days of storage is included.

Every account starts with $5 of free credit. Full detail on the pricing page.

These are the providers' own published rates, linked so you can check them. The Recall.ai comparison covers a migration in more detail.

Consent and recording law, briefly

Recording is regulated, and the rules depend on where the participants sit.

Under US federal law, 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d) permits recording when at least one party consents. Some states require every participant.

Counts of those states run from eleven to thirteen. Nine are clear: California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Some statutes turn on secrecy rather than consent. Massachusetts reaches a recording made "secretly", Montana a hidden device used without the knowledge of all parties.

When people join from different states, the strict state's law can reach a recorder elsewhere. Kearney v. Salomon Smith Barney (2006) is the case on that.

In the EU a recording is personal data: a lawful basis under GDPR Article 6, notice under Article 13, limited retention under Article 5(1)(e).

The European Data Protection Board treats employee consent as unlikely to be freely given at work. German authorities expect a separate basis for the recording.

MeetStream bots join under a name you choose and sit in the participant list, which answers the statutes that turn on secrecy.

Washington asks for the announcement to be part of the recording, which is why a bot can post a message and speak into the room.

This is general information, not legal advice. Take your own counsel on your specific use case.

What are the recording limits?

Participant events tell your app the moment the bot is admitted, so you can show your user the real status.

MEETSTREAM DASHBOARD

Output specification

Every artefact is tied to a bot ID and announced by its own webhook. The webhooks page has the order and the delivery rules.

Platform detail lives on the Zoom, Google Meet and Teams pages. Bots that speak are on the voice agents page.

Frequently asked questions