Question about Teams transcription processing location

Maximilian 20 Reputation points
2026-05-21T12:55:59.7633333+00:00

Hi Microsoft Support,

we use Microsoft Teams in our Microsoft 365 tenant located in Germany/the EU.

I have a question about Teams meeting transcription and live translation:

Where does the actual speech-to-text processing happen when Teams creates a live transcription or translated captions?

I do not mean where the final transcript is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. I mean the processing step where the audio is converted into text and, if enabled, translated.

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for business | Meetings and calls | Audio and video
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Anonymous
2026-05-21T13:28:10.9466667+00:00

Hi @Maximilian, 

Thanks for your question, this is a great topic and I’m really glad you brought it up. I’m happy to share what I know.  

From a technology standpoint, Teams relies on Microsoft’s Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) services to perform the audio-to-text conversion, and then applies translation services if live translation is enabled. 

For live captions and translated captions in Microsoft Teams, the core processing step where audio is converted into text, and optionally translated, is handled within the geographical region where your Microsoft 365 tenant is based. 

In your case, since your tenant is located in Germany/EU, the speech-to-text processing and caption translation are performed within the corresponding EU regional data boundaries.  

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If you’d like to explore this topic a bit further, you can also take a look at the official documentation here: Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings - Microsoft Support 

I hope this provides a bit of useful information for your reference. If you have any further questions or would like to discuss this in more detail, please feel free to leave a comment under this post. That’s the best way for me to stay notified and follow up with you promptly. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my answer. 

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  1. AI answer

    2026-05-21T12:56:09.74+00:00

    For Teams live captions, transcription, and live translation, the speech-to-text and translation processing is performed in the same geographical region where the organization’s Microsoft 365 tenant is based.

    In other words, for a tenant located in Germany/the EU, the audio from Teams meetings that is used to generate live captions and live transcription is processed within the corresponding Microsoft 365 geo for that tenant. Teams uses Microsoft Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Microsoft Speech Translation (Azure Cognitive Services) in that geo to convert audio to text and, if enabled, translate it.

    This processing is separate from where the resulting transcript file is stored (OneDrive for Business or SharePoint) and from other Teams data locations, but it follows the same principle of processing within the tenant’s home region.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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