Microsoft Teams Live Translation: Setup, Cost & Limits (2026)

Does Microsoft Teams have live translation?

Yes, with two conditions. Every standard Teams plan includes live captions in the language being spoken. Translating those captions into a different language requires Teams Premium, an add-on at roughly $10 per user per month, or a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. If the meeting organiser holds either licence, every participant in that meeting can use translated captions. If only some participants hold one, only they see the option.

That second point decides most real situations. Your own team can be fully licensed, but when a client or supplier hosts the call on their tenant without Premium, translation is simply not available to anyone in that meeting.

Spoken translation is a separate, newer feature. The Interpreter agent translates speech to speech, in a simulated version of the speaker's voice or an automated one, but it supports nine languages, requires a Copilot licence, allows 20 hours per user per month, and works only in scheduled and channel meetings. It does not run in 1:1 calls, town halls, webinars or Teams Free.

How to turn on live translated captions in Teams

Captions first, then translation. Five steps, done by each participant for themselves.

• Select More (⋯) in the meeting toolbar
• Choose Language and speech, then Turn on live captions
• Next to the captions, open Caption settings, then Language settings
• Confirm Meeting spoken language matches what is being spoken
• Turn on Translate to and choose the language you want to read

Captions are per viewer. A Spanish speaker and a Japanese speaker on the same call each read in their own language without affecting anyone else.

If the Translate to toggle is missing, one of three things is true: nobody in the meeting carries the required licence, your IT admin has not enabled translated live captions in the Teams admin centre under Meeting policies, or an external organisation without the feature is hosting.

Which languages does Teams translation support?

Teams recognises more than 40 spoken languages for captioning, and Microsoft's support documentation lists around 31 languages that captions can be translated into. Major business languages are covered: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi and others.

Two things to know before relying on it. Arabic is handled as a single language, so the difference between an Egyptian speaker and a Gulf speaker is flattened into one model. And translated captions are not saved. When the meeting ends they are gone, and any transcript shows only the original spoken language.

Where Teams translation stops

Teams live translation does one thing well: internal meetings, inside a licensed organisation, in a major language, read as text. Four limits show up as soon as you leave that box.

Licensing follows the organiser. Cross-company calls are where translation is most needed and where the licence is least likely to be in place.

Text only, for most people. The Interpreter agent gives spoken output, but nine languages and a Copilot licence exclude most meetings. Everyone else reads captions while people talk over one another.

Teams only. Move the conversation to a phone call, a site visit or the walk to the car park and the translation stays behind in the meeting window.

Reading a meeting is not the same as being in it. People who read captions all meeting are always a sentence behind the room, and they contribute less because of it.

Teams captions vs a browser-based tool

Comparison as of September 2026. Teams capabilities per Microsoft's published documentation; verify current licensing with Microsoft.

When the built-in option is enough, and when it is not

If your meetings are internal, your organisation holds Premium, and everyone speaks one of the covered languages fairly formally, use the built-in captions. They are already paid for and they work.

The gaps open with guests. A supplier in Ho Chi Minh City, a candidate in Karachi, an engineer in Osaka on a client's team. None of them are on your tenant, and none of them should need a Microsoft licence or an install to follow a meeting.

That is the situation we built Mingle's multilingual meetings for. Guests join by link in a browser, with nothing to install, no licence on their side and no bot joining the call. Each participant reads live captions in their own language from a set of 60+ languages, can hear the translation spoken if they prefer, and the same session keeps working after the meeting on a phone, face to face. Arabic is handled by dialect rather than as one language, which matters for anyone working across the Gulf and Egypt.

For transparency: Mingle is our product, and for fully internal meetings on a licensed tenant, Teams' own captions may be all you need. The difference appears at the edges of your organisation, which is where the language gap usually lives.

Sources

Microsoft Support: Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings.

Microsoft Support: Multilingual speech recognition in Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Support: Interpreter in Microsoft Teams meetings and calls.