The $10 quirk that translates your entire Teams meeting

Newey TeamJuly 11, 2026

Microsoft Teams can translate live captions into 31 languages, but the feature sits behind a Teams Premium ($10 per user/month) or Microsoft 365 Copilot license. The licensing has one quirk every organizer should know: if the meeting organizer holds the license, every attendee gets translated captions for free. Here's how it all works as of July 2026 — including Teams' voice-translating Interpreter agent and its often-overlooked built-in support for human interpreters.

Everything Teams offers for multilingual meetings

Teams actually has the broadest multilingual toolbox of the big three meeting platforms — four distinct features that are easy to confuse:

Feature	What it does	License needed	Languages
Live captions	Subtitles in the spoken language	Included in Teams	57 locales (~44 languages)
Live translated captions	Subtitles translated into a language you pick	Teams Premium or M365 Copilot (organizer's license covers everyone)	31 listed
Interpreter agent	AI speech-to-speech translation, optionally simulating your voice	M365 Copilot (per user, 20 h/month included)	10
Language interpretation	Audio channels for human interpreters you bring	No add-on documented	Up to 16 language pairs

Sources: Microsoft's live captions support page, captions/transcription admin docs, Interpreter agent docs, and language interpretation support page.

The licensing rule that actually matters

Microsoft's support page spells it out:

"If the meeting organizer has a Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot license, all meeting participants can use translated captions and transcription without a specific license required."

In practice that means a single $10/month Teams Premium seat on whoever schedules your international meetings unlocks translated captions for the whole call — including external guests. If instead only some participants hold licenses, only those individuals see the Translate to option.

Details on the license itself:

Teams Premium costs $10.00 per user/month, paid yearly, with a one-month free trial, on top of an existing paid Microsoft 365/Teams subscription.
In the April 1, 2026 licensing change, Microsoft moved several advanced event features (town hall/webinar production, eCDN, attendance reports) out of Premium into Teams Enterprise — but meeting-level translated captions and transcripts stayed in Teams Premium (details).

How to turn on translated captions in Teams

In the meeting, turn on live captions (More actions → Language and speech → Show live captions).
Click the settings gear next to the captions → Caption settings.
Open Language settings and confirm the spoken language is right (this matters — captions are transcribed first, then translated).
Toggle Translate to and pick your language.

Each attendee picks their own translation language — but each person sees one language at a time.

Which languages does Teams translate?

The support page lists 31 translation languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French (incl. Canadian), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. (Microsoft's licensing docs still say "40 languages" — the user-facing list is what you can actually pick from today.)

For the spoken side, Teams recognizes 57 locales, so a meeting held in, say, Indonesian or Welsh can still be captioned — just check your target language is on the translation list.

One town-hall-specific limit: organizers preselect up to 6 caption translation languages for attendees (10 with Teams Premium), rather than attendees choosing freely.

The Interpreter agent: AI voice-to-voice translation

Teams' newest option doesn't write captions at all — the Interpreter agent speaks a live translation of what's said, optionally in a simulation of the speaker's own voice (Microsoft states voice samples and biometric data are never stored).

The catch is scope:

10 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese (Mandarin), Italian, German, French, Korean, and Taiwanese.
Requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license per user, with 20 hours of interpretation per user per month included.
Works in scheduled and channel meetings up to 1,000 participants — but not in ad-hoc meetings, town halls, webinars, or Teams Free.

Bringing human interpreters into Teams

Often missed: Teams has native language interpretation channels for professional human interpreters — up to 16 language pairs per meeting, with the organizer assigning interpreters before or during the call. Attendees pick an audio channel and hear the interpreter at full volume with the original speaker lowered underneath. No add-on license is documented for this feature, but note: "Microsoft does not provide interpreters" — you hire your own. (For what that costs, see our multilingual meeting guide.)

When Teams' built-ins aren't enough

Where organizers still hit walls:

No Premium or Copilot license in the room. Without one, translated captions simply don't appear — and one-off external meetings are exactly where you can't control who has what license.
Your language is on the spoken list but not the 31-language translation list (or you need a language Teams doesn't cover at all).
The audience isn't in the Teams call — an in-person or hybrid crowd, or a stream on another platform.
Jargon and product names come out wrong, and Teams has no custom glossary for captions.

A browser-based caption overlay covers those gaps without touching anyone's licensing. Newey captures the meeting tab's audio in Chrome/Edge and floats live translated captions over any app — Teams, Zoom, Meet, or a video — in 60 languages, up to 3 at once. In-room audiences can scan a QR code and read captions in their own language on their phones, and a custom glossary keeps your product names and technical terms intact. No admin rollout, no per-seat license — it's free during beta.

FAQ

Does everyone need Teams Premium to see translated captions?

No. If the meeting organizer has Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot, all participants can use translated captions and transcription. Individual licenses only matter when the organizer has none.

How many languages can Teams translate captions into?

31 languages are listed on Microsoft's support page as of July 2026 (licensing docs cite 40). Spoken-language recognition covers 57 locales.

Are regular live captions free in Teams?

Yes — same-language live captions are included in Teams meetings without any add-on, across 57 locales. Captions aren't saved after the meeting.

What's the difference between translated captions and the Interpreter agent?

Translated captions are text (read on screen, 31 languages, Premium/Copilot). The Interpreter agent is voice — it speaks the translation aloud, optionally simulating the speaker's voice, in 10 languages, and needs a Copilot license per user with a 20-hour monthly allowance.

Can Teams host human simultaneous interpreters?

Yes — the built-in language interpretation feature supports up to 16 language pairs with interpreter audio channels, and no add-on license is documented. You supply the interpreters yourself.

Did the April 2026 Teams licensing change remove translated captions from Premium?

No. The change moved advanced event features (town halls, webinars) to Teams Enterprise; meeting-level translated captions and transcripts remain part of Teams Premium.