Google Meet Real-Time Translation: Speech Translation vs Captions

Short answer: yes — Google Meet now translates in two ways. Speech Translation gives participants a translated voice, in a voice like the speaker’s, between English and French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish, on eligible plans, with one language pair per meeting and a 90-minute limit. Translated captions show translated text on screen in many more languages, on specific Workspace editions. If your call falls outside those limits — another language, a host without an eligible plan, a longer meeting — you need a separate tool.

This guide was updated in September 2026, after Speech Translation became generally available for Workspace customers. Every detail below comes from Google’s Meet Help Center and the Workspace announcement.

Google Meet’s two translation features at a glance

How to turn on Speech Translation (translated voice)

Google splits it into steps for the person who enables it and for everyone else:

1. An eligible user enables it. In the meeting, click Meeting tools → Speech translation, select the language combination for the meeting, and click Enable translation for everyone. A Speech translation badge appears for all participants.
2. Each participant allows it. Click the badge, then choose Language you speak and Language you prefer to hear — Google recommends setting both to your own language. The first time, you must allow your voice to be translated for others to hear it (“Translate me”); you can revoke that later.
3. To change the pair, stop translation for everyone and restart it with a different combination. Only one pair can run in a meeting, and changing it changes it for everyone.

Speech Translation’s limits, from Google’s own help page

• Six languages, always with English. Translation is between English and French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish — a Portuguese–Spanish call, for example, is not covered.
• One pair per meeting. A three-language meeting cannot run on Speech Translation.
• 90 minutes per meeting. Long workshops or all-day sessions hit the cap.
• A few seconds of delay. Google says translations are delayed “for completeness” and recommends waiting for the translation symbol to disappear before replying.
• Not everyone can be translated. Participants on meeting-room hardware can listen but not be translated. Google’s troubleshooting list adds phones as an unsupported device for being translated, users under 18, some regions, and participants who have not allowed translation.
• The host’s account decides. It may not work if the host is not on an eligible account or the host’s admin turned it off.
• Not in live streams or recordings, and Workspace per-user usage limits apply after an initial promotional period.
• Privacy: Google states that no audio is saved and no models are trained on your voice.

How to turn on translated captions (text)

If you only need to read along, captions are the lighter option and cover far more languages:

1. In your meeting, click More options → Settings → Captions.
2. Select the Language of the meeting.
3. Turn on Translated captions.
4. Select the language you want to read.

Translated captions are available on Workspace Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise Standard and Plus, and Google AI Pro for Education. You can scroll back through earlier translated captions for the parts of the meeting you attended with captions on.

When Meet’s translation isn’t enough

Speech Translation closes most of the gap for teams that meet inside Google Workspace in one of its six language pairs. It still leaves common business cases uncovered:

• Your language is not on the list — Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian, Vietnamese — or neither side speaks English.
• The meeting is hosted by someone without an eligible plan, such as a client on a basic account.
• The call runs past 90 minutes, or needs to switch language pairs.
• Someone joins from a phone and needs their own speech translated.

For those cases, Talkniva offers two options:

• The beta meeting interpreter. Paste the Meet link in Talkniva, choose the two languages, and a named Talkniva interpreter joins as a participant, carrying translated voice both ways. The host speaks and listens through the Talkniva browser tab; the other participants stay in Meet and install nothing. The organizer may need to admit the interpreter from the waiting room. This external-meeting mode is voice-only: it adds no Talkniva captions or video to Meet. It is in beta, so test it before a critical meeting.
• A Talkniva room instead of Meet. Guests join by link in the browser, with no account and no download; each active guest gets translated voice, camera and live captions. See the 13 languages.

Talkniva does not record or store calls, audio, video or transcripts. The host must have permission to bring an interpreter into the meeting and must tell participants that it processes meeting audio.

What it costs

Speech Translation is included in the eligible Google plans listed above, within their usage limits. Talkniva is prepaid, with no subscription and no free plan: US$7.60 for 20 guest-minutes, US$19 for a guest-hour, down to US$13.30 per guest-hour on the 10-hour pack. See pricing.

Related guides

• Zoom and Teams have their own native features: see Zoom real-time translation and Microsoft Teams real-time translation.
• Comparing all three platforms at once: how to translate an online meeting in real time.

Need translated voice outside Meet’s limits? Start now.

Frequently asked questions

Can Google Meet translate voice in real time?

Yes, on eligible plans. Google Meet’s Speech Translation translates what you say in near real time, in a voice like yours, between English and French, German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish. It needs an eligible account (such as Google AI Pro or Ultra, or Workspace Business Standard or Plus), allows one language pair per meeting and has a 90-minute limit per meeting.

How do I turn on translation in Google Meet?

For translated voice, an eligible user clicks Meeting tools, then Speech translation, picks the language pair and clicks Enable translation for everyone; each participant then allows their voice to be translated. For translated captions, click More options, Settings, Captions, choose the meeting language, turn on Translated captions and pick the language to read.

What is the difference between Speech Translation and translated captions in Meet?

Speech Translation produces translated audio that other participants hear, dubbed over the original speech. Translated captions only display translated text on your screen. Captions cover many more languages and editions list them separately; Speech Translation covers English with six languages and has a 90-minute limit.

Why is Google Meet Speech Translation not working?

Google lists these reasons: the participant did not allow their voice to be translated, is in a region where it is unavailable, is on an unsupported device such as a phone, turned on audio merge, or is under 18; or the host is not on an eligible account, or the host’s admin disabled it.

What can I use when Meet’s translation does not cover my call?

If your language is outside English plus the six Speech Translation languages, the host’s plan is not eligible, or the call runs past 90 minutes, you can bring Talkniva’s beta interpreter into the Meet as a participant for two-way translated voice in 13 languages, or hold the call in a Talkniva browser room that guests join by link.