How to Get Live Translated Captions in Webex (Without the Real-Time Translation Add-On)
Webex real-time translation is a paid add-on: guests can pick a translation language only if the host holds a Real-time Translation license, and a meeting is capped at 5 caption languages. If the host has not bought it, use Avoce: join the Webex meeting from your browser in Chrome, click the extension, and get your own bilingual captions with no five-language cap.
Webex built-in real-time translation: licensing and limits
According to Webex’s help article, real-time translation is a paid add-on for Webex Meetings and Webex Webinars (not available in webcast view). Once the host is licensed it is enabled for all of their meetings and webinars, and guests need no license of their own. The host picks the spoken language from 16 options, which can be translated into 120+ caption languages; each participant chooses their own caption language, but a meeting can use at most 5 at the same time. Without the translation license, those 16 languages can be transcribed but not translated.
- Eligibility follows the host’s license; guests use it for free.
- 16 spoken languages → 120+ caption languages.
- At most 5 caption languages in use at once per meeting.
- Webinars in webcast view do not support real-time translation.
Turn on Avoce captions
- Install the Avoce extension from the Chrome Web Store and sign in once at avoce.ai.
- Open the Webex meeting link and choose “Join from your browser” on the page that offers to open the app.
- Once in the meeting, click the Avoce icon in the toolbar, pick the source language (or auto-detect) and the target language, and start translating the tab.
- Bilingual captions float over Webex on the web; drag them or resize the text.
- After the meeting, export the transcript (txt, Markdown, SRT).
Built-in captions or Avoce?
| Webex built-in real-time translation | Avoce extension | |
|---|---|---|
| License required | Host needs the Real-time Translation add-on | No license check; any Webex meeting works |
| Who turns it on | Once the host is licensed, everyone can pick a language | You install and start it |
| Language cap | At most 5 caption languages per meeting | Everyone picks their own; no per-meeting cap |
| Which client | Desktop app or web | Web only (the extension captures tab audio) |
| Beyond meetings | Webex only | Meet, Zoom web, Teams, YouTube |
| Cost | Add-on priced separately | Per-minute points, 1 point = 1 minute, 20 free minutes for new accounts |
Platform-specific notes
The Avoce extension captures the browser tab’s audio: what others say becomes captions, while your own microphone is not part of the tab audio. Captions appear only on your screen and are never sent into the meeting or video, and nothing has to join the call.
- Use Webex on the web: desktop-app audio is not in a browser tab.
- Large webinars in webcast view are not supported by Webex’s own translation, but Avoce works as long as the page has audio.
- To caption your own speech as well, open avoce.ai/live with the microphone.
- Enterprise Webex often comes with device-management policies; check that Chrome can install extensions first.
A one-hour meeting ≈ 60 points, about US$3.7 on the $10.99 / 180-point pack. Transcript-only mode costs a quarter of that (1 point = 4 minutes).
Frequently asked questions
The host has no translation license. Can I turn on translation myself?
Not with Webex’s own feature, since the license is tied to the host. Avoce runs in your own browser and ignores the host’s licensing.
Why does it have to be Webex on the web?
The extension captures browser-tab audio. The desktop app is a separate program whose audio never passes through a tab, so there is nothing to capture.
Our meeting has attendees in 7 languages but Webex allows 5. What then?
Webex caps a meeting at 5 caption languages. With Avoce each person picks their own language in their own browser, so nobody uses up anyone else’s slot.
Does it work in Webex webinars using webcast view?
As long as the page has audio, Avoce can capture it. Webex’s own real-time translation is unavailable in webcast view; Avoce is not affected by that limit.