How to Get a Recording from Google Meet

This guide shows how to programmatically retrieve recordings from Google Meet using the Google REST APIs. It focuses on files stored in Drive, and walks through everything from OAuth setup to download logic—plus key limitations you need to know before building.

If you need real-time access, transcripts, or a cross-platform solution, see our other guides on the Meet Media API (single platform real-time) and getting transcripts from Google Meet. You can also check out the Google Meet Meeting Bot APIto get  transcripts, recordings, and more in real time or after the meeting or the Google Meet Recording API.

How to get recordings using the Google Meet REST API

We'll walk you through how to get your recordings—after all, that's why you're here. But if you'd prefer to watch a video, feel free to skip to the end of this section.

Technically the Google Meet REST API doesn’t allow access to recordings. Because Google Meet stores artifacts (recordings and transcripts) in Google Drive, downloading recordings uses the Google Drive REST API.

Prerequisites to get recordings

Before you can access Google Meet recordings via API:

Step 1: Set up your Google Cloud Project

If you haven’t already:

Step 2: Enable required APIs

Step 3: Grant OAuth 2.0 access

Add the required scopes (listed above) to your app by navigating to OAuth consent screen -> Data Access -> Add or remove scopes and then add the following scopes:

These scopes require Google’s OAuth verification, and for restricted scopes, a 3rd-party security audit (may take 4–7 weeks).

Step 4: Host the meeting & click “Record”

Make sure someone manually clicks "Record" in the Meet UI. There’s no API for starting recordings.

Once the meeting ends and processing completes, the .mp4 file will appear in the organizer’s Drive, typically in:

Step 5: Find the recording file

Once the meeting has ended and the recording has been processed, it will be stored in the meeting organizer’s Google Drive—typically in a folder called Meet Recordings.

Before you can access any of the Google endpoints you’ll need to get an access token. To get an access token navigate to the url below, replacing the CLIENT_ID_HERE with the Client ID for your client in your Google Cloud project.

The outcome of this will look like a mistake, but it is not (see image below). Copy the code. The code can be found in the url after localhost. You will use this field in your request to get an access token.

Open up a terminal window and copy the following curl request, replacing the client_id, client_secret, and code with the values from your Google Cloud Client and the code you just copied:

To locate a specific file programmatically, use the Google Drive API’s files.list endpoint. You can filter by MIME type (video/mp4) and optionally search by part of the file name (e.g. "Meeting" or a specific date string):

Key things to know:

From this, copy the id field—1x2y3zabc456 in this case—for the download request.

Although the Google Meet REST API states that you can get the list of recordings, in testing we were unable to access the list of recordings due to access issues. If you have access to these endpoints, then you can try to access a structured list of recorded meetings using the Google Meet REST API. From there you can iterate through all of the ids and download the files using the same method listed below.

Step 6: Download the file

Once you have the file ID, use the Drive API's files.get endpoint to download the actual video content. You'll need to pass the alt=media query param to get the raw file bytes instead of metadata:

Replace FILE_ID with the actual ID you received in Step 5.

Tips:

curl \
  --location \
  --fail \
  --retry 3 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE" \
  -X GET \
  "https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/1x2y3zabc456?alt=media" \
  --output team-sync-july19.mp4


For more info on file downloads, see Google’s official docs.

The following video goes over steps 5 and 6, walking you through how to get a recording from Google Meet programmatically using the REST API.

videoWalkthrough

Bonus: Accessing a recording if you weren’t the host

We wanted to test out all of the ways that a user might interact with a meeting and then try to access a recording after. You can still access the recording if:

If the above do not apply, the API won’t let you fetch the file. We tested within our own workspace. If you are interested in building for external customers, doing your own testing with external workspaces that are on the same or higher workspace plan is a good idea.

Any meetings hosted on consumer accounts (
accounts) will not have record functionality and therefore no recordings can be generated/stored.

Limitations of using the Google REST API

This timeline can significantly delay your product launch or internal testing schedule.

If the recording was not shared with you, you’ll receive a 403 error—even if you know the file ID.

If your product needs to support multiple platforms, use the
API to get recordings and transcripts across providers (Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc), no matter the edge case.

You can’t retrieve raw participant-level streams, separate speaker audio, or isolated tracks for processing. If your product needs participant events, diarization, or multi-track audio/video, the REST API’s recording artifact alone won’t meet that need. If you need transcripts with speaker names or speaker separated audio, use Recall.ai.

If you exceed these limits, you’ll receive HTTP 429: Too Many Requests or 403: User rate limit exceeded depending on the endpoint. You should implement exponential backoff and retry logic to handle temporary throttles.

For real-time access directly using Google’s native API, see our Meet Media API guide or check out Recall.ai’s Meeting Direct Connect.

Conclusion

If you're building on top of Google Meet and need post-meeting access to recordings, the REST API is the official way to get .mp4 files programmatically—but it comes with friction: scope approvals, manual setup, and no real-time support.

If you need speed, coverage across providers, or no-maintenance media access, Recall.ai gives you post-meeting and real-time recording access with the Meeting Bot API and the Desktop Recording SDK. If you have any questions about what the right solution is for your use case, feel free to reach out to us or try us out for free. We’re happy to help you understand all of the options available even if it means you build with something else.

Appendix

Can I create a Google Meet meeting with the Google Meet REST API?

No you cannot create a meeting with the Google Meet REST API, but you can create one with the Google Meet API.

What are the options for recording Google Meet Meetings?

You can record Google Meet meetings using the REST API, using a meeting bot, or using a Desktop Recording SDK to record using your desktop app. For a more in depth look at some of the methods, check out the guide on how to get transcripts from Google Meet.

Does the Google Meet REST API provide real-time transcripts?

No the Google Meet REST API does not provide transcripts in real time or in near real time (shortly after the call) as touched upon in the limitations of the Google Meet REST API.