Which license is needed for Teams custom summary templates

Hi @Christopher Ehmke-Janssens, 

Thank you very much for reaching out regarding the AI features for summarizing meetings in Microsoft Teams. I appreciate your patience and the details you provided. 

Based on my research, the Custom summary templates feature (Create template, Speaker summary, Executive report) is currently rolling out and is only available for users who have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. If your test users only have Teams Premium (even on a valid trial) and do not have Copilot, the buttons for creating custom templates will not appear yet.  

1/ Why you don’t see the buttons & what is required: 

• License requirement: The Custom AI summary / Custom summary templates feature in Meeting Recap is enabled only for users with Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft began rolling it out from mid‑Dec 2025 to mid‑Jan 2026, initially for Teams desktop (English‑only). Users without Copilot or not in a Targeted Release environment may not see the feature yet.  
• What Teams Premium includes: Intelligent recap (standard AI‑powered recap) is available with Teams Premium or Microsoft 365 Copilot, but custom templates specifically require Copilot. Also, Transcription must be enabled for AI summaries to generate.  
• Where it appears in Teams: After a meeting that has a transcript, you should see Recap > Custom summary > Create template. This option only appears when the license + transcription requirements are met.  

2/ Trial vs. purchased license? 
Whether the license is trial or paid does not matter, what matters is that the user is assigned a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. If you only has Teams Premium, you will still get Intelligent recap but will not see the Create template option for custom summaries. 

For additional information, you can refer to these articles: 

• Customize recap summaries in Microsoft Teams - Microsoft Support 
• Microsoft Teams: Custom AI summary now available in Meeting Recap - M365 Admin 
• Create a custom AI summary in Teams meeting – Modern Workplace.site 

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I hope this information is helpful. Should you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out.   

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

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Custom recap summary templates in Microsoft Teams require a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

The feature is described as:

“View meeting recaps in your desired format with customized recap summaries, available with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.”

Teams Premium alone does not unlock custom summary templates; a Copilot license is needed in addition to any Teams licensing. If the buttons for creating templates are missing, it can be due to either:

1. The feature still rolling out to the tenant, and/or
2. The absence of a Microsoft 365 Copilot license on the user account.

Once a Microsoft 365 Copilot license is assigned and the rollout reaches the tenant, the customization options for recap summaries become available.

References:

• What's new in Microsoft Teams