The fastest way to take attendance on Google Meet is to install a free Chrome extension that logs it for you — no clicks during the meeting, no roll-call, no paid Google Workspace plan required. This guide walks through the entire setup with Trackr, the free extension built for teachers, coaches, and therapists. Total time: about 30 seconds.
Before you start: You need Google Chrome (or Edge / Brave). The native Google Meet attendance feature is only available on paid Workspace Education Plus / Standard plans. For everyone else, an extension is the way.
Step 1: Install Trackr
Open the Chrome Web Store in any Chromium browser (Chrome, Edge, Brave). Search for Trackr — the free Google Meet attendance extension. Click Add to Chrome, then confirm the install prompt.
No signup, no payment, no email required. The extension takes about 5 seconds to install and shows up as a small icon in your Chrome toolbar.
Step 2: Open Google Meet in Chrome
Sign in to your Google account and either start a new meeting at meet.google.com or join an existing one from your calendar. Trackr works on every type of Meet session: scheduled meetings, instant meetings, recurring class periods, even Meet links shared in chat.
Step 3: Start the Meeting Normally
Run class the way you always do. You don't need to open the Trackr panel, click any "start tracking" button, or change your workflow. As soon as participants begin joining, Trackr captures their names and join timestamps in the background.
Trackr also automatically:
- Filters out transcription bots (Otter, Read.ai, Fireflies, Tactiq) so they don't pollute your roster
- Flags late arrivals based on a threshold you set in the extension settings (default: 5 minutes after start)
- Tracks re-joins if someone's internet drops and they come back
Step 4: View Attendance When the Meeting Ends
After the meeting wraps, click the Trackr icon in your Chrome toolbar. You'll see a roster with every participant, their join time, leave time, total duration, and a late-arrival flag if they were past your threshold.
If something looks off — a name spelled wrong, a phone dial-in mis-attributed, a student who joined late but you want to give a pass — you can edit any row directly. The corrected version is what gets exported.
Step 5: Export Your Roster
Choose the format your workflow wants:
- CSV — for paste-into-anything universality
- Excel (.xlsx) — formatted spreadsheet with frozen headers
- Google Sheets — pushes directly into a new Sheet in your Drive
- PDF — printable copy for paper records or parent conferences
- Email — sends the roster to yourself, an admin, or a co-host
Your attendance data stays on your laptop. Trackr has no server — nothing leaves your browser unless you actively export it.
A Quick Sanity Check
On your first meeting with Trackr installed, the simplest sanity check: have a co-worker or friend join your Meet for 30 seconds, then leave. Click the Trackr icon — you should see one entry with the right name and timestamps. If it's missing, the most common cause is that the extension didn't have permission to read the page (Chrome will show a warning the first time). Click the puzzle icon in the toolbar, find Trackr, and pin it so it stays visible and active.
Common Questions While Setting Up
No. Trackr runs in your browser only and doesn't add a bot to the meeting. From the participants' side, it's invisible.
Yes. Trackr only needs the participant panel, which any meeting attendee can see. Even regular participants can track their own classes.
As long as you install Trackr before the meeting ends, it picks up the current participant list from that moment forward. You'll miss the early joiners but capture everyone present when you installed.
No. Trackr is free forever — no premium tier, no signup, no trial. The team built it as a side project to scratch a teacher's own itch.
Beyond the Basics
Once you have attendance working for a single meeting, two things are worth exploring:
- Late-arrival thresholds — the default is 5 minutes, but you can set it to whatever fits your class. Some teachers prefer 1 minute for strict periods; some coaches prefer 10 minutes for casual sessions.
- Cross-session patterns — after a few weeks of use, Trackr surfaces participants who consistently arrive late or skip sessions. This is where the real value compounds.
For deeper context on what Google Meet does and doesn't support, see our complete Google Meet attendance guide. If you're comparing tools, our roundup of the best Google Meet attendance extensions covers Trackr alongside Meet Attendance, Vexa, and the rest.