Zoom's free time limit is 40 minutes, and how to get past it

Zoom's time limit on free accounts

The Zoom meeting time limit on the free plan, called Basic, is 40 minutes. When the clock reaches 40:00 the meeting ends for everyone in it, host included.

One-on-one calls are capped too. They used to be exempt, and older articles still say so. On a free account today, the meeting ends at 40 minutes whether there are two people on the call or twenty.

The limit comes from the host's plan, not the guests'. Paid Zoom plans, Pro and above, remove the 40-minute cap, and meetings on them can run for up to 30 hours.

What happens when you hit the limit

• The meeting ends for every participant at the same moment. It's a hard stop.
• Anyone who wants to carry on has to join a new meeting.
• A recording in progress stops with the meeting, so a restart begins a new file.
• Chat, screen sharing and breakout rooms end with it. Nothing carries over into the new call.

How to extend a Zoom meeting past 40 minutes for free

1. Let someone with a paid Zoom seat host

The limit comes from the host's plan, so a meeting hosted by a paid user runs past 40 minutes for everyone. If a colleague or the other side has a paid seat, ask them to host. The catch: a free user inside a company's paid Zoom account is still capped at 40 minutes, and a meeting that starts without its host is still held to that host's limit.

2. Restart the meeting

When the meeting ends, start a new one and have everyone rejoin, from the same link if you use a Personal Meeting ID or a recurring meeting, or from a fresh one. The chat and any recording split in two, and there's a scramble at the 40-minute mark.

3. Hand hosting between free accounts

Some hosts keep a second free Zoom account and start a fresh meeting from it when the first one ends. It's awkward to run live, with a client watching.

The last free option is not to extend at all: keep meetings under 40 minutes. That's fine if it fits how you work, and frustrating if your sessions naturally run 45 to 60 minutes and you end up watching the clock instead of the client.

Paying to remove the limit with Zoom Pro

Pro removes the 40-minute cap. It's billed per user: $16.99 a month billed monthly, or $14.16 a month billed yearly. That's the simple fix if one or two people host regularly. It gets expensive once several people on the team host, because each one needs their own paid seat.

What each workaround really costs

Restarting and switching accounts cost time and flow in every meeting, even though no money changes hands. Borrowing a paid host works until that person isn't free. Pro costs money per host, and the bill grows with the team: 10 hosts on Pro pay $1,699.20 a year billed yearly, whether or not anyone's meeting runs past an hour. What Zoom costs, plan by plan has the numbers for every plan.

Getting rid of the cap without paying per seat

Castio is video meeting software where clients meet you at your own address, like meet.yourfirm.com. Castio runs in your own Cloudflare account, and we install it for you. There's no 40-minute cap and no per-⁠seat fee. Every host is included, and Cloudflare bills you directly for running it (what Cloudflare costs).

Meetings still have a length. When you create one you pick it: 25 or 50 minutes, or your own, up to 24 hours. The meeting ends at that time, so give a long session some room when you set it up.

Castio is built for groups where several people host sessions regularly, like a coaching practice, a tutoring company, a course or cohort, a church or a small firm. Read the Zoom comparison, or see the full cost.

Questions people ask