It would be nice if we could have unlimited meetings, but please be aware that Zoom may apply a time limit depending on the conditions.

In this article, we will explain when a time limit occurs in a Zoom meeting and how to avoid it.

Zoom’s free plan has a time limit

Zoom has a free plan and a paid plan, but the free plan has a time limit of 40 minutes.However, if you use the free plan, the meeting will not always end in 40 minutes.。

→*From July 15, 2022, Zoom will limit all meetings to 40 minutes regardless of the number of participants.

As of July 2022 , the Zoom time limit applies to free licenses and 40 minutes regardless of the number of participants .

The time limit only applies if the host is on the free plan, regardless of whether the participant has a paid or free license.

Also, in a meeting with the “Enable join before host” setting enabled, it is possible to start the meeting with only participants before the host enters the room, but in this case as well, there must be three or more participants. If you do, you will be subject to a 40 minute time limit.

Automatically leave the meeting after 40 minutes

What happens when the 40 minute time limit is reached?

If 40 minutes have passed since the Zoom meeting started, all participants will be forced to leave the meeting and the meeting will end.

However, please be assured that even if the time limit is exceeded, the meeting will be forcibly terminated and no penalty will be charged.

The meeting will end after 30 hours, regardless of the number of participants or paid/free

Apart from the free plan time limit, Zoom has an idle time for meetings.

Regardless of the type of license (paid or free) and the number of participants, Zoom meetings will time out and end automatically after 30 hours from the start.

I don’t think it’s rare to have a meeting for 30 hours in a row, but for example, if you forget to leave the meeting and leave it alone, the meeting will automatically end after 30 hours and you will automatically leave.

How to keep a meeting longer than 40 minutes on Zoom

If a 40-minute time limit is applied to a meeting with three or more people on Zoom, is there a way to continue the meeting beyond the time limit? If you want your meeting to last longer than 40 minutes, here are some options:

• Reconnect after leaving a meeting
• Zoom gifts may unlock time limits
• Sign a paid license agreement and become the host

Reconnect after leaving a meeting

If you reach the 40-minute time limit, leave the meeting and reconnect to resume the meeting for another 40 minutes.

However, reconnecting during important business talks and meetings will spoil the image, and in the case of meetings with three or more people, there will be a lot of time lag before regrouping, so be careful.

To prevent this from happening, we recommend a paid license with no time limit even for meetings with three or more people in the business scene.

instant meeting

An “Instant Meeting” is a meeting launched via “New Meeting” on the Zoom desktop client or “Start a Meeting” on the Zoom web portal.

The advantage is that you can start a meeting as soon as you think of it, but the meeting ID for instant meetings is one-time only and will be invalidated when the meeting ends.

If a meeting with three or more people lasts longer than 40 minutes, or if all participants have left once, you will not be able to re-enter with the same meeting ID. The procedure is complicated because you have to share it to each other.

personal meeting

“Personal Meeting” means a meeting using a Personal Meeting ID unique to your Zoom account.

The Personal Meeting ID does not change, so you can enter the meeting again and again with the same ID.

However, once a member has been given a personal meeting ID, they can access the meeting at any time, so it is limited to use only for repeated meetings with the same members, such as regular meetings with fixed members.

a scheduled meeting

Meetings created by specifying a date and time from “Schedule” on the Zoom desktop client/mobile app or “Schedule a meeting” on the Zoom web portal are valid up to 30 days after the scheduled date, so you can set the same date multiple times. Although it is possible to do so, it is highly discouraged as it causes confusion.

Zoom Gifts May Remove Time Limits

When using Zoom, you may receive a random service called “gift” in a meeting with three or more people.

The following time limit gifts have been confirmed:

Please keep in mind that since it is a random service, there is no guarantee that you will receive it, and it may end for a limited time.

“Are you out of time?” cancels the Zoom meeting time limit

When a Zoom meeting reaches 40 minutes, the host may see a pop-up on their screen asking, “Your time is up?”

When this is displayed, you can click “I love you!”

When “It’s service time” appears, the next Zoom meeting has no time limit

After the Zoom meeting ends, when the host’s screen shows “It’s service time”, it’s a chance to remove the time limit for the next meeting.

Meetings scheduled by clicking “Schedule Now” are available without a time limit.

Sign a paid license agreement and become the host

Zoom meeting time limits only occur when the host has a free license.

In other words, if a person with a paid license becomes a host, you can have a meeting with three or more people without a time limit. It doesn’t matter if the other members are free licenses.

If you know that there are paid license users among the participants in a meeting with three or more people, there is also a method of asking for a host.

If you want to have a meeting without worrying about the time limit, consider a paid plan

I’ve listed several ways to get around Zoom’s 40-minute time limit for meetings with three or more people, but reconnecting to the meeting over and over and waiting for random gifts , is not recommended in terms of time and reliability.

If you plan to frequently hold meetings longer than 40 minutes, such as business meetings, we strongly recommend that you consider upgrading to a paid plan.

Unlimited meeting

If a paid license user becomes the host, the meeting will not be cut off after 40 minutes and can continue. It’s nice to be able to continue the meeting without worrying about the time limit.

Of course, when using it in the business scene, you will be able to conduct business negotiations smoothly without stress.

cloud recording

With the free plan, meeting recordings can only be saved locally, which puts pressure on computer storage.

With a paid plan, you can save recorded data on the Zoom cloud and easily share it with other members.

Voting function

There are times when you want to collect the opinions of the participants, such as taking a majority vote or conducting a questionnaire during the meeting.

The polling function that can be used in the paid plan can easily collect answers even if there are many participants, and it is also possible to download the report later.

Can set up co-host

When you create a meeting on the free plan, only one person can have host privileges during the meeting.

However, the host has a lot to do, such as giving participants permission to enter the room and recording the meeting, and it can be a heavy burden for a single person.

By setting up “co-hosts“, you can grant host privileges to participants other than the host. Even two or more people can use various functions and set permissions, so it’s good to divide roles.

summary

• Free license has a time limit of 40 minutes
• Leave the meeting when the time limit is reached
• If you want to hold a meeting without worrying about the time limit, we recommend a paid plan

There are many things that Zoom can do even with the free plan, and it can be used privately for free, but for business, you want to eliminate stress as much as possible.

Please consider a paid plan so that you can smoothly proceed with the Zoom meeting without worrying about the time limit.