I imagine in Zoom’s view, this would be viewed as excessive and abusive, and the only way to curb the practice is to reduce the time limit for essentially all multiple-person meetings. Zoom probably assumed that many people would occasionally use the basic account for meetings longer than 40 minutes, but likely many people were routinely using 1:1 meetings for extended lengths of time, perhaps even 24 hours, ending the meeting, and starting back up for another 24 hours on a recurring basis – a practice which would tie up Zoom infrastructure/resources way more than was anticipated. Because the free plan has a 40-minute time limit, you may upgrade to a Pro account to increase your Zoom conference time. Hi, and finally found an email notice similar to what but sent to developers to alert them to potential changes/effects on API and related code.īased on that email, it does indeed appear that 1:1 meetings (host + 1 attendee) will be limited to 40 minutes starting May 2.Īs a volunteer, I don’t get and haven’t seen any official discussion about why this change is being implemented, but if I had to guess … it’s probably due to a difference of expectations. Zoom is lifting limits on the free version of its videoconferencing software over the festive season to help families around the world socialise safely in the midst of the pandemic.

Zoom meeting free account limitations