Upgraded from 1000 to 3000 Add-on Mid-Meeting: Total Breakout Room Capacity Capped at ~1000 Participants.?

Question

Hello Zoom Community,I am facing a critical issue regarding mid-meeting add-on upgrades and Breakout Room capacity limits. I would really appreciate some insights into whether this is a hard limitation, a glitch caused by dynamic upgrading, or if a meeting restart was mandatory.Why Mid-Meeting Upgrades Are Critical for Us:First, I want to highlight that the ability to upgrade licenses mid-way without disrupting an ongoing session is one of Zoom's absolute best features. This is a massive plus point. For any host, having to "End Meeting" and restart is a huge loss.	It disrupts the momentum.			Participants often assume the event is finished and leave.			We risk losing a significant portion of our audience.	Because Zoom allows dynamic upgrading, we were thrilled that we didn't have to stop the show. However, the breakout room issue we encountered completely defeated the purpose of this seamless upgrade.The Scenario & Context:During our live session, we encountered a sudden surge in attendance:	We started the session with a 1000 Large Meeting Add-on.			Attendance unexpectedly went over 1000. To avoid shutting down the meeting, we immediately upgraded our add-on to 3000 mid-meeting.			The upgrade worked instantly for the main room—allowing new participants to join, bringing our total to approximately 1,800 participants.	The Problem:The issue started when we tried to distribute these 1,800 participants into 3 separate Breakout Rooms for different workshop tracks.	As participants began moving, the process suddenly got stuck.			After doing a headcount, we realized that exactly 1,002 participants successfully entered the Breakout Rooms in total across all 3 rooms.			The remaining ~800 participants were completely locked out and unable to join any breakout room.	My Questions for the Community & Support:	Is there a hidden hard cap? Does Zoom inherently limit the total combined number of participants inside Breakout Rooms to 1,000, even if the main meeting license is 3,000? (Note: I am aware of the 1,000 per-room limit, but this was 1,000 across ALL rooms combined).			Is it a limitation of the dynamic upgrade? Did the Breakout Room feature get "locked" into the original 1,000 Large Meeting asset profile because the session wasn't restarted?			Is a restart actually mandatory for Breakout Rooms? If the dynamic upgrade is meant to be seamless, shouldn't secondary features like Breakout Rooms automatically scale up to the new 3,000 capacity without requiring us to end the meeting and risk losing our audience?	Has anyone experienced this or found official documentation regarding this specific limitation?Thank you for your help!

ExpertswhoJohn · Answer

hi ​@bramdfd,Repectfully.You should make sure any upgrades to the licence are done an hour or more before the meeting starts. Updaing anything a few minutes before risks the servers not updating before you start. Years ago the reaction time was poor, but many time I had made changes 10-15 minutes before. Zoom now has updated for licence numbers to update during a meeting or webinar. But again, I would suggest this is only done early in a meeting.Changing the licecne in the meetintg is defnitely not going to work with all the settings then updating.Zoom needs to grab rules and settings when the meting starts and IS NOT going to check for these things mid meeting.I AM NOT a zoom employee, but a Zoom Developer Champion and the sytem was not written to cope with such changes. Maybe they could update, but I see more problems with this, so I wil remaind skeptical.Please make sure your licence is correct before you start a meeting.I would consider you fortunate that the licence upgrade worked.Here are the limits as i understand themFeatureZoom MeetingsZoom WebinarsMax Breakout Rooms100 rooms200 roomsMax Total Attendees1,000 across rooms5,000 across roomsI biult this table with some AI assistanceTotal audienceMeetings: maximum breakout roomsMeetings: maximum in one roomWebinars: maximum breakout rooms*Webinars: maximum attendees in one room100100No more than your 100-person meeting capacity†200100 available500100No more than your 500-person meeting capacity†2005001,000100Current documentation does not specify a separate per-room maximum†2005005,000100Current documentation does not specify a separate per-room maximum†200500; 5,000 total across rooms10,000Not supported by the documented 5,000-person Meeting maximum—200-room documented ceiling; 10,000 in breakouts is not supported500; 5,000 total across roomswith all respectI hope that helpsJohn DrinkwaterZoom Developer ChampionNot a Zoom Employee

Upgraded from 1000 to 3000 Add-on Mid-Meeting: Total Breakout Room Capacity Capped at ~1000 Participants.?

Why Mid-Meeting Upgrades Are Critical for Us:

The Scenario & Context:

The Problem:

My Questions for the Community & Support:

2 replies

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Feature	Zoom Meetings	Zoom Webinars
Max Breakout Rooms	100 rooms	200 rooms
Max Total Attendees	1,000 across rooms	5,000 across rooms

Total audience	Meetings: maximum breakout rooms	Meetings: maximum in one room	Webinars: maximum breakout rooms*	Webinars: maximum attendees in one room
100	100	No more than your 100-person meeting capacity†	200	100 available
500	100	No more than your 500-person meeting capacity†	200	500
1,000	100	Current documentation does not specify a separate per-room maximum†	200	500
5,000	100	Current documentation does not specify a separate per-room maximum†	200	500; 5,000 total across rooms
10,000	Not supported by the documented 5,000-person Meeting maximum	—	200-room documented ceiling; 10,000 in breakouts is not supported	500; 5,000 total across rooms

Why Mid-Meeting Upgrades Are Critical for Us:

The Scenario & Context:

The Problem:

My Questions for the Community & Support:

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