Question on "free" account

[jrayscott]

I have a friend who uses a free account.  she says that the 40 minute time limit starts the minute one person signs on.  I thought it was when people sign on.  How do I find the right answers.

She doesn't want to use my paid account

[Bort]

Hi @jrayscott 

Previously, there was more nuance for meetings hosted by free users with regards to when the 40-minute limit kicked in, but now all meetings hosted by free users are limited to 40 minutes. You can read more about that here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/5809097508109-Basic-user-meeting-duration-changes

Hope that helps and please make sure to mark the solution as accepted if this information is what you needed.

[Ray_Harwood]

Hey, @jrayscott,

To your question about "when does the 40 minute time start".  I rarely use Basic accounts, and have answered this question a number of times based on information I had at the time. and decided tonight I would conduct some experiments to see what really happens, as opposed to what any other source tells me.

My observation, after 3 experiments, is that any time where the Basic account owner is in the meeting alone does not count toward the 40 minutes. It appears that the 40 minute restriction starts when the first attendee other than the Host joins the meeting.  A pop-up message appears for the meeting host with 10 minutes left to go:

and when the time expires, all participants see the meeting window close and the following pop-up message: