Compare video meeting apps
Zoom vs Google Meet
Zoom and Google Meet compared on what their own pages say, row by row — nothing about either in our words except a plain reading at the end.
Zoom and Google Meet, row by row
| Zoom | Google Meet | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan: longest meeting | “Meetings up to 40 minutes” — Basic, the free plan source | “If your meeting has 3 or more participants, it has a time limit of one hour.” — a personal Google account; a call between two people can run 24 hours source |
| Free plan: people in a meeting | “Participant capacity 100” — Basic, the free plan, and Pro source | “You can have a maximum of 100 participants in a meeting.” — a personal Google account source |
| Cheapest paid plan | “$14.16” — Pro, a user a month billed yearly source | “$7 per user / month” — Business Starter, with a year's commitment ($8.40 month to month) source |
| Paid plan: longest meeting | “Meetings up to 30 hours” — Pro source | “Meeting length (maximum) 24 hours” — every Workspace plan source |
| Most people in a meeting | “Meet with up to 300 participants” — Business; more with the Large Meeting add-on source | “Video meetings with in-domain live streaming, 1000 participants” — Enterprise source |
| Languages | “Translated Captions” — named in the plan comparison, without saying which plans source | Not stated on the pages we read |
| Video recording | “Local & 10 GB cloud (per license)” — Pro; the free plan's row reads "Local", to the computer source | “Video meetings with recording, noise cancellation, 150 participants” — Business Standard; Starter's line reads "Video meetings, 100 participants" source |
| AI notes and summaries | “AI notes, summary, and chat” — Basic, the free plan, marked limited source | “Gemini AI assistant in Gmail, Docs, Meet, and more” — Business Standard and up; Starter's reads "Gemini AI assistant in Gmail" source |
| Single sign-on | “Custom branding for URLs, SSO, and more” — Business source | Not stated on the pages we read |
Every cell is the company's own words, linked. Prices change — this is what each page said on 10 November 2026. Something changed? Tell us.
What the two pages add up to
- A free Zoom meeting lasts up to 40 minutes; a free Google Meet call with three or more people lasts up to an hour, and both allow 100 people.
- Google’s cheapest paid plan is Business Starter at $7 a user a month with a year’s commitment, which does not record; Zoom Pro is $14.16 a user a month billed yearly.
- Zoom’s free plan lists AI notes as limited; Google puts its AI assistant in Meet on Business Standard and up.
Which matters for your meetings
For a free group call, Google Meet gives an hour and Zoom 40 minutes, both up to 100 people. A one-to-one call on a personal Google account can run a whole day. On paid plans Google's cheapest is Workspace Business Starter, which comes with business email and storage but does not record meetings; Zoom's cheapest paid plan records to the cloud and runs meetings up to 30 hours.
What that comes to, worked out
Two everyday meetings show the free plans' limits. A weekly team call of eight people for 50 minutes runs past Zoom's free 40, so it ends and has to be started again; on a personal Google account it fits inside the hour. A 90-minute coaching session between two people runs past Zoom's 40 minutes too, but on Google Meet a one-to-one call can run 24 hours. On paid plans, Zoom Pro costs $169.92 a user a year billed yearly, and Google's Business Starter $84 with a year's commitment, though Starter does not record.
The sums use only the numbers quoted above. Yearly prices are the monthly figure times twelve.
Where Meetful is different from both
Meetful is a video meeting app too, but the notes are part of the meeting rather than an extra. Each person is transcribed from their own microphone, so every line carries the name of whoever said it without guessing, and nobody has to invite a bot. People join from a link in their browser. The notes, the recording and the transcript are free, and anybody in the meeting can leave themselves out of the notes.
Other comparisons
Try Meetful
Meetings that take their own notes
Free video meetings in the browser: every line of the transcript under the name of who said it, and the summary and action items when you hang up. Nothing to install — guests just open the link.