Fix · Zoom

Zoom meeting ended after 40 minutes — even when you pay

Zoom ends meetings hosted on a free (Basic) licence at 40 minutes. When a paid account still cuts off at 40, the licence usually is not reaching the person hosting.

What you are seeing

Your Zoom meeting warned it was ending and then closed at about forty minutes — sometimes even though your company pays for Zoom.

The likely causes, most common first

Work down the list; most people find theirs in the first two.

1. The host is on a free licence

  1. Meetings hosted by free (Basic) users end at forty minutes, however many people are in them. Open a fresh meeting link to keep going, or ask a colleague who has a paid licence to host the next one.

Zoom: “Almost all meetings scheduled and hosted by Basic (free) users, on Free and Paid accounts, are limited to 40 minutes.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

2. Your company pays, but your own licence is free

  1. On a company account, each person has their own licence. If yours is Basic, your meetings are limited, whatever the company pays for. Ask your Zoom admin to assign you a paid licence.

Zoom: “Users with Basic (free) licenses on Pro, Business, or Enterprise accounts are limited to the free license meeting durations.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

3. You are signed in with the wrong account

  1. A personal Zoom account and a work one look the same in the app. Check which email is signed in, at the top of the Zoom app.

Zoom: “You’re signed in with the wrong account.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

4. The paid licence is not assigned to you

  1. Buying a licence is not the same as assigning it. In the web portal, an admin assigns it under User Management → Users.

Zoom: “Your paid license isn’t assigned to your user account.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

5. The app has not caught up

  1. After an upgrade, the Zoom app can still think you are on the free plan. Sign out of the app and back in.

Zoom: “Your Zoom client hasn’t refreshed your license status.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

6. The host never joined

  1. A meeting that starts without its host still uses the host’s limit. If a free user scheduled it, it ends at forty minutes even when everybody in it pays.

Zoom: “A meeting started without the host present is still limited by the actual host's time limit” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

7. Only one person was left

  1. Even on a paid licence, when everybody but one person has left, Zoom closes the meeting forty minutes later unless somebody else joins.

Zoom: “The meeting will end 40 minutes later if no one else joins.” — support.zoom.com/hc/en/article

Every quote above is from Zoom’s own help pages, read on 10 November 2026. Something changed? Tell us.

The longer guide, with more detail →

On Meetful

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Other Zoom problems

Transcript missingZoom only writes an audio transcript for a meeting recorded to the cloud, on a paid account with the transcript setting on — and it arrives a while after the recording, in the host’s web portal.Recording missingA Zoom cloud recording belongs to the host and needs a paid licence; a computer recording only exists once it has converted on the computer that made it.Breakout rooms missingZoom breakout rooms have to be switched on for the account, can only be run by the host or a co-host from the desktop app, and are never caught by a cloud recording.No sound, or people cannot hear youIn Zoom, silence is usually a mute somewhere — yours, the host’s or a button on the headset — a microphone Zoom was never given permission to use, or the wrong device picked in the audio menu.Camera not workingWhen Zoom shows no video, it has usually picked the wrong camera, been blocked by the computer or by security software, or needs a clean reinstall.Cannot join the meetingMost people who cannot get into a Zoom meeting have a link that will not open, a missing passcode, an out-of-date meeting ID, or a browser or app that needs replacing.

Every fix →

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