Zoom review: still the best meeting app, with AI included on every paid plan

Zoom Workplace is the video meeting and collaboration suite from Zoom, the San Jose, California company whose meeting app became the default for remote calls in 2020. It bundles meetings, team chat, whiteboards, notes and an assistant called AI Companion, with Phone, Webinars and Rooms sold as add-ons. Anyone can join a meeting free, from the app or a browser.

On the Cybernock research rubric Zoom scores 8.8/10, first in our best video conferencing software list. Meeting limits and AI carry the result: every paid plan includes summaries and AI notes at no extra charge, and Pro costs $14.16 a user a month on annual billing. Three things count against it. The free tier stops at 40 minutes, the security record includes a US Federal Trade Commission order, and webinars and very large meetings cost extra.

What do you get on Zoom’s free plan?

Basic lets one host run meetings of up to 40 minutes with up to 100 participants. Recording is local only, and the monthly AI allowance is three meeting summaries and 20 questions.

That covers short calls with family, a tutor or a client. A weekly hour-long team meeting is another story: when the timer hits 40 minutes, everyone has to rejoin. Google Meet gives free group calls 60 minutes, and Jitsi Meet sets no limit at all. If free is the goal, skip the paid tiers and look past Zoom entirely. These figures come from the US pricing page, checked in October 2026.

Which Zoom features matter most for meetings?

• Size and length: 30-hour sessions on every paid tier, 100 participants on Pro, 300 on Business and up to 1,000 on Enterprise. The Large Meetings add-on lifts any tier to as many as 1,000.
• AI Companion: summaries, note-taking and in-call questions such as “what did I miss?”, included on paid plans.
• Cloud recording: 10 GB per user on Pro and Business, unlimited on Enterprise.
• Whiteboards: three editable boards on Basic and Pro, unlimited on Business.
• Admin controls: single sign-on, managed domains and device management start at Business.
• Joining: desktop and mobile apps, a browser-based web app, and phone dial-in.

Screen sharing, waiting rooms and breakout rooms work even when you don’t pay. For classes and workshops, that makes Zoom easier to run than Google Meet, where breakout rooms depend on which Workspace edition you hold.

Is Zoom’s AI Companion free?

On paid plans, yes. Core features, including summaries, AI notes and chat compose, come with Pro and above at no extra cost; the free tier gets three summaries a month. Only the newer agent, ZoomMate, is billed separately.

ZoomMate launched in June 2026, replacing the paid Custom AI Companion add-on that was retired on June 1. It does agent-style work: searching across your Zoom data, running workflows, drafting documents. The listed price starts at $20 a user a month with a monthly pool of AI credits, and No Jitter reported 2,200 credits a user (No Jitter, June 2026). Most people won’t need it. When you only want recaps and action items, the included summaries already do the job.

Here lies the clearest edge over Microsoft Teams, whose best recap features sit in paid add-ons, and over Google Workspace Business Starter, which lacks Gemini note-taking in Meet.

How much does Zoom cost?

Pro costs $14.16 a user a month billed annually or $16.99 month to month. Business costs $18.33 or $21.99, and Enterprise is quoted. You pay per licensed host; people who only join need no seat.

Which tier? Don’t overbuy. Take Pro when your calls stay under 100 people and nobody asks for single sign-on. Move up to Business once attendance passes 100 or IT wants SSO and managed domains. Business Plus adds Zoom Phone’s unlimited US and Canada calling, and a Pro-plus-phone bundle called Pro Plus sells for $20.50 a user a month on annual billing (Zoom Phone pricing). If a business line is the real need, compare dedicated providers in our best business phone services list first.

Webinars are a separate purchase, and most people forget to budget for them. Don’t assume a meeting licence covers a 500-person broadcast. A third-party guide updated in October 2026 lists Zoom Webinars from $83.33 a month billed annually for 500 attendees (eesel), while the official page now routes webinar buyers to sales. Enterprise includes 500-attendee webinars.

Is Zoom safe and private?

For most business meetings today, yes, and it offers more encryption than its big rivals. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is available on free and paid accounts, and a post-quantum version arrived with release 6.0.10 of the apps. The caveat is the record before late 2020.

Per the support documentation, free hosts must verify a phone number by text to use E2EE, every participant must join from the app or a Zoom Room, and encrypted sessions top out at 1,000 people. Switching it on disables AI features, cloud recording, live transcription, polls and the web app. In practice, keep it for confidential calls; don’t use it for every meeting, or you lose the AI notes you’re paying for.

The history matters, and if you’ve handled regulated data you should read it. In November 2020 the FTC charged that Zoom had claimed an encryption level it didn’t provide, left some cloud recordings unencrypted on its servers for up to 60 days, and installed Mac software that bypassed a Safari safeguard. The agency finalized its order on February 1, 2021, requiring an information security program and independent assessments every two years (FTC). Separately, the company agreed in 2021 to pay $85 million to settle a US class action over data sharing and “Zoombombing”, without admitting wrongdoing; a federal court granted final approval in April 2022. Passcodes and waiting rooms have been on by default since April 2020, and E2EE followed that October.

Where does Zoom fall short?

• Free meetings end at 40 minutes, shorter than Google Meet’s 60 for group calls.
• Pro caps attendance at 100; bigger sessions need Business, Enterprise or the Large Meetings add-on.
• 10 GB of cloud recording per user fills up after a few dozen hours of video.
• Webinars, Phone, Rooms and ZoomMate all cost extra, and some prices come only from sales.
• Turning on E2EE switches off AI, cloud recording and browser joins for that meeting.

Who should not pay for Zoom?

Don’t buy a seat if your company already pays for Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Meet or Teams comes with that subscription, so a Zoom licence only duplicates it unless external guests or classes demand Zoom’s tools. And a team whose real need is a phone number should start with business VoIP providers, not a meeting suite with a phone add-on.

How does Zoom compare with Google Meet, Teams and Webex?

Google Meet is the better buy when you also need business email and shared documents, because Workspace Business Starter costs $7 a user a month and includes Gmail, Drive and Meet. Microsoft Teams wins for companies already on Microsoft 365. Webex matches Zoom on AI at a slightly lower price and allows 200 people on its entry plan. For client calls where guests shouldn’t install anything, look at Whereby.

Should you choose Zoom?

Choose it if video meetings sit at the centre of your work and you want AI summaries without an add-on fee. The evidence lines up: 30-hour meetings, included AI notes and end-to-end encryption on every tier, for $14.16 a user a month on Pro. That’s the right plan for most small businesses, tutors and consultants.

The verdict flips in three cases: Workspace teams belong on Meet, Microsoft 365 shops on Teams, and anyone wanting free calls past 40 minutes on Jitsi Meet. The full video conferencing ranking and all video conferencing reviews set the options side by side.