Every comparison of these three leads with participant caps. That is the least useful number. What actually decides which one works for you is recording — whether you get it at all, how long it runs, and how long it survives. This guide leads with that instead.
One honesty note before the tables. We are not publishing Zoom’s prices in this guide. Two of Zoom’s own pages state different billing bases for the same $15.99 figure — one says billed monthly, the other says billed annually. Rather than pick one and risk being wrong, we have left Zoom’s pricing out and covered its limits, which are documented clearly.
The free tiers
| Participants | Duration | Recording | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoom Basic | 100 | 40 minutes | Local only |
| Google Meet (free account) | 100 | 24 h for 1:1, 60 min for 3+ | None |
| Microsoft Teams (free) | 100 | 60 minutes group, 30 h for 1:1 | None |
Google’s free tier is asymmetric in a way most articles miss: a one-to-one call runs a full 24 hours, but the moment a third person joins you get 60 minutes. Teams free works the same way — 30 hours for 1:1, 60 minutes for a group.
Google Meet by Workspace edition
| Edition | Participants | Recording | Transcripts | Gemini summaries | Breakout rooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Starter ($7) | 100 | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Business Standard ($14) | 150 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Business Plus ($22) | 500 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Enterprise Plus | 1,000 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
All editions allow 24-hour meetings. But look at the Starter row: 100 participants and no recording, no transcripts, no breakout rooms. At $7 a user it is functionally a worse free tier with a custom domain attached. If meetings matter to you at all, Business Standard at $14 is the real entry point.
Teams: 300 is the ceiling on every business plan
Per Microsoft’s own documentation, Teams caps at 300 attendees on Business Basic, Standard, Premium and Teams Essentials alike. One thousand requires an Enterprise plan. So paying more within the SMB range buys you nothing in meeting capacity — a point worth making, since Google Meet reaches 500 at the same $22.
Meetings, webinars and town halls run to 30 hours. And here is the limit that surprises people: a Teams recording stops at 4 hours or 1.5GB, whichever comes first, then automatically restarts. A five-hour all-hands produces two files, not one. Breakout rooms work in meetings up to 1,000 attendees and are unsupported in large-audience events.
Zoom’s limits
Documented clearly even where pricing is not. Basic is 40 minutes and 100 participants. Pro extends meetings to 30 hours, keeps 100 participants, and includes 10GB of cloud recording storage per licence — the only one of the three that states a per-seat cloud recording allowance outright. Business raises participants to 300.
Zoom also states that AI Companion is included at no additional cost on paid plans. That is a real difference in approach, covered next.
Two opposite answers on AI
Zoom bundles AI Companion into paid plans at no extra charge. Google took a different route to the same place: in January 2025 it folded Gemini into Workspace and raised base prices roughly 17%, retiring the separate Gemini add-on. Business Standard plus a Gemini add-on used to be about $32 a user; it is now $14 with Gemini included.
Microsoft is the outlier — Copilot remains a paid add-on rather than a bundled feature. If AI meeting summaries are something you will actually use, that difference is worth more than any participant cap on this page.
What we would pick
- You need recording and you are cost-sensitive: Google Workspace Business Standard at $14. Recording, transcripts, Gemini summaries and breakout rooms all included.
- You need more than 300 in a room: Google Meet Business Plus at $22 gives 500. Teams cannot without Enterprise.
- Long recorded sessions: know that Teams splits at 4 hours and Zoom Pro gives 10GB per licence. Plan the file handling before the event, not after.
- Free, occasional, three or more people: all three give you an hour. Pick whichever your guests already have installed.
- Avoid: Google Business Starter, if meetings are the reason you are buying.
Limits verified against Google’s Meet support documentation, Microsoft Learn’s Teams limits page, and Zoom’s own product pages in September 2026. Zoom pricing is omitted because Zoom’s own pages give conflicting billing bases — check its checkout directly.
Leave a Reply