The Zoom 40-minute limit: what it means for a one-hour lesson

What Zoom's page says about the limit

Zoom explains its time limits in one support article (updated October 29, 2025; read November 2, 2026). The parts that matter for a tutor:

• Meetings scheduled and hosted by Basic (free) licences, on free and paid accounts, end after 40 minutes when there is 1 host and 1 or more participants.
• Meetings hosted by paid licences can run up to 30 hours.
• A Basic user who has a licence on a paid account (Pro, Business or Enterprise) keeps the free duration. The limit follows the host's licence, not the account.
• Zoom says the limits apply on any device.

This is not new. In May 2022 a Zoom partner posted in Zoom Community that from May 2, 2022, the limit for 1:1 meetings hosted by Basic users on free accounts was 40 minutes, the same as for group meetings. In that thread, users report being cut off with no warning, and one says a 1:1 lesson they were giving ended mid-session. Those are one-user reports from 2022; Zoom's current page above is the source for today's rule.

Your options for a one-hour lesson

Which to pick depends on how long your lessons are. For a 60-minute lesson, a call on the board or Meet or Teams Free all cover the hour, and the board call is one link instead of two. For 90 minutes or a back-to-back double lesson, Meet or Teams Free 1:1 runs longer for free than our call does, so keep that call and open the board next to it.

Plan the lesson to fit the limit

Whatever you choose, a timed plan stops you being cut off mid-sentence. The board above uses a plan that finishes before the hour is out:

1. 10-5 minutes: hello, and what went wrong since last time. The board link is already open.
2. 25-20 minutes: one worked example. You write, they watch.
3. 320-50 minutes: their turn. They write in blue; you only hint.
4. 450-58 minutes: homework goes on the right, and a photo of their working.
5. 5Last 2 minutes: say goodbye before the call ends, not at the cut-off.

On a 40-minute limit, shorten each block the same way: worked example by minute 10, their turn until minute 35, wrap up before 38. More on running a first lesson is in how to teach math online, and a checklist for the rest of your setup is in online tutoring setup.

What to know before you use Instaboard for the call

• Our free call is 60 minutes, with a warning 10 minutes before the end. That is 20 minutes more than free Zoom, and far less than free Meet 1:1 or Teams 1:1. Pro calls have no limit ($5 a month billed yearly, $59.99 a year).
• Everyone on the call signs in once, free, with Google, Apple or email. Anyone with the link can view a board without an account.
• No recording of the lesson, no class mode, no scheduling or billing.
• Free covers 5 boards. Pen strokes don't count toward the 150-item limit, and each imported PDF becomes its own board.
• Equation cards only, no LaTeX editor, and the eraser removes whole strokes.

If you want Zoom's features, such as recording, keep Zoom and pay for the licence. This page doesn't claim the board call is better than a paid call for every lesson.

Questions