Understanding the Google Meet Time Limit

For corporate IT and AV teams, meeting platforms are no longer just software; they’re part of the room. From huddle spaces to hybrid boardrooms, unified communication (UC) tools like Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom determine not only how people connect but also how rooms are designed, scheduled, and supported. One overlooked factor in that equation is something as simple as a time limit.

The Limits of “Free”

Google Meet’s free plan allows meetings up to 60 minutes for groups and 24 hours for one-on-one calls. Once the clock runs out, participants are automatically disconnected. That constraint might not matter for a quick stand-up or customer check-in, but it can disrupt longer strategy sessions or hybrid workshops.

For organizations relying on Meet for daily collaboration, these limits quickly push them toward Google Workspace. The company’s paid business platform. Workspace tiers such as Business Starter, Business Standard, and Business Plus remove the 60-minute cap, allowing meetings to run up to 24 hours and adding management features that enterprise AV teams often depend on: attendance tracking, noise cancellation, and enhanced recording.

More Than Just a Timer

From an AV perspective, the duration cap is less about the meeting itself and more about consistency and control. Corporate environments often integrate Meet into conference room systems with touch panels, cameras, and DSPs. When a session times out unexpectedly, it can confuse users and create unnecessary support tickets.

Consider a global sales team coordinating across time zones. A meeting that drops mid-presentation doesn’t just waste time; it undermines confidence in the technology. That’s one reason many organizations standardize on licensed UC tiers: they remove variables that complicate support and training.

Comparing the Ecosystem

While Google Meet limits free users to 60 minutes, Zoom’s Basic plan caps group meetings at 40 minutes, and Microsoft Teams free also sets a 60-minute boundary. All three vendors nudge customers toward paid tiers for reliability, admin control, and analytics.

For AV/IT directors, the question isn’t just “which is cheapest?” but which fits our infrastructure best? Zoom Rooms and Teams Rooms have mature hardware certification programs, while Meet hardware has gained ground through partnerships with Logitech, Lenovo, and Poly. Each ecosystem dictates different hardware, codecs, and management tools making the UC license decision inseparable from the AV design process.

Implications for Corporate AV

As hybrid work stabilizes, organizations are rethinking meeting room design. Many are moving toward platform flexibility, allowing users to join meetings from multiple UC systems. In that environment, knowing the platform’s built-in limitations is essential for user experience planning.

For example, a huddle space running Meet on a Google Meet Compute device may never hit a time limit, but an open collaboration zone relying on personal laptops might. Similarly, executive boardrooms integrated with both Teams and Meet need consistent user experiences regardless of platform. That often means AV teams must coordinate with IT to ensure appropriate licensing across every room type.

A Simple Setting, a Broader Strategy

Extending Google Meet’s time limit is technically straightforward: upgrade to a Workspace plan and ensure all participants use organizational accounts. But the strategic implications go deeper. Paid tiers centralize management, improve compliance logging, and integrate with room scheduling and calendar systems, all of which reduce friction for AV support staff.

In the end, the meeting length limit isn’t just a product feature; it’s a planning variable. Corporate AV and IT leaders evaluating UC platforms should view these details as part of the broader experience architecture. Whether the platform is Meet, Teams, or Zoom, what matters most is ensuring that the technology disappears into the workflow so the meeting, not the minute hand, takes center stage.