Google Meet vs Zoom vs Teams
Google Meet fits Google Workspace teams, Teams fits Microsoft 365 teams, and Zoom fits people who want one dedicated meeting tool. Their limits are close, so your existing tools decide.
The short answer is that none of the three is the best for everyone. Choose the one that lives inside the office suite you already pay for. Google Meet comes with Google Workspace, Teams comes with Microsoft 365, and Zoom is the one you add on its own. On pure meeting features they are closer than their marketing suggests.
Below is a dated table of plans, prices and limits, followed by notes on each tool. Everything comes from the vendor's own pages, checked on 31 October 2026. Where we could not open a page or the page was unclear, we say so.
The numbers side by side#
| Google Meet | Zoom | Microsoft Teams | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free group call length | 60 minutes | 40 minutes (Basic) | 60 minutes (Free) |
| Free participants | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Cheapest paid option | Business Starter, €6.80 per user per month | Pro, $16.99 monthly or $14.16 billed annually | Teams Essentials, $4.00 per user per month, billed annually |
| Paid participants | 100 to 1,000 by plan | 100 (Pro), 300 (Business), up to 1,000 with Enterprise or the add-on | 300 on Essentials |
| Longest paid call | 24 hours | 30 hours | 30 hours |
| Recording | From Business Standard | Plans above Basic list cloud storage and summaries | Listed with Essentials |
These figures come from three pages. For Zoom, zoom.us/pricing. For Google, workspace.google.com/pricing and workspace.google.com/products/meet. For Microsoft, the pages under microsoft.com/microsoft-teams and Microsoft's support page for Teams Free. Our direct fetch of two Microsoft pages timed out, so the Teams figures came from Microsoft's own listings returned by search and from the support page. Treat them as listed, not fully verified, and check Microsoft before you buy. Prices differ by country and currency, and Google's page showed euro prices to us.
Google Meet#
Google Meet's product page says free group video meetings last up to 60 minutes with up to 100 participants. One-to-one meetings and mobile calls have no time limit. Premium plans allow up to 1,000 participants and group calls of up to 24 hours.
On the Workspace pricing page, prices per user per month (billed monthly, excluding tax, in euro for our location) were:
| Plan | Price | Meet participants | Recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Starter | €6.80 | 100 | not included |
| Business Standard | €13.60 | 150 | included |
| Business Plus | €21.10 | 500 | included |
| Enterprise | contact sales | 1,000 | included |
A limited-time 20% discount was shown for 14 November 2026 to 14 February 2027. The page also mentions an annual commitment with a 16% saving, but the figures printed under it matched the monthly ones, so we could not confirm an annual price. Real-time captions are described on the product page without a premium label. It also describes Gemini note-taking and translation, but the page does not say which plans include them, so we could not confirm that.
Where Meet is strong. It opens from a Calendar invite or a link, works in the browser and needs no extra install. If your company uses Gmail and Drive, there is nothing new to manage. Where it is weaker. Recording is not in the cheapest plan, and the participant limit on Standard (150) is lower than the other two tools' paid tiers.
Zoom#
Zoom's pricing page listed these plans on 31 October 2026.
| Plan | Price per user | Participants | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | not stated on the page | 100 | 40 minutes |
| Pro | $16.99 monthly, $14.16 billed annually | 100 | 30 hours |
| Business | $21.99 monthly, $18.33 billed annually | 300 | 30 hours |
| Enterprise | contact sales | 1,000 on the card, 500+ in the table | 30 hours |
The page did not print a price for Basic, so we cannot confirm from it that Basic is free. Its FAQ says all plans allow up to 100 participants by default, or up to 1,000 with the Large Meeting add-on. Pro lists unlimited meeting summaries and in-meeting questions, 10 GB of cloud storage per user and unlimited clips. Business adds single sign-on, managed domains and archiving tools. Enterprise lists webinars for 500 attendees and translated captions.
Where Zoom is strong. It is a dedicated meeting product with years of polish: breakout rooms, webinars, phone, and a large number of integrations. Many guests already know how to join. Where it is weaker. It is the most expensive of the three on its entry paid plan, and its free plan has the shortest group call limit here.
Microsoft Teams#
From Microsoft's own pages, Teams Free allows meetings of up to 100 participants for up to 60 minutes. Teams Essentials is listed at $4.00 per user per month, billed annually, with up to 300 participants and meetings of up to 30 hours. We did not confirm prices for the Microsoft 365 plans that bundle Teams with Word, Excel and Outlook, so we leave them out rather than guess.
Where Teams is strong. Chat, files and meetings sit in one place, tied to Microsoft 365 accounts and SharePoint. It has the cheapest paid entry of the three on the listing we saw. Where it is weaker. Teams is a bigger product to learn and manage, and its price page was the one we could not open in full.
What the table does not show#
A table of limits hides the daily feel of a tool. Join speed, video quality on a weak connection, how easy it is to share a screen, and how your guests react to the join page all matter, and none of them is on a pricing page. We did not benchmark them, so we make no claim about which tool is faster or clearer. The fair way to test is simple. Run the same ten minute call on each tool with two people on different networks, one on a phone. Note how long joining took, whether anything failed, and whether the host found the controls without help. That test costs nothing on the free plans and tells you more than any comparison.
How to decide#
- Which suite do you already pay for? That usually settles it. The meeting tool inside it is already paid for.
- How long are your group calls? A free plan that stops at 40 or 60 minutes is fine for stand-ups and not for workshops.
- How many people join? Check the participant number on the exact plan, not the top of the range.
- Do you need recording and captions? Recording is not on every plan, so read the plan row, not the headline.
- Do you invite outsiders? Run a test call with a guest on a phone before a client meeting.
If you also want to look beyond these three, Zoom alternatives lists more tools with their limits, and free video conferencing without sign-up covers tools that need no account.
Questions people ask#
Which is cheapest? On the pages we checked, Teams Essentials at $4.00 per user per month billed annually was the lowest paid entry, then Google Business Starter at €6.80 monthly, then Zoom Pro. Currencies and billing terms differ, so this is a rough order, not an exact one.
Which has the longest free call? Google Meet and Teams Free both list 60 minutes for group calls. Zoom Basic lists 40. One-to-one Google Meet calls have no time limit.
Which allows the most people? All three list 100 on their free or entry plans and 1,000 at the top. Zoom's add-on reaches 1,000 as well.
One more option, briefly#
If your need is a quick call with no install or account, or a call where each person hears the others in their own language, RespireSoft Meet has free browser tools for that, including a live interpreter in five languages. It does not replace the calendars, chat and admin controls of the three tools above, and we do not claim it does.
Prices and limits checked 31 October 2026 on the vendor pages named above. They change, so confirm on the vendor's page before you buy.