In today’s hybrid work environment, choosing between Google Meet and Zoom involves more than just video quality—it’s about finding the platform that best integrates with your productivity workflow. In this article, we’ll examine key differences in pricing, participant limits, AI-powered features, and we’ll explore real-world workflows that enable you to turn meetings into actionable tasks.
Table of contents
Google Meet vs. Zoom: Quick comparison
| Feature | Google Meet | Zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Large meetings | Up to 500 (Business Plus) or 1,000 (Enterprise) | Up to 300 (Business) or 1,000 (Enterprise) |
| Breakout rooms | Paid plans only (up to 100 rooms) | All plans include breakout rooms (up to 200 rooms) |
| Recording | Paid plans only (recordings saved to Google Drive) | Free: local recording; Paid: cloud recording |
| AI assistant | Gemini for live notes, captions, auto-recaps | “AI Companion” for summaries, meeting chapters |
| Whiteboard features | No native whiteboard; integrates with third-party tools. | Native whiteboard with shapes, sticky notes, and templates |
| Desktop app | Browser only (no dedicated desktop app) | Windows, Mac, Linux desktop apps available |
| Notable integrations | Native Google Workspace, 200+ add-ons | 2,000+ apps via Zoom App Marketplace |
| Privacy and security | Encrypted in transit & at rest; waiting rooms & 2FA | Encrypted in transit & at rest; optional E2EE; waiting rooms by default |
| Free plan limits | 60-minute group meetings, up to 100 participants | 40-minute group meetings, up to 100 participants |
| Entry paid tier price | Business Starter: $7 annual / $8.40 flex user/month | Zoom Pro: $13–15.99 user/mo |
Reasons to choose Google Meet
- Integrates seamlessly with Gmail and Google Calendar for easy scheduling.
- Browser-based on desktop, so no app installation is required.
- Free plan offers 60-minute group meetings with up to 100 participants.
- Gemini provides live captions, translations, and automated meeting notes.
- All recordings and chat transcripts save directly to Google Drive.
- Leverages Google’s enterprise-grade security and compliance by default.
- Ideal for teams already using Google Workspace apps.
Reasons to choose Zoom
- Granular host controls include waiting rooms, passcodes, and co-host roles.
- Free plan supports 100 participants (40-minute limit) with breakout rooms.
- Scalability up to 1,000 participants on paid plans, perfect for large events.
- AI Companion generates real-time summaries and searchable meeting chapters.
- Native desktop apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux offer advanced settings.
- Supports up to 200 breakout rooms even on the free tier.
- Connects with 2,000+ apps for robust workflow automation.
⏩ Try Zoom
Video and audio quality
Google Meet now delivers 1080p for one-on-one calls on Business Standard, Business Plus, and Workspace Individual plans.
Group meetings still default to 720p to conserve bandwidth, and cloud-based noise suppression keeps voices clear even on flaky Wi-Fi.
Zoom can unlock 1080p for Business and Enterprise accounts (or any Zoom Room) after a quick request to support.
Once enabled, its adaptive streaming engine will drop video resolution before it lets audio stutter, and users can pick High, Medium, or Low noise reduction inside the desktop client.
🧳 Tip for travelers: Open Settings › Performance in Meet and toggle Eco mode. The call drops to 360p and can save roughly 30% of your mobile data.
Breakout rooms
Breakout rooms are miniature meeting spaces that a host can create within the main call, allowing smaller groups to discuss privately before everyone reconvenes.
Think of them as virtual side-rooms: you leave the auditorium, chat in a seminar, then return to share conclusions with the whole class.
For example, these are common in online language classes when students need to perform oral exercises or resolve doubts before sharing them with the class.
Meet offers breakout rooms only on paid Workspace tiers, with up to 100 rooms and the option to pre-assign students straight from Google Calendar.
Zoom includes them on every plan, including the free plan, and scales to support up to 200 rooms. Hosts can let participants choose a room, broadcast timer warnings, and auto-close rooms when it’s time to regroup.
💡 Tip to keep the energy up: Set a one-minute countdown timer and broadcast a message like “Wrap up your points” so participants finish naturally instead of being yanked back mid-sentence.
AI assistants & smart meeting features
Google’s Duet AI—now folded into the Gemini brand—ships with every paid Workspace tier, while Zoom’s AI Companion is included on all paid Zoom One plans.
Both assistants handle captions, transcripts, and summaries, but they diverge in focus and workflow.
It’s worth noting that live captions and translation set Google Meet apart. Gemini adds instant subtitles in more than 18 languages and can translate speech on the fly, making cross-border calls far smoother.
Zoom’s captions remain in the same language but connect to its transcript search, letting users jump to any keyword during playback for faster navigation of long webinars.
When it comes to automated notes and action items, Meet lets hosts invite the AI to “take notes for me,” generating a Google Doc with timestamps and task checkboxes the moment a call ends.
Zoom listens passively, then, on request, delivers a concise recap or answers prompts, such as “What were the next steps?” Summaries appear in Zoom Team Chat and are attached to the recording.
These AI outputs reduce reliance on full-length replays. Teams can skim a two-minute summary instead of rewatching an hour-long meeting, reserving recordings for publishable content, such as webinars or product demos.
Automation platforms can monitor new summaries and automatically push action items into Notion, Todoist, or other hubs, converting meetings into tasks without requiring manual copy-and-paste.
🤖 Tip to fast-track action items: After Meet emails its Google Doc notes, open the Doc and run Tools › Convert to checklist; all bullet points instantly become task boxes ready to sync with your planner.
Recording options
Meet records only on Business Standard plans and above, storing a single composite feed in Google Drive and—when Gemini is active—creating an automatic transcript that opens in Google Docs.
Storage counts toward the host’s Drive quota, and sharing permissions follow the normal Drive rules, making it easy to restrict access to an internal team or class.
Zoom allows local recording on the free tier and cloud recording on paid plans.
Cloud files include searchable transcripts and optional AI-generated Smart Chapters; admins can route finished videos to external storage or trigger downstream workflows through the Zoom App Marketplace.
The desktop client also supports dual-camera capture, allowing a presenter to record both a face camera and a document camera in a single session.
With AI now handling real-time notes, captions, and automated summaries, teams seldom need to re-watch entire meetings just to capture action items.
Recordings have also shifted toward content publishing, with webinars, product demos, conference talks, and showcase videos still relying on high-quality source footage.
✍️ Tip to annotate live while recording: In Zoom, press Alt + F (Windows) or ⌘ + Shift + F (Mac) to drop a timestamped flag; later, you can skip straight to flagged moments instead of scrubbing the entire video.
Conclusion
Google Meet suits budget-minded teams because it integrates natively with Gmail and Google Calendar, making scheduling and joining calls seamless. It also includes Gemini, which provides live captions, translates speech in real time, and automatically sends full meeting notes to a Google Doc once the call ends
Zoom provides hosts with tighter controls—including up to 200 breakout rooms and flexible cloud recording—and its AI Companion delivers quick meeting summaries, smart chapters, and on-demand “catch-me-up” messages, allowing late joiners to see what they missed.
After the call ends, productivity depends on having notes and tasks in one place. We recommend Notion as an all-in-one hub that combines pages, relational databases, and Kanban boards, making it easy to store meeting recaps alongside tasks, project documents, and team wikis.
With 2sync, you can automatically sync Google Calendar events and Todoist tasks into Notion, so every scheduled call and follow-up action appears without manual copying. Spend less time moving information around and more time acting on what matters.
