Google Meet Review: Free Limits, Features and NZ Pricing

Google Meet is Google’s browser-based video calling and online-meeting service, used for everything from a quick one-to-one catch-up to a company-wide webinar. It is free to start with any Google account, works without installing software, and links into Gmail, Google Calendar and the rest of Google Workspace. This review explains what the free tier actually allows, how the paid features and New Zealand pricing work, how good call quality and privacy are, and where Meet beats — or loses to — the alternatives.

What is Google Meet?

Google Meet is a cloud-based video conferencing tool that runs in a web browser or through mobile apps for Android and iOS. You create or join a meeting from a link, a dial-in number and PIN, or straight from a Google Calendar event, and other people join by clicking the same link — no account is strictly required for guests invited by a signed-in host.

It is a proprietary Google product, not open-source software, and it replaced the old Google Hangouts and Hangouts Meet brands. Because it is part of Google’s ecosystem, your meetings sit alongside your Gmail inbox and Calendar, and recordings and AI notes save straight to Google Drive. That tight integration is Meet’s biggest practical advantage over standalone apps for anyone already living in a Google account.

What does the free version of Google Meet include?

The free version gives you fully featured video calls with a few hard limits on length and size. Anyone with a personal Google account can host, and the core experience — HD video, screen sharing, live captions, custom and blurred backgrounds, chat, hand-raising and emoji reactions — is the same whether you pay or not. What the free tier leaves out is the business plumbing: cloud recording, breakout rooms, attendance tracking, transcripts and Gemini AI notes all require a paid Google Workspace plan.

How long can a free Google Meet call last?

A free group meeting (three or more people) ends automatically after 60 minutes, while a one-to-one call between just two people can run for up to 24 hours. When a group call nears the hour mark everyone sees a warning, and once it ends you can simply start a fresh meeting on the same link to continue. Paid Workspace plans lift the group limit to 24 hours, which is the main reason businesses upgrade.

How many people can join a Google Meet call?

Up to 100 people can join a free Google Meet, which is plenty for a class, a club or most team meetings. Paid plans raise that ceiling: Business Standard allows 150, Business Plus allows 500, and Enterprise supports up to 1,000 participants in a single call. If you regularly need more than 100 attendees, that participant cap — not the features — is usually what pushes you onto a paid tier.

What are Google Meet’s main features?

Google Meet’s strength is that the everyday features are simple and visible, with the heavier tools reserved for paid plans. The layout is deliberately minimal, so most people can share a screen or change the view without a manual.

Layouts, screen sharing and captions

These three are available to everyone, free included. You can switch between a tiled grid, a sidebar, a spotlight on one speaker, or an “auto” view that follows whoever is talking. Screen sharing lets you present your whole screen, a single window or just one browser tab, which keeps private messages and notifications out of view. Live captions transcribe speech on screen in real time and support several languages, which helps accessibility and noisy environments alike.

Recording, transcripts and attendance

Recording is a paid feature, and it is tightly permissioned. On eligible Workspace plans the host (or someone they promote to co-host) can record a meeting straight to Google Drive, every participant is notified when recording starts, and viewers can only download the file if the host allows it. Business Standard and above also add automatic meeting transcripts and, on higher tiers, attendance reports — none of which exist on the free plan.

Breakout rooms, polls and Q&A

Breakout rooms, polls and a moderated Q&A are Workspace features aimed at teachers, trainers and large sessions. Breakout rooms split participants into smaller sub-meetings for group work and then pull everyone back together; polls gather quick votes; and Q&A lets attendees submit and upvote questions so a presenter can answer the most popular ones. On the free tier these controls are not available.

Gemini and AI note-taking

Gemini, Google’s AI assistant, can now take notes for you inside Meet on paid plans. Its “take notes for me” feature writes a summary and action items during the call and drops them into a Google Doc afterwards, and Gemini can also generate studio-quality lighting and sound tweaks on supported hardware. These AI tools are included from Business Standard upwards rather than on the entry-level Business Starter or the free tier.

Phone dial-in, companion mode and integrations

Google Meet also covers the awkward cases where someone cannot use video. Every scheduled meeting can include a dial-in phone number and PIN, so a participant with a patchy connection or no laptop can join by audio from an ordinary phone. “Companion mode” lets people in the same physical room each join on their own device for chat, polls and screen sharing without creating audio echo, which is handy for hybrid meetings where some staff are in the office and others are at home. Because Meet is woven into Google Calendar, Gmail and Google Chat, you can add a Meet link to an invite in one click, start a call from an email thread, or jump from a chat into a video call — the kind of small conveniences that add up for daily users.

How much does Google Meet cost in New Zealand?

Google Meet itself is free; the paid version is bundled into Google Workspace, so you are really buying Gmail, Drive, Calendar and the whole suite with Meet’s higher limits on top. New Zealand pricing is shown in NZD per user per month and is cheaper on an annual commitment than month-to-month. The table below lists the business plans most Kiwi teams choose; figures exclude GST and change periodically, so confirm the current number on Google’s own pricing page before you commit.

For a small team that only needs longer meetings and recording, Business Standard is usually the sweet spot. If your budget is tight, it is worth checking whether genuinely free business software covers your needs before paying per seat, since the free Meet tier handles a surprising amount on its own.

How good is Google Meet’s call quality, and what do you need to run it?

Call quality is reliably good on a stable connection, because Meet adapts video resolution to the bandwidth it detects rather than dropping the call. A wired or strong Wi-Fi connection with a few megabits per second upload and download comfortably supports HD group video; on a weaker link, Meet steps resolution down to keep audio clear, which is usually the right trade-off. If calls stutter, the cause is almost always the network at one end, so it is worth a quick check before blaming the software — run a quick speed test to see your real upload figure, which matters more than download for video calls.

On hardware, Meet runs in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari with no install, or via the mobile apps. The webcam and microphone built into a laptop are fine for casual calls, but a decent webcam for working from home and a headset make a noticeable difference for anyone on calls daily. Intelligent noise cancellation, which filters out keyboard clatter and background hum, is available on paid Workspace tiers rather than the free plan.

A common New Zealand frustration is rural or satellite broadband with high latency, where video and audio drift out of sync. Meet handles this better than most tools because it prioritises audio and drops to a lower frame rate rather than freezing, but there is a limit to what software can do on a congested link. If you work from a lifestyle block or a bach on a fixed-wireless or satellite connection, switching off incoming video and relying on audio plus screen sharing is the most reliable way to stay in a long meeting without drop-outs.

Is Google Meet secure and private?

Google Meet encrypts your meetings, but it is worth understanding exactly what that means. By default, all Meet video, audio and data are encrypted in transit between you and Google, and at rest on Google’s servers — the same baseline Google applies across its services. This protects against someone intercepting the stream, and for the vast majority of meetings it is more than adequate.

What default encryption does not mean is true end-to-end encryption. Because Google’s servers process the media, Google’s systems can technically access content to power features like captions and noise filtering. For organisations that need the stream locked so that even Google cannot read it, client-side encryption is an optional add-on on higher Workspace editions, where the customer holds the keys. Personal Google accounts can also switch on an end-to-end encrypted call mode, though doing so disables extras such as in-call chat, polls and reactions. Meet also includes anti-abuse controls — hosts can lock meetings, admit people from a waiting room, and remove or mute participants — which matters as much as encryption for keeping meetings private in practice.

Google Meet vs the alternatives

Google Meet is one of several strong video-meeting tools, and the right choice depends on which ecosystem you already use and how long your meetings run. Note that Microsoft retired the old Skype service on 5 May 2025 and moved consumer users to the free version of Microsoft Teams, so Skype is no longer a current option. The table compares the main free tiers you are likely to weigh up in 2026.

If you want a fuller walkthrough of one rival, our Zoom review covers its free limits and paid tiers in the same way. For teams that need traditional phone lines alongside video, compare the VoIP providers in New Zealand as well, since a video tool and a phone system solve different problems.

How do you start a Google Meet call?

Starting a meeting takes under a minute and needs nothing installed on a computer. The steps are the same whether you are hosting a quick chat or scheduling ahead.

1. Go to the Google Meet website and sign in with any Google account, or open a Google Calendar event with a Meet link attached.
2. Click New meeting and choose to start now, get a shareable link for later, or schedule it in Calendar.
3. Share the link, dial-in number or PIN with the people you want to invite.
4. Allow your browser to use the camera and microphone, pick your layout, and admit guests from the waiting room as they arrive.
5. Use the on-screen controls to share your screen, turn on captions, or (on a paid plan) start recording and Gemini notes.

On a phone or tablet, download the Google Meet app and the same options appear as buttons on screen. If you set up calls often, adding the Meet link to a recurring Calendar event saves re-sharing the link each time.

Common Google Meet mistakes to avoid

Most problems with Google Meet come from the free-tier limits or the host settings rather than the software failing. Knowing the usual traps saves an awkward moment mid-meeting.

• Expecting the free plan to record. Recording needs a paid Workspace plan — if it matters, confirm your tier before the meeting, not during it.
• Being caught out by the 60-minute cut-off. Free group calls end at an hour; for longer sessions, schedule a second link or upgrade.
• Not checking who can admit guests. If you are not the host or in the host’s organisation, you may be stuck in the waiting room; line up host access in advance for big meetings.
• Blaming Meet for choppy video. It is nearly always the upload speed or Wi-Fi at one end; a wired connection or moving closer to the router fixes most quality issues.
• Assuming meetings are end-to-end encrypted. Default encryption is in transit and at rest, not end-to-end; turn on the encrypted mode or client-side encryption if the conversation genuinely requires it.
• Sharing the whole screen by accident. Share a single window or tab to keep notifications and private messages hidden.

Who is Google Meet best for?

Google Meet suits anyone already using a Google account or Google Workspace, and it is an excellent free option for casual and small-team calls. For households, students, clubs and small businesses, the free tier’s 100-person, HD, screen-sharing meetings cover the vast majority of needs without a cent. Teams that need longer group calls, cloud recording, AI notes or more than 100 participants will find the Workspace plans competitively priced and simpler to manage than juggling a separate video app.

It is a weaker fit if you live in the Microsoft 365 world (Teams integrates more naturally there), if you want a no-account, open-source tool you can self-host (Jitsi Meet is built for that), or if you need advanced webinar production features that specialist platforms do better. For a wider look at the tools a modern Kiwi workspace runs on, see our guide to home-office software and tools.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Google Meet really free to use?

Yes. Anyone with a personal Google account can host and join meetings for free, with HD video, screen sharing, captions and up to 100 participants. The free plan caps group meetings at 60 minutes and one-to-one calls at 24 hours, and it does not include recording, breakout rooms or AI notes.

How long can a Google Meet meeting last?

On the free plan, a group meeting of three or more people ends after 60 minutes, while a two-person call can run up to 24 hours. All paid Google Workspace plans extend group meetings to a maximum of 24 hours, which is why most organisations upgrade.

Can you record a Google Meet call?

Recording is available only on paid Google Workspace plans from Business Standard upwards, not on the free tier. When enabled, the host or a co-host can record to Google Drive, everyone is notified that recording has started, and downloads are controlled by the host.

Is Google Meet secure?

Google Meet encrypts meetings in transit and at rest by default, and hosts can lock meetings, use a waiting room and remove participants. That default encryption is not end-to-end, so for highly confidential calls you can switch on the encrypted call mode on a personal account, or use client-side encryption on higher Workspace editions.

Is Google Meet better than Zoom or Microsoft Teams?

None is universally better; it depends on your ecosystem. Google Meet is the natural choice for Gmail and Workspace users and gives a longer 60-minute free group limit than Zoom’s 40 minutes, while Teams suits Microsoft 365 users and Jitsi Meet suits people who want an open-source, no-account tool.