How Zoom licensing works
Zoom has one meaningful distinction: Licensed users vs. Basic (free) users. A Licensed user can host meetings with no time limit, record to the cloud, and access paid features. A Basic user is limited to 40-minute group meetings and local recording only.
You're billed per Licensed user per month. Basic users are free — you can have as many as you want. So the cleanup here isn't about deleting people from Zoom; it's about downgrading inactive Licensed users to Basic. They keep their account and can still join meetings hosted by others. They just lose the ability to host long ones themselves until you re-upgrade them.
This makes Zoom auditing lower-stakes than Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace— you're not removing access entirely, just changing a tier. Reversible in seconds if someone complains.
Finding inactive licensed users in the Zoom admin
Log in to zoom.us and go to Admin → User Management → Users. By default this shows all users. Filter by License Type: Licensed to see only your paid seats.
You can sort by Last Sign In to bring the least-recently-active users to the top. Zoom shows the last sign-in date for each user directly in this list — no export needed to spot the obvious ones.
For a more complete picture, use the Reports section: go to Admin → Reports → Usage Reports → Active Hosts. This shows who has actually hosted a meeting and when. A Licensed user who hasn't hosted a meeting in 90+ days is a strong candidate for downgrade.
Downgrading inactive users to Basic
In the Users list, check the boxes next to the users you want to downgrade. Then click Change License Type at the top and select Basic. Zoom will ask you to confirm — the change takes effect immediately.
You can also do this one at a time by clicking a user's name → Edit → changing their User Type from Licensed to Basic.
For bulk operations on larger accounts, the Zoom API exposes a PATCH /users/{userId} endpoint where you can set type: 1 (Basic) vs. type: 2(Licensed). You'd need a Server-to-Server OAuth app in the Zoom Marketplace to authenticate.
What to check before downgrading
A few situations where "no recent meetings" doesn't mean "safe to downgrade":
- Webinar hosts. If someone is Licensed specifically because they host occasional webinars or all-hands meetings, their day-to-day meeting activity will look low. Check whether the account has a Webinar add-on before downgrading.
- Cloud recording. Some users are Licensed primarily to get cloud recording for compliance or training purposes. They might join meetings rather than host them. Check whether they have recordings stored in Zoom cloud before downgrading — Basic users can't add new cloud recordings.
- Shared accounts and room systems. Conference room Zoom Rooms and shared accounts don't generate personal meeting activity but still need a license to function correctly.
- Seasonal users. Someone who only hosts meetings during a specific period (e.g. annual reviews, onboarding cycles) might look inactive most of the year. A 90-day window is usually safe; shorter than that risks downgrading someone who's just between active periods.
Reducing your committed seat count
Downgrading users to Basic is immediate and free. But if you've freed up a significant number of Licensed seats, you can also reduce the number of seats on your Zoom plan to lower your monthly bill.
For accounts billed directly through Zoom: go to Admin → Account Management → Billing. You can adjust your seat count there, subject to your contract terms. Annual plans typically allow reductions at renewal only. Monthly plans can usually be reduced at any time.
If you purchased Zoom through a reseller, contact them directly — seat count changes go through the reseller for those accounts.
Running this check automatically
Reach Seats connects to your Zoom account via OAuth and checks Licensed user activity daily. It surfaces anyone who hasn't hosted or joined a meeting in 30+ days alongside your other SaaS tools — Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub, and Jira — so you're not logging into six different admin consoles to do the same check.
7-day free trial, no credit card required.