Zoom registration makes people fill in a short form, at least their name and email, before they get the link to join your meeting or webinar. You switch it on by ticking Required in the Registration section when you schedule, and as of October 2026 it needs a Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account, plus the Zoom Webinars add-on if it's a webinar.
The trap most hosts find too late: change the registration questions after people sign up and they have to register again. For meetings, making a field required means earlier registrations are no longer valid, so their links stop working and they're sent back to the form. For a recurring webinar, editing the series loses the registration data, and if you remove registration and switch it back on, the old list isn't restored.
Meeting registration versus webinar registration
| Meetings | Webinars | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise account, and a host with a Zoom Workplace license | Pro, Business, Enterprise or Education account, plus the Zoom Webinars add-on |
| Always required | First Name and Email Address (Last Name shows but can be optional) | Name and email address |
| Custom question types | Short text or Single choice | Short answer, Single answer or Multiple answers |
| Approval | Automatic or manual | Automatic or manual, and the host can still deny people after automatic approval |
| Join info on the confirmation page | Only if someone registers less than 5 min before the start, or during the session | Only if someone registers less than 60 minutes before the start, or during the session |
| Extras | Banner and logo branding, email language and contact details | Tracking pixel, disclaimer text, CSV import and multiple tracking URLs |
Those differences are as of October 2026. Showing join info on the confirmation page is something an admin has to allow, and it means people can join without proving the email they registered with is theirs.
Switching registration on for a meeting
A meeting with registration has two rules first. The meeting ID must be generated automatically rather than using your personal meeting ID, and it can't be a No Fixed Time recurring meeting.
- Sign in to the Zoom web portal and click Meetings.
- Click Schedule a Meeting, or open an existing meeting to edit it.
- In the Registration section, tick the Required check box.
- For a recurring meeting, choose how people register: once for every occurrence, separately for each one, or once for the occurrences they pick.
- In the Meeting ID section, select Generate Automatically.
- Click Save. The Registration, Email Settings and Branding tabs then appear on the meeting.
Webinars follow the same idea from the Webinars page: Schedule a Webinar, then tick Required in the Registration section. Each meeting occurrence takes up to 4999 registrants, so if you need more, Zoom recommends a recurring meeting with registration, since every occurrence gets its own 4999. For the rest of the webinar build, here's my guide to setting up a Zoom webinar.
Approval, capacity and closing the form
On the Registration tab, click Edit next to Registration Options. Automatic approval sends joining details straight away. Manual approval means nobody gets the link until you approve them, and anyone still pending can't join. For a webinar, you approve or deny from Manage Attendees on the Invitations tab, and you can select several registrants at once.
Restrict number of registrants caps sign-ups; once you hit the number, nobody else can register. Close registration after meeting date stops late sign-ups, but there's a grace period. People can still register for 12 hours after the meeting ends, though the link won't let them join. Send an email to host gives you a message every time someone registers, and registrants get an email when you approve them.
Questions, branding and confirmation emails
On the Questions tab, tick the fields you want and choose which are required. Fields like Country/Region and State/Province show as drop-downs. You can add custom questions, but Zoom prohibits asking for confidential personal information such as credit card details or social security numbers. If an admin has disabled it, you may not be able to add custom questions to a webinar at all.
The Branding tab takes a banner and a logo, with an optional description for screen readers. Email Settings let you set the language registrants get emails in, the contact details they see and the confirmation email's subject and body. Bigger template changes have to be made by an admin in the account's Branding settings. Owners and admins can also set the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy links that sit under every registration form on the account.
What registrants see and need
By default the confirmation page doesn't show the join link; it arrives in the confirmation email instead. Zoom does this to stop people grabbing a link with an email address they don't control. If you also require authentication, registrants must sign up with an email tied to an active Zoom account. Without it, people don't need a Zoom account to join as a guest, and they can join from a browser if the host has the Join from your browser link switched on, though the browser version has fewer features.
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Zoom Webinars Plus and Events have their own registration settings for recurring sessions. There, you can add up to 3 privacy policy links, write a host message of up to 2,000 characters, set a registration window, ask for marketing opt-in or opt-out, and allow overselling to cover no-shows. Hosts can also pre-register attendees, who then skip the standard form and get a join link by email.
Should you require registration?
I'd turn registration on if you want a list of who signed up, need to check attendees before they join, or plan to follow up after a webinar. Manual approval is the safest choice for private client sessions. I'd skip it for internal team calls, where a form just slows people down, and I'd lock the questions before you share the link, because editing them later sends everyone back to register. If you're still at the scheduling stage, here's how to schedule a Zoom meeting first.
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Frequently asked questions
Do attendees need a Zoom account to register?
Not usually. They only need one if the host also requires authentication, in which case they must register with an email tied to an active Zoom account.
How many people can register for a Zoom meeting?
Up to 4999 per meeting occurrence. A recurring meeting with registration allows up to 4999 for each occurrence.
Why didn't my registrant see the join link after signing up?
By default Zoom sends the join link in the confirmation email, not on the confirmation page. Admins can let hosts show it only for people who register close to the start time.
Can I require registration on my personal meeting ID?
No. Registration needs the meeting ID to be generated automatically, and the meeting can't be a No Fixed Time recurring meeting.
Do I need the Webinars add-on for webinar registration?
Yes. Scheduling a webinar with registration requires the Zoom Webinars add-on as of October 2026.
