Right-size Zoom

Pay only for the Zoom hosts who host. Zoom charges for the right to host a meeting, and joining is free. Before a Zoom renewal, Asato shows which host licenses, plans and add-ons an organization pays for and does not use, by answering three questions about the bill: whether each licensed person hosts, whether each host is on the plan their meetings need, and whether webinar and large meeting add-on capacity is used. Every item it finds carries a yearly price and an owner. Asato carries out a change only after a named person approves it. Under Zoom's standard online terms a lower count takes effect only at the next renewal and notice is due at least 30 days before, so a fix approved after the notice date is Approved, not Saved. Asato's fee is a share of the savings, and if it finds no savings, the customer pays nothing.

When to use it

• A Zoom renewal is coming and nobody can say how many of the licensed hosts host meetings.
• People who only join meetings hold paid host licenses.
• Hosts hold a paid plan although every meeting they host fits a lower one.
• Webinar or large meeting add-ons are assigned to people who ran no event, or sit at a capacity far above the largest event held.
• The organization wants the changes carried out, with a person it names approving each one or setting a policy that governs changes of that kind.

Not a fit

• A list of hosts and their meetings with no need to price it or act on it. Zoom's own reports give that list.
• Negotiating with Zoom on the buyer's behalf. Asato does not negotiate. The buyer, or its reseller, negotiates with Asato's count.
• Deciding whether to keep Zoom beside another meeting tool. That is a portfolio decision, covered on the Rationalize your portfolio page.
• Zoom Rooms, Zoom Phone and Zoom's other products. This page covers what Zoom bills for meetings and webinars.

The job in one line

Pay only for the Zoom hosts who host.

The problem: a Zoom bill comes down only at renewal, and notice is due first

Zoom's own terms set a clock. Under Zoom's standard online terms:

• A lower license count takes effect when the next renewal term starts, not when it is requested.
• The term renews by itself unless notice of a change is given at least 30 calendar days before the next term starts.
• Each license must be unassigned from its user before the purchased count can be reduced.
• An account with custom pricing or a signed contract may have to go through Zoom to reduce its count.

An order form can set different terms, and where it does, the order form governs.

This is what separates the three states of a saving on Zoom. Found is what Asato identified. Approved is what a named person signed off. Saved is what came off the bill. A fix approved before the notice date, with its licenses unassigned, can reach the renewal. A fix approved after the notice date stays Approved, not Saved: the term renews at the old count and the organization is billed for another term. Found, Approved and Saved are separate figures and are never added together. Saved figures are agreed jointly by the customer and Asato at the close of the engagement.

Three questions to answer before the notice date

What Zoom bills for meetings is one formula: meetings spend is hosts times plan price, plus add-ons times tier price. Each of its three terms is a question, and Asato answers all three from the customer's own records.

1. Does this person host? (hosts) A paid Zoom license is the right to host. Joining a meeting needs no paid license. Asato sorts every licensed host by their activity and finds the licenses held by people who hosted nothing.
   • Link: each Zoom license is matched to the person who holds it and to the meetings they hosted.
   • Think: each host is sorted by their activity (90 days in the example on the page). A license on someone who hosted nothing gets a yearly price and an owner.
   • Execute: a person the customer names approves each change, or sets a policy that governs changes of that kind. Asato carries out the approved change and logs it.
2. Is each host on the plan they use? (plan price) Zoom's plans differ in how long and how large a meeting a host can hold. Asato sets each host's meetings against what their plan allows and finds the hosts whose meetings fit a lower plan.
   • Link: each host's meetings are tied to the plan the host holds.
   • Think: each host's meetings are set against what the plan allows. A host whose meetings fit a lower plan gets a yearly price.
   • Execute: the approver sees the host and their meetings before deciding. Asato carries out the approved change and logs it.
3. Is the add-on capacity used? (add-ons times tier price) Webinar and large meeting add-ons are assigned to one host each and priced by capacity. Asato sets each add-on against the events its host held and finds the ones that went unused or sit above their events.
   • Link: each webinar and large meeting add-on is matched to its host and to the events that host held.
   • Think: each add-on is set against the events held. One that went unused, or sits above its events, gets a yearly price.
   • Execute: the owner of each add-on decides. Asato carries out the approved change, and the customer renews on the lower count.

Nothing changes until a named person approves it. A person the customer names approves each fix, or sets a policy that governs fixes of that kind. Before Asato recommends anything, the customer's team names the people policy protects, and Asato takes them out. A usage record does not show everything: someone may schedule meetings for an executive, or host one large event a year. Each recommendation shows the host, what they hosted, the yearly price and the team that owns it.

The three steps under each question are the same three the platform runs everywhere. Link: the Asset Knowledge Graph matches the records. For Zoom it reads host license inventory, meeting and webinar activity, and add-on entitlement. Think: the Data Intelligence Engine turns the record into recommendations, each with a yearly price and an owner. Its Zoom Optimization data product identifies idle Zoom hosts, over-tiered users and unused add-ons across the account. Execute: agents carry out the fixes a named person approves. The Zoom Rightsizing agentic solution classifies hosts by meeting and webinar activity, proposes tier downgrades and add-on removals, and quantifies savings. All three are listed as available in Asato's public catalog.

Example data on the page

The product screens on the visual page show example data, not a customer result. One example account is used throughout, priced at the list prices on Zoom's own pricing pages for annual billing. Zoom lists no price above 250 licenses, so the example stays under that size. A larger account is priced on its own contract.

• The account: 240 hosts licensed on Zoom's Business plan, at about $220 a host a year ($18.33 a month on annual billing), and 6 Zoom Webinars licenses. The bill is $72,500 a year: $52,800 for hosts and $19,700 for add-ons.
• Hosts: 214 hosted a meeting in 90 days. 16 joined meetings and never hosted one ($3,520 a year). 10 show no activity ($2,200 a year). Found: 26 licenses, $5,720 a year. The customer's team names 4 to keep. For approval: 22 licenses, $4,840 a year.
• Plan: of the 214 who host, 12 held no meeting longer than 40 minutes or larger than 100 people, the limits of Zoom's free Basic plan. Found and for approval: 12 hosts, $2,640 a year. The other 202 are kept on Business. By longest meeting hosted: 12 hosts up to 40 minutes, 88 hosts 41 to 60 minutes, 84 hosts 1 to 2 hours, 30 hosts over 2 hours.
• Add-ons: three Webinars licenses for 500 attendees (about $1,000 a year each), two for 1,000 (about $3,400 each) and one for 3,000 (about $9,900). The largest event on the 3,000 license in 6 months drew 640 people, which fits the 1,000 step: $6,500 a year found. One 500 license held no webinar in 6 months: $1,000 a year found. Found: $7,500 a year. Each goes to its owner. Marketing approves the step down: $6,500 a year Approved. HR keeps its license for a yearly event.
• In total, $15,860 a year found: $5,720 from hosts, $2,640 from plans and $7,500 from add-ons. This is a Found figure, not a Saved one.
• The clock: the example term renews on March 1, so notice is due by January 30. One fix, 22 host licenses worth $4,840 a year, is found on December 8. Approved on January 16 with its licenses unassigned, it reaches the renewal and is Saved. Approved on February 10, it stays Approved and the 22 licenses are billed for another term.

Figures on the page, with their captions

Each figure on the visual page carries one caption. A caption takes no room on the page: it shows when a reader points at its figure, or taps the figure on a touch screen. The captions are given here in full. The caption of each panel that shows example data is labeled "Example data". In a figure, a ring marks a Found figure, a dashed ring marks an Approved one, and solid green marks a Saved one.

The figures on the visual page move. Each one builds up once when the reader reaches it: its rows light in turn, its bars grow and its numbers count up to the values given here. It then rests on its complete state. The hero figure repeats: it builds the bill term by term, rests on the whole bill, and starts again, and its pause control stops it on the complete figure. For a reader who has asked for reduced motion, every figure shows its complete state at once. Every number in this file is the value a figure rests on.

1. Your Zoom meetings bill, as a formula (hero). Example data: this example finds $15,860 a year on a Zoom meetings bill of $72,500 a year, at Zoom's list prices on annual billing. Inside the panel, at rest: $5,720 from hosts, $2,640 from plans, $7,500 from add-ons. While the figure builds, the same line reads in turn: 240 hosts on Business and 6 webinar licenses, at last year's count. 26 licensed hosts hosted nothing in 90 days: $5,720 a year. 12 hosts held only meetings that fit Basic: $2,640 a year. One webinar license above its events, one unused: $7,500 a year.
2. One fix, two approval dates. Example data: one fix, 22 host licenses worth $4,840 a year, on two approval dates. Approved before the notice date it reaches the renewal and is Saved. Approved after it, the term renews at the old count. Saved figures are agreed jointly by the customer and Asato at the close of the engagement. The panel lists Zoom's rules beside the two dates: a lower count takes effect at renewal, notice is due at least 30 days before, and each license comes off its user first. Source line inside the panel: Zoom's standard online terms; an order form can differ.
3. What a Zoom meetings bill is made of. Asato's method: what Zoom bills for meetings has three terms, and each one is a question Asato answers from the customer's own records.
4. Licensed hosts, 90 days of activity. Example data: of 240 licensed hosts, 26 hosted nothing in 90 days. The customer's team names 4 to keep, so 22 go for approval, worth $4,840 a year at Zoom's list price for Business. Each dot is one host.
5. Plan fit, the longest meeting each host held. Example data: of the 214 who host, 12 held no meeting past Basic's limits of 40 minutes and 100 people. Moving them is worth $2,640 a year at Zoom's list price for Business.
6. Execute, one of the 12. Example data: this host, one of the 12, joined 44 meetings and hosted 9, none past 40 minutes or 100 people, so the move to Basic, worth $220 a year, goes to the Sales operations lead to approve.
7. Webinar capacity, held against events. Example data: six Webinars licenses cost $19,700 a year at Zoom's list prices. One is held a step above its largest event and one went unused: $7,500 a year found, $6,500 approved. The bars show Zoom's list price for one Webinars license a year at each capacity, to scale.

Zoom facts on the page, with their sources

Each fact below is from Zoom's own page, linked beside it.

• Joining a meeting needs no paid license. A user without the Zoom Meetings Basic permission can sign in and join meetings but cannot schedule or host; with it, the user can host and schedule meetings of up to 40 minutes. Webinar, large meeting and events add-ons need a Zoom Workplace license on the same user, and their capacity is chosen per license. Source: Zoom Support, "Assigning or removing Zoom licenses from users", https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0064911
• Plans and list prices in US dollars. Basic: free, 40 minutes and 100 participants a meeting. Pro: $14.16 a user a month on annual billing, 30 hours and 100 participants, 1 to 99 licenses. Business: $18.33 a user a month on annual billing, 300 participants, 1 to 250 licenses. Enterprise: over 250 licenses, 500 or more participants, no price published. Source: Zoom, plans and pricing, https://zoom.us/pricing
• Zoom Webinars list prices, annual subscription, one license a month: $66.67 for 300 attendees, $83.33 for 500, $283.33 for 1,000, $825 for 3,000 and $2,075 for 5,000. Capacity of 10,000 and above is by quote. Over twelve months that is about $800, $1,000, $3,400, $9,900 and $24,900 a year. Source: Zoom, Webinars and Events pricing, capacity menu, https://zoom.us/pricing/events
• A lower quantity takes effect at the next renewal term (section 2.2). Payments are non-cancelable for the term unless Zoom agrees, the law requires or the order form says otherwise (section 12.2). Each renewal term begins automatically unless written notice of termination or modification is given at least 30 calendar days before it starts (section 14.1). An order form governs where it conflicts with these terms (section 2.1). Source: Zoom Terms of Service, effective August 11, 2023, https://www.zoom.com/en/trust/terms/
• Licenses must be unassigned from users before the count can be reduced, a reduction takes effect at the end of the current billing cycle, and an account with custom pricing or a signed contract may need to contact Zoom to reduce. Source: Zoom Support, "Reducing the quantity of licenses on your account", https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0057881
• Zoom's Active Host report covers at most one month a report, and lists each meeting's host, participants and duration. Source: Zoom Support, "Generating Active Host reports", https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0059073

No figure for the share of Zoom licenses that go unused is given on the page or here.

Who uses it

• IT asset manager or collaboration admin: runs it. Each license, plan and add-on is matched to its host and to what that host held, and the record stays current between renewals.
• CIO: gets a priced list before the notice date and a named approver behind every change.
• Procurement: gets the count of hosts, plans and add-ons the organization uses, in hand before it renews.
• CFO: signs. Found, Approved and Saved are reported as separate figures, and the fee is a share of the savings.

Trust and governance

• The Asset Clarity Report is built with read-only access.
• Asato reads records about technology, such as who holds a Zoom license and which meetings they hosted. It never reads people's documents, email or messages.
• Write access comes later, where the customer grants it, one system at a time.
• A person the customer names approves each fix, or sets a policy that governs fixes of that kind. Every change is logged.

Works with

• Zoom: host license inventory, meeting and webinar activity, add-on entitlement.
• The same record covers the customer's other software, hardware (network, compute and end-user devices), contracts and AI spend, through Asato's other integrations.

Compared with

• Zoom's own admin reports. Zoom's Active Host report lists hosts and meetings, at most one month a report. Asato works beside it: it matches each license, plan and add-on to its host and to what that host held, puts a yearly price and an owner on each one the customer can stop paying for, and carries out the changes a named person approves.

How a customer starts

The page's heading for this section: No savings, no fee. The line under it: Your Asset Clarity Report: a priced list of savings, in one week.

The action: Get your Asset Clarity Report, at https://www.asato.ai/talk-to-sales. The line under the button: "Read-only access to your Zoom license and activity records. Nothing is installed."

The page shows this section as one band and keeps only that line under the button. The four steps of the review are kept here for agents:

1. Connect. Read-only access to the customer's Zoom license and activity records. Nothing is installed.
2. Model. Asato matches each license, plan and add-on to its host and their meetings.
3. Checkpoint. The customer's team checks the findings and names the people policy protects.
4. Report. The customer holds its Asset Clarity Report: a priced list of what to stop paying for, with an owner on every item.

How a customer starts and what it costs are set out on the home page: https://www.asato.ai/index

Questions

The page shows at most five questions, the ones that belong to it. Any others are kept here for agents.

Zoom already reports on its hosts. What does Asato add?

A price, an owner and the fix. Zoom's own host report covers one month at a time and ends at a list. Asato matches each license, plan and add-on to its host and to what that host held, puts a yearly price and an owner on each one the customer can stop paying for, and carries out the changes a named person approves.

When does a Zoom license come off the bill?

At the next renewal. Under Zoom's standard online terms a lower count takes effect when the next term starts, the term renews by itself unless notice is given at least 30 days before, and each license must be unassigned from its user before the count can be reduced. An order form can set different terms. A fix approved after the notice date is therefore Approved, not Saved, until the renewal after.

Will Asato take a license from someone who needs it?

Not without approval. Nothing changes until a named person approves it. A person the customer names approves each fix, or sets a policy that governs fixes of that kind. Before Asato recommends anything, the customer's team names the people policy protects, such as someone who schedules for an executive or hosts one large event a year, and Asato takes them out. Each recommendation shows the host and their meetings, so the approver can check before deciding. A person moved to Basic can still join every meeting and host for up to 40 minutes. Every change is logged.

What does a person keep after a move to Basic?

They can still sign in, join every meeting, and host meetings of up to 40 minutes with up to 100 participants. What the paid plan adds, such as longer meetings and cloud recording, goes with the license, and webinar and large meeting add-ons need a paid license on the same user. Source: Zoom's pricing page and Zoom Support.

What access does Asato need?

Read-only to start. The Asset Clarity Report is built with read-only access. Asato reads records about technology, such as who holds a Zoom license and which meetings they hosted. It never reads people's documents, email or messages. Write access comes later, where the customer grants it, one system at a time.

What does it cost?

Asato is paid mostly on results: a small share when it finds a saving, and the larger share only once that saving shows up on the customer's invoice. If it finds no savings, the customer pays nothing.

Does Asato negotiate with Zoom?

No. Asato does not negotiate. The customer, or its reseller, negotiates with Asato's count.

Does this cover Zoom Rooms and Zoom Phone?

This page covers what Zoom bills for meetings and webinars: the hosts an organization licenses, the plan each host is on, and webinar and large meeting add-ons. Zoom bills rooms, phone lines and its other products as separate lines, and they are outside this page.

We also pay for Microsoft Teams. Should we keep Zoom?

That decision belongs to the customer. Whether to keep two meeting tools is a decision about the whole portfolio. This page answers a narrower question: whether each Zoom host, plan and add-on the organization pays for is used. The Rationalize your portfolio page shows how Asato finds where two paid tools do the same job and which spend can stop.

How long before the customer holds the list?

One week.

Is this only for Zoom?

No. The same approach applies to other software, and the same record covers hardware (network, compute and end-user devices), contracts and AI spend. The Microsoft page is Right-size Microsoft.

Next step

Get your Asset Clarity Report at https://www.asato.ai/talk-to-sales.

Related pages

• Asato home
• Platform
• Right-size software
• Right-size Microsoft
• Rationalize your portfolio
• Stay ahead of contracts
• Site index for agents

Last updated: 2026-10-06