Loom Free Plan Limits in 2026: 5 Minutes, 25 Videos, and What to Do When You Hit Them

Loom’s free plan (called Starter) lets you record videos of up to 5 minutes each and keep up to 25 videos per person, at up to 720p. When you reach 25 videos, Loom stops you from recording until you delete some or upgrade. AI summaries and chapters are not included; the only free AI feature is auto titles. Those are the Loom free plan limits (2026), all checked against Loom’s own pricing page and help center on 1 November 2026.

Below we explain each limit, what happens when you hit it, what the paid plans cost, and the workarounds that actually help. Full disclosure: we make Showplain, a browser screen recorder, and we list it as one option near the end alongside several others.

Loom free plan limits 2026 at a glance

One good thing: Loom says videos don’t expire. They stay available until you delete them (Loom help).

Is Loom free?

Yes. Starter costs $0, and you can keep using it without paying. It is a real free plan, not a trial.

Loom also offers a separate 14-day free trial of Business + AI to all new workspaces. When the trial ends without a card on file, your account moves back to Starter automatically, so you are not charged (Business + AI trial FAQ). After that, all the Starter limits apply again, including the 25-video cap. More on why that matters below.

How the Loom 5 minute limit works

On Starter, a timer appears under the Stop button. It counts down from 5:00, and at 0:00 the recording ends on its own (Loom help). Business, Business + AI and Enterprise have no length limit.

The 5-minute limit also applies to limited roles such as Creator Lite inside paid workspaces.

Paying for Loom but still seeing the 5-minute limit?

This usually means Loom is recording into the wrong workspace. Loom’s own fix (help article):

1. Check your role and workspace by clicking your profile picture. You need a Creator or Admin role in a paid workspace.
2. In Personal settings, set your paid workspace as the default.
3. Sign out of Loom everywhere: the website, the desktop app and the Chrome extension.
4. Sign back in and start a new recording.

If a trial has ended, your account went back to the free plan, and you will need to upgrade again to remove the limit.

How to record longer than 5 minutes on Loom

You have four real options:

• Upgrade to Business ($18 per user per month billed monthly, as of November 2026) for unlimited length.
• Start the 14-day Business + AI trial if you only need long videos for a short project.
• Split the video into parts. “Part 1: setup”, “Part 2: the bug”, and so on. Viewers often prefer this anyway. The catch: every part counts toward your 25 videos.
• Use another recorder with a longer free limit (see the table further down).

The Loom 25 video limit: what happens when you hit it

Loom counts every video in your Library, including archived ones. Screenshots don’t count. When you reach 25 on Starter, you can’t create new recordings (storage limit article). Your existing videos are not deleted. The same page mentions “inactive” videos: if someone asks to watch one, Loom messages you so you can reactivate it.

You can see your current count in your Library, next to the Search bar.

To record again, Loom gives two ways out: delete videos until you are under 25, or upgrade to a paid plan (trial FAQ).

How to free up space on Loom’s free plan

1. Open your Library and check the count next to the Search bar.
2. Sort out old one-off videos: quick replies, outdated demos, test recordings.
3. Before you delete anything, check whether someone still needs it. A deleted video’s link stops working for everyone you shared it with.
4. Remember that Starter can’t download videos, so you can’t keep an offline copy first.
5. Delete (not archive) the videos you no longer need. Archived videos still count.

The trial trap

Here is something many people miss. If you record a lot during the 14-day Business + AI trial and end with, say, 40 videos, your account drops back to Starter with 40 videos. You keep them all, but you can’t record anything new until you delete 16 of them or pay. Loom’s trial FAQ confirms this, and adds that you also lose editing tools such as trim and stitch after the trial (trial FAQ).

Is Loom AI free?

Mostly no. Auto titles are now free on every plan, including Starter. Everything else in Loom AI needs Business + AI or Enterprise (Loom AI features). That includes:

• AI summaries and chapters
• Filler word and silence removal
• Edit by transcript
• AI workflows that turn a video into a document, Jira issue or Linear issue

Two details from Loom’s docs are worth knowing. Summaries and chapters only apply to videos recorded after you upgrade, not to old ones. And if you later downgrade, AI already added to past videos stays, but new videos won’t get it.

If AI notes are the main thing you want, see our guide to screen recorders with a free AI transcript and summary.

What Loom’s paid plans cost (as of November 2026)

Monthly prices are from Loom’s pricing page, which says yearly billing saves up to 17%. The yearly per-month figures are from Carly’s July 2026 breakdown. Business features are from Loom’s trial FAQ.

Students and teachers: Loom’s old free Education plan is closed to new applicants. Verified educators and students can now get up to 50% off for academic use, or up to 75% off for classroom use, on paid plans (Loom education discount).

What changed in 2026: Atlassian pricing and Creator Lite

Loom is owned by Atlassian, and accounts are being moved onto Atlassian’s billing. Atlassian’s support page lists the main effects (billing changes):

• First-ever price increase. Existing customers move to current list prices and can’t keep legacy pricing. Some customers who were overpaying may pay less.
• Creator Lite is discontinued. Creator Lite users (who had the free, limited role) are upgraded to paid Creators on the integration date. There is no charge during a grace period, so admins should remove anyone they don’t want to pay for before the next bill.
• Smaller free workspaces. Starter workspaces integrated with Atlassian are limited to 10 users (Starter plan FAQ).

Workarounds that actually help

If you want to stay on Loom’s free plan, these habits stretch it further:

1. Script in three bullets. Write the point, the details and the ask before you hit record. Many updates fit in 2 to 3 minutes this way.
2. Split long walkthroughs into short parts. Name them clearly so viewers can jump to the one they need.
3. Clean your library every month. Delete test takes and expired demos so you stay below 25.
4. Save the trial for a busy week. Start the 14-day Business + AI trial when you have a launch or onboarding sprint, and delete extras before it ends.
5. Ask about the education discount if you teach or study at an accredited school.
6. Use a second tool for the videos that don’t fit: long training videos, or ones where you want AI notes for free.

Free alternatives if you keep hitting the limits

If the 5-minute cap or the 25-video cap keeps getting in your way, these tools have different free limits. Showplain is ours, so weigh our row with that in mind. For a longer list, see our roundup of the best free Loom alternatives.

Limits checked November 2026.

Our honest take on each:

• Bubbles gives the longest free recordings and free AI summaries, but videos lock after two weeks.
• Clipchamp is a good pick if you want to edit before sharing and already use Windows.
• Showplain fits if you want no install, 15-minute recordings with no video count limit, and an AI summary next to every video. The trade-offs: free share links stop working after 90 days, it only runs in Chrome and Edge on a computer, and the summary is written in English (you can speak in many languages). See Showplain vs Loom for a full side-by-side.
• Cap and Zight have free limits close to Loom’s, so they won’t solve the length problem.

Which option should you pick?

• You record a few short updates a month: Loom Starter is fine. Keep videos under 5 minutes and clean up old ones.
• You need long videos or unlimited storage, and your team lives in Loom: pay for Business. It’s the cleanest fix.
• You want AI summaries and chapters inside Loom: that means Business + AI at $24 per user per month billed monthly (as of November 2026).
• You want longer free recordings with AI notes and nothing to install: try a tool with a bigger free tier. Showplain gives every new account 14 days of Pro free with no card, then moves you to the free plan automatically. You can create a free account and compare it with Loom on your next update.