Enabling webinar breakout rooms

Account owners and admins can enable the use of webinar breakout rooms so that hosts can split their Zoom Webinar into 200 separate breakout sessions for up to 5000 webinar attendees. The webinar host can choose to split the attendees and panelists of the webinar into these separate sessions automatically or manually, or they can allow attendees to select and enter breakout sessions as they please. The host and co-host can switch between sessions at any time.

This article covers:

• How to enable webinar breakout rooms and breakout room options
  • Account
  • Group
  • User
• How to use webinar breakout rooms

Prerequisites for enabling webinar breakout rooms

• Account owner or admin privileges
• Zoom Events Unlimited license or Zoom Events Pay Per Attendee license; or, Zoom Sessions Unlimited or Zoom Sessions Pay Per Attendee license
  Note: Pay Per Attendee (PPA) licensed users can use this feature only in their Zoom Sessions and Zoom Events. PPA does not allow users to use this feature on the Zoom web portal—they can only use it on the Zoom Events portal.

Note: Before using breakout rooms, see the limitations of breakout rooms.

How to enable webinar breakout rooms and breakout room options

Account

To enable or disable Breakout room for all members of your organization:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an administrator with the privilege to edit account settings.
2. In the navigation menu, click Account Management then Account Settings.
3. Click the Webinar tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Breakout room toggle to enable it.
5. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable to verify the change.
6. (Optional) Select the check boxes for the following breakout room options, then click Save:
   • Allow host to broadcast message to participants: This allows the host to broadcast a text-based message to all participants in breakout rooms.
   • Allow host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms when rooms are open: This allows the host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms while they are already open. Otherwise, the host must close all breakout rooms to make changes.
7. (Optional) To prevent all users in your account from changing this setting, click the lock icon, and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

Group

To enable or disable Breakout room for all members of a specific group:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal as an administrator with the privilege to edit groups.
2. In the navigation menu, click User Management then Groups.
3. Click the applicable group name from the list.
4. Click the Webinar tab.
5. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Breakout room toggle to enable it.
6. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at the account level, and needs to be changed at that level.
7. (Optional) Select the check boxes for the following breakout room options, then click Save:
   • Allow host to broadcast message to participants: This allows the host to broadcast a text-based message to all participants in breakout rooms.
   • Allow host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms when rooms are open: This allows the host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms while they are already open. Otherwise, the host must close all breakout rooms to make changes.
8. (Optional) To prevent all users in the group from changing this setting, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.

User

To enable or disable Breakout room for your own use:

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
3. Click the Webinar tab.
4. Under In Meeting (Advanced), click the Breakout room toggle to enable it.
5. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable to verify the change.
   Note: If the option is grayed out, it has been locked at either the group or account level. You need to contact your Zoom admin.
6. (Optional) Select the check boxes for the following breakout room options, then click Save:
   • Allow host to broadcast message to participants: This allows the host to broadcast a text-based message to all participants in breakout rooms.
   • Allow host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms when rooms are open: This allows the host to create, rename, and delete breakout rooms while they are already open. Otherwise, the host must close all breakout rooms to make changes.

How to use webinar breakout rooms

After enabling webinar breakout rooms, users can do the following:

• Manage webinar breakout rooms (host and co-host)
• Participate in webinar breakout rooms (webinar attendees and panelists)