Requiring authentication to join a meeting or webinar


If authentication profiles are configured by an admin, hosts can restrict meeting participants and webinar attendees to signed-in users only, and even further restrict it to Zoom users whose email addresses match a certain domain. This can be useful if you want to restrict your participant list to verified users or users from a certain organization. Learn more about configuring authentication profiles.

If a participant tries to join the meeting or webinar and is not signed into Zoom, they are prompted to sign in to join. If a participant is signed in with the wrong specified email domain, they are prompted to switch accounts to join.

Additionally, if authentication exceptions are enabled by an admin, hosts can add authentication exceptions to specify email addresses that do not match the specified domains but can bypass authentication to join the meeting. For example, if a school only allows signed-in users to join meetings and webinars, you can create an exception to allow guest lecturers to join the meeting. Participants added as authentication exceptions will receive unique meeting invite links to bypass authentication.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for requiring authentication

How to enable or disable authentication profiles at the user level

Authentication profiles must be configured at the account level. Once your admin has configured authentication profiles, they can disable them at the account level and allow you to enable or disable profiles at the user level.

To enable or disable Only authenticated users can join meetings for your own use:

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Settings.
  3. Click the Meeting tab.
  4. Under Security, click the Only authenticated users can join meetings toggle to enable or disable it.
  5. If a verification dialog appears, click Enable or Disable 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.

How to require authentication to join a meeting or webinar

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Schedule a meeting or webinar. 
  3. Under Meeting Options or Webinar Options, click Require authentication to join.
  4. If there are multiple Authentication Profiles configured, you can choose the authentication profile from the drop-down menu.

Note: If you also require registration for your meeting or webinar, your registrants will need to register with an email that is associated with an active Zoom account. This must be done before registration can be completed. Registration can be completed without an active Zoom account if authentication is not required. 

How to add authentication exceptions

You can add authentication exceptions to a single meeting, all instances of a recurring meeting, or a single instance of a recurring meeting, if authentication exceptions are enabled by an admin.

Note: You can't add authentication exceptions to meetings that use your personal meeting ID. You must choose to generate a meeting ID automatically.

Add to a new meeting

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. Schedule a meeting.
  3. Under Meeting ID, select Generate Automatically. 
  4. Under Security, select the check box next to Require authentication to join. See the previous section for more details.
  5. Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
  6. Enter the guest participant's name and email address.
  7. (Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions.
  8. Click Save.
  9. Choose your other meeting settings, then click Save to schedule the meeting.

Add to an existing meeting

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Meetings.
  3. Locate the meeting you want to add an authentication exception to, then click Edit.
  4. In the Edit Recurring Meeting dialog, click either Edit This Occurrence or Edit All Occurrences.
  5. Next to Authentication Exception, click Add.
  6. Click Add Participant.
  7. Enter the guest participant's name and email address.
  8. (Optional) Click Add Participant to add more exceptions.
  9. Click Save.
  10. Modify any other meeting settings as needed, then click Save.