Getting started with Zoom Webinars

Zoom Webinars enable you to broadcast presentations to up to 1 million view-only attendees, depending on your webinar license capacity. Webinar licenses begin at 500 attendees and scale up to 1 million. As the host or panelist, you can share your screen, video, and audio during the webinar. Attendees can engage with hosts and panelists through chat and Q&A features, creating interactive experiences despite their view-only status.

Webinars offer flexible registration options. Hosts can require pre-registration with custom questions tailored to their needs, or disable registration entirely, allowing attendees to join simply by clicking a link when the webinar begins. Webinars support multiple scheduling formats: single sessions, recurring series, or the same session offered at multiple times to accommodate different audiences.

Learn about the differences between a webinar and a meeting.

Requirements for getting started with Zoom Webinars

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Table of Contents

How to purchase webinar licenses

You can purchase webinar licenses by visiting your account's Billing page or by contacting Sales. After purchasing webinar licenses, learn how to assign them to users.

How to set up webinar registration

When scheduling a webinar, the host can require attendees to register before the event. Webinars that require registration will have registration customization with Webinar Reports including the custom fields. As the host, you can also choose if you want to automatically approve all registrants or manually approve them. 

Alternatively, webinar hosts can turn off webinar registration, although attendees will still be required to enter their name and email address upon joining and the reports will be limited to this information.

How to schedule a webinar

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How to invite webinar panelists and attendees

Panelists are full participants in the webinar. They can view and send video, screen share, annotate, and more. Panelists do not count towards the maximum number of attendees for your webinar, but rather are limited by your maximum meeting capacity. Panelists will receive an email invitation separate from the attendees of the webinar, which includes their unique join URL and other joining information. 

Learn more about panelists.

Attendees are view-only participants, who can be unmuted if the host chooses. Their view of the webinar is controlled by the host. The maximum number of attendees is determined by your webinar license. Attendees can interact with the host and the panelists through the Q&A and in-webinar chat.

If the webinar does not require registration, you can copy the join link and share with your attendees.

If the webinar requires registration, the host will need to share the registration link and have the attendees complete the registration form. Once registered, they will receive an email notification with a unique join link. If an attendee tries to join with a generic join link or the Webinar ID, they will be routed to the registration page to complete registration. 

There are three different ways to invite attendees to register:

How to start a webinar

There are a few ways that you can start your webinar.

Web portal
  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal
  2. In the navigation menu, click Webinars.
  3. Hover your mouse over the webinar you want to start and click Start.
  4. If a dialog box appears, click Open.
    Your webinar will open and start in the Zoom desktop app.
Windows | macOS | Linux
  1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop app.
  2. Click the Home tab.
  3. Find and click the webinar that you want to start.
  4. Click Start.
Android | iOS
  1. Sign in to the Zoom mobile app.
  2. Tap the Home tab.
  3. Find and tap the webinar that you want to start.
  4. Tap Start.
Calendar event

If you have added this webinar event to your calendar, click the link displayed on your calendar reminder. Ensure that you are signed in to your Zoom account before clicking the link.