Loom review: you only pay for people who record
Loom is the fastest way to replace a meeting with a video, and its free tier stops dead at five minutes. Our 1 October 2026 check records Starter at $0, Business at $18 per user a month and Business + AI at $24, with only the people who record needing a seat.
The short answer
Buy Loom if you record walkthroughs longer than five minutes and want them watchable without a download. Business is $18 per user a month, or $15 billed annually, verified against loom.com/pricing on 1 October 2026, and viewers watch a shared link without occupying a seat.
Skip it if your recordings are short and occasional. The free Starter tier covers 25 videos at five minutes each with no expiry, which is enough for feedback and bug reports indefinitely if you delete as you go.
Where Loom fits
Loom fits the person who would rather record three minutes than write four paragraphs. The recording uploads as you talk and the link works immediately, so the gap between finishing and sharing is nothing. That is the specific job it does better than a screen recorder that hands you a file to host somewhere.
The unit is a creator seat, not a viewer, and this is the fact that decides a team's bill. Our 1 October 2026 check describes per-creator seat pricing, so a team of thirty with four people who record needs four seats. Most teams that overspend on Loom buy a seat for everyone who watches.
The free Starter tier is unusually specific about where it stops: a 25-video library cap and a five-minute limit on each recording on our check. Both are hard walls. At 25 videos you delete something before recording again, and a six-minute walkthrough cannot be made at all.
Those two limits split the use cases cleanly. Five minutes covers a bug report, a piece of feedback or a status update, and it does not cover a product demo, an onboarding video or a training walkthrough. If your recordings are the second kind, Starter blocks you in the first week.
Business at $18 per user a month is the first tier without those caps. Billed annually it is $15 per user a month, which totals $180 per seat across a year against $216 paid monthly, so each seat saves $36 on the annual rate. On five seats that difference is $180, which is roughly a free seat.
Our snapshot records both a monthly and an annual rate for the paid tiers while describing the model as annual billing only. That is a discrepancy worth resolving before planning around it, so confirm at checkout which billing periods are offered in your region, because an annual-only structure changes how you should evaluate the tool.
The fit weakens when the video needs editing. Loom is built to publish a single take, so trimming, cutting and restructuring belong in the screen recording software category further up the price range. If you expect to edit, you are buying a recorder when you want an editor.
Loom pricing
Loom prices per person who records, and its free tier carries two hard caps. The figures below were verified against loom.com/pricing on 1 October 2026, and the Loom pricing breakdown carries the longer version.
| Plan | Price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $0/mo | Free, no expiry. 25-video library cap and a five-minute limit per recording |
| Business | $18/user/mo | $15/user/mo billed annually, $180 per seat a year. Removes both free-tier caps |
| Business + AI | $24/user/mo | $20/user/mo billed annually. Adds automatic titles, summaries and transcript editing |
| Enterprise | Custom | Quoted. Our check records no published figure |
Loom's bill is mostly a question of who you count as a user. Four things set it:
- The number of people who record, not the number who watch. Viewers open a shared link without a seat, so the cheapest action on this rate card is removing seats from people who only watch.
- Your longest typical recording, because that is what the free tier gates on. Under five minutes and Starter may cover you permanently; over it and the free plan is not a saving.
- Which seats need the AI tier. The step from Business to Business + AI is $6 per user a month, and because pricing is per seat you can put heavy recorders on it and leave occasional ones on Business.
- Billing period, where available. Annual billing saves $36 per seat across a year on Business, though our snapshot is inconsistent about whether monthly billing is offered at all.
Loom pricing against the screen recorders
Loom sits mid-range and its free tier is the most clearly bounded in the category. Scribe is $35 a month on Pro Personal, verified 6 October 2026, and documents a process as steps rather than as video. Tella is $19 a month on Pro, verified 11 June 2026, and aims at a more produced result. Descript is $24 a month on Hobbyist, verified 1 October 2026, and is an editor rather than a recorder. For a single person recording occasionally, Loom's free tier beats all of them at $0.
Loom billing terms worth knowing
Two things decide what Loom costs: who counts as a user, and where the free tier stops.
- Free plan
- Starter, no expiry. 25 videos in the library and five minutes per recording.
- The unit
- A creator seat. Viewers watch a shared link without a seat.
- Business
- $18 per user per month, or $15 billed annually. $216 or $180 per seat a year.
- Business + AI
- $24 per user per month, or $20 billed annually.
- The AI step
- $6 per user per month, and it can be applied to some seats and not others.
- Five seats on Business
- $90 per month, or $75 on the annual rate. A $180 difference across a year.
- Billing period
- Our snapshot lists monthly and annual rates while calling the model annual-only. Confirm at checkout.
If a Loom invoice looks high, count the seats against the people who recorded something last month, because that is the one lever on this rate card that usually has slack in it. Our 1 October 2026 snapshot is internally inconsistent about whether monthly billing is available, so confirm that at checkout rather than from any review. Our creator tool cost calculators will total a seat count across a year.
What Loom gives up
Editing is the trade. Loom publishes a take, so cutting a mistake out of the middle is not what the product is for, and a creator who expects to shape a recording will find it thin. Descript at $24 a month exists for exactly that, verified 1 October 2026.
The five-minute cap on the free tier is a hard stop rather than a nudge, and it lands on the use cases people most want Loom for. A demo, an onboarding video and a training walkthrough are all longer than five minutes, which makes Starter a feedback tool rather than a free version of the product.
The 25-video library cap turns the free tier into a rolling buffer. You delete to record, which is tolerable for throwaway messages and wrong for anything you might want to send again. Treat free Loom as disposable by design.
Per-seat pricing punishes a team where everybody occasionally records. Four regular recorders is cheap; twelve people who each make one video a month is $216 a month on Business and awkward to justify. The model rewards concentrating recording in a few people.
Our snapshot contradicts itself on billing periods, describing annual-only while listing monthly rates. We have not re-verified it, so whether you can pay monthly is a thing to check at checkout rather than a fact this page is standing behind, and it matters because an annual commitment changes the risk.
The AI tier is a $6 per user step whose value depends entirely on recording volume. Automatic titles and summaries pay off for somebody making several videos a week and sit idle for somebody making one a month, so upgrading the whole team at once is usually waste.
Loom is a poor fit for public-facing creator content. It is built for internal and one-to-one sharing rather than for a published audience, so a creator making videos for subscribers is better served by the editing tools in the video editing category.
How Loom compares
The four tools below are the ones weighed against Loom, and the axis is whether you want to record, document or edit. Prices are the vendors' published rates with the date each was checked against its own pricing page. The wider field sits in the screen recording software category.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loom | Fast one-take walkthroughs shared by link | Free, $18/user/mo Business | Five-minute free cap, little editing, per-recorder seats |
| Scribe | Turning a process into written steps with screenshots | Free, $35/mo Pro Personal | Not video, and the free tier is web apps only |
| Tella | A more produced recording with backgrounds and layouts | $19/mo Pro | No permanent free tier |
| Descript | Editing a recording by editing its transcript | Free, $24/mo Hobbyist | An editor, so slower than Loom for a quick send |
| OBS Studio | Free local recording with full control | $0, open source | No hosting, no share link, real setup required |
What to test on the Loom free plan
Starter has no expiry on our 1 October 2026 check, so the test costs nothing and has no clock. The question is whether the five-minute cap sits above or below the recordings you need.
- Record the longest video you genuinely need to make. If it fits in five minutes, the free tier may cover you permanently; if it does not, Starter is not a saving.
- List everyone who recorded something in the last month. That list, not your headcount, is the number of seats to price.
- Send a link to somebody outside your organisation and confirm they can watch without signing up or occupying a seat. That is the main reason to choose Loom over a file.
- Hit the 25-video cap deliberately and see how the delete-to-record cycle feels. For some workflows it is fine and for others it is the reason to pay.
- Check at checkout which billing periods appear for you. Our snapshot is contradictory on this, and an annual-only commitment is a different decision from a monthly one.
- Put one heavy recorder on Business + AI and leave the rest on Business for a month. Per-seat pricing allows that, and it tells you whether the $6 step is worth spreading.
- Total five seats across a year: $1,080 monthly against $900 prepaid on Business, and set that beside Scribe at $35 a month and Descript at $24, verified 6 and 1 October 2026. The cost calculators will do the arithmetic, and the free resources library has a workflow checklist.
Loom questions buyers ask
How much does Loom cost per month?
Loom's Starter plan is free (5-minute limit, 25 videos). The Business plan is $18 per creator seat a month, or $15 per seat billed annually, with unlimited recording and storage. Business + AI is $24 per seat a month, or $20 billed annually, and adds auto-summaries, filler word removal, and AI workflows. Enterprise pricing is custom. All figures verified 1 October 2026. Viewers are always free. You only pay for people who record.
Does Loom have a free plan?
Yes. Loom's Starter plan is free and includes screen + camera recording, basic transcriptions in 50+ languages, and instant sharing via link. The limits: 5 minutes per video, 25 total videos, and 720p quality. It's enough for occasional use but restrictive for daily async communication.
Who is Loom best for?
Loom is built for async communicators: remote teams replacing meetings with video messages, freelancers giving client feedback, support teams walking through issues, and managers sharing updates. It's best for quick, internal-use recordings where speed matters more than polish. If you need polished tutorials or course content, Tella or ScreenPal are better fits.
Loom vs Tella: which is better?
Loom is faster for throwaway video messages and has stronger viewer analytics and team sharing features. Tella records camera and screen as separate tracks, giving you far more layout and editing flexibility in post-production: better for tutorials, courses, and external-facing content. Choose Loom for speed and async team communication. Choose Tella for presentable, polished recordings.
What does Loom integrate with?
Loom has deep integrations with Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence) since the acquisition, plus Slack, Notion, Google Workspace, GitHub, and over a dozen other tools. Videos embed and unfurl natively in Slack and Notion. The Jira integration lets you record directly from issues and auto-generate bug reports from screen recordings.
Is Loom good for making tutorials and course content?
Loom works for simple, informal tutorials: quick how-tos for teammates or clients. For polished course content, it falls short. You can't adjust camera layout after recording, there's no timeline editor, and you can't add text overlays, transitions, or B-roll. Tella or ScreenPal are better tools for tutorial-grade content that needs to look professional.
Can I download my Loom videos?
Yes, on paid plans. Business and Business + AI plans let you download any video as an MP4 file. The free Starter plan does not include video downloads. You can only share via link. If you cancel your subscription, make sure to download all your content first, as cloud-stored videos become inaccessible.
Can teams collaborate in Loom?
Yes. Loom workspaces let teams organize videos into shared folders, leave timestamped comments, react with emoji, and manage access permissions. The Business plan adds custom branding and password-protected links. Admins can manage creator seats and view team-wide engagement analytics. Viewers (people who watch but don't record) don't count toward your seat limit.
Is Loom worth the money compared to free screen recorders?
If you value instant sharing, viewer analytics, and AI summaries, Loom's paid plans justify the cost: especially for teams that rely on async video daily. If you just need to record your screen and save a file, free tools like OBS, macOS Screen Recording, or ScreenPal's free tier do the job without a subscription. Loom's value is in the sharing and analytics layer, not the recording itself.
Can I cancel Loom anytime?
Yes. You can cancel your Loom subscription at any time. Your access continues until the end of your current billing period. After cancellation, your account reverts to the free Starter plan with its 25-video and 5-minute limits. Download any videos you want to keep before your paid access expires. Cloud-stored content becomes limited on the free tier.