Bandwidth Control Settings

The following settings can be configured to control the amount of bandwidth that Zoom apps consume on your network.

Web Portal Settings

The Limit Network Bandwidth setting in the Zoom web portal allows administrators to limit bandwidth usage of Zoom video products within a specified IP subnet range

The Limit Network Bandwidth setting in the Zoom web portal provides configuration options to limit the amount of bandwidth allocated for Zoom video meetings by specified IP subnet ranges. This setting does not affect voice solutions like Zoom Phone or Zoom Contact Center voice calls. The bandwidth limitation applies to all Zoom applications and Zoom Rooms within the affected subnet range.

Bandwidth limitation settings and IP ranges should be specified by an administrator familiar with network configuration. This setting is intended for local networks known to have limitations at specific locations. See our Limiting network bandwidth support article for the prerequisites and instructions for using this feature.

Note

Bandwidth limitations may be mitigated for large-scale events, webinars, and meetings with Zoom Mesh. Zoom Mesh is a feature that allows end-user devices to communicate and send real-time traffic to each other to minimize the overall wide-area network and Internet impact.

Limiting bandwidth should only be done in very specific circumstances and Zoom strongly recommends reaching out to your Zoom support team for advice and consultation.

For most deployments and situations, Zoom can adapt to changes or limitations in available bandwidth without additional policies. Zoom will always provide the best user experience when allowed to calculate what network capacity is available. If you decide to implement policies that limit bandwidth, you should be aware that reduced bandwidth will impact quality including device frame rate and video resolution.

Note

The Limit Network Bandwidth setting overrides any individual Zoom Workplace app bandwidth settings that can be deployed through MSI, GPO, Plist, and Zoom Device Management, which can create a potential problem for users who require the highest video quality for all of their Zoom Meetings.

The IgnoreBandwidthLimits MSI switch/Plist key mentioned below allows select Zoom Workplace apps to be an exception to bandwidth limitations set in the web portal.

The Peer-to-peer setting allows a direct connection between users in one-on-one meetings, reducing network traffic to external cloud connections

Account owners and admins can enable one-on-one meetings to route data between two participants (peer-to-peer) rather than going through the cloud or server. Enabling this may improve the quality and connection of one-on-one meetings (depending on how your network prioritizes traffic) by directly sending video and audio between both parties, reducing interoffice-wide area network bandwidth usage for peer-to-peer meetings.

When a third participant joins a one-on-one meeting, or someone disconnects and rejoins, the meeting will use the Zoom cloud infrastructure instead of using a peer-to-peer connection.

Note

Peer-to-peer connections are only supported when both meeting participants are on the same local network.

See our Enabling Peer-to-peer connection for 2 people in a meeting support article for more information. Peer-to-peer is an account-level setting that will affect all users in a Zoom account when enabled.

Region controls in the Zoom web portal allow you to route Zoom data through data centers in preferred regions rather than blocking regions with your firewall

As Zoom scales to meet customer demand and enable future products, platform IP addresses and network ranges will change to accommodate service growth and seasonal load spikes. As these services and ranges frequently evolve, Zoom does not provide specific IP address ranges assigned to geographical locations.

Zoom lets customers make choices about the Zoom data centers that will be used for processing certain customer data when a customer hosts a meeting or webinar. Account owners and admins on paid accounts can opt in or out of specific Zoom data centers that will be used for the processing of Zoom Meeting participants’ real-time video, audio, and shared content during the hosting of meetings and webinars. These opt-in settings can be configured for your entire Zoom account, specific user groups within your account, or individual users.

Note

The data centers in the country supporting the region where an account was provisioned will be locked as an opt-in for processing.

Zoom data center choices typically only apply when an account is hosting a meeting or webinar.

See our Selecting data center regions for meetings/webinars for more information on selecting data centers at the account, group, and user levels.

Mass Deployment Settings

Bandwidth limits for individual Zoom Workplace apps and Zoom Rooms for Windows computers are deployed through Group Policy, MSI, or Plist switches

The Zoom Workplace desktop app for Windows can be deployed and configured in bulk using the MSI installer. By installing the Zoom Workplace desktop app with an Active Directory Administrative Template utilizing Group Policy or registry keys administrators can lock certain features and settings upon deployment.

Bandwidth limits for individual Zoom Workplace apps for macOS computers can be configured using Plist

The Zoom Workplace desktop app can also be deployed with preconfigured settings for macOS computers using a .plist file.

Registry Items/Plist Keys/MSI switches provide options to limit bandwidth, ignore bandwidth limitations, and split Zoom audio and video into independent network ports

The registry item/Plist key/MSI switch parameters in the table below can be applied to individual Zoom Workplace desktop apps to limit send or receive bandwidth, ignore any bandwidth restrictions that may be applied through the web portal—and enable Zoom audio, video, and screen share media to transmit via their own individual media ports rather than the default single media port of 8801.

Note

Bandwidth limitations set by IP range in the web portal will override bandwidth control deployed via MSI/Plist/GPO/Zoom Device Management unless the IgnoreBandwidthLimits switch/key is enabled.

Registry Item / Plist Key/MSI Switch	Description	Default State and Value	Value Type
BandwidthLimitUp	Set maximum sending bandwidth for the desktop app. Note: If bandwidth is restricted through web settings, the web restrictions override restrictions set in the app.	Disabled, (empty)	String (all values in Kbps)
BandwidthLimitDown	Set maximum receiving bandwidth for the desktop app. Note: If bandwidth is restricted through web settings, the web restrictions override restrictions set in the app.	Disabled, (empty)	String (all values in Kbps)
IgnoreBandwidthLimits	Ignore bandwidth limits that are set on Zoom web portal. (Useful for exceptions to bandwidth restrictions)	Disabled, 0	Boolean
EnableIndependentDataPort	Enables independent data ports for media. If enabled, the app will use the following ports for media transmission: Audio: 8803 Screen share: 8802 Video: 8801	Disabled, 0	Boolean

Availability of the bandwidth controls varies based on the Zoom Workplace app being deployed

The following bandwidth controls are available for Zoom Workplace apps based on the following operating systems:

Zoom Client	BandwidthLimitUp	BandwidthLimitDown	IgnoreBandwidthLimits	EnableIndependentDataPort
Windows Desktop App (MSI)	✔	✔	✔	✔
macOS Desktop App (Plist)	✔	✔	✔	✔
Zoom Rooms for Windows (MSI)	✔	✔		✔
Zoom Rooms for macOS (Plist)	✔	✔		✔
iOS Mobile App	✔	✔
Android Mobile App	✔	✔