Is Vimeo Free? What the Free Plan Gives You After October 2026

The short answer: yes, with one rule that matters

Yes, Vimeo has a Free plan, and it costs $0 with no time limit. Since 7 October 2026 it works on a simple split. Public videos with embedding turned off do not count toward storage at all, so you can post as many of them as you like. Everything else, meaning any video you embed on a website and any video that is not public, shares 3 GB of storage ^[1]. That figure was 1 GB before the change. The plan has one seat, shows no ads around your videos, records up to 30 minutes at a time, and adds automatic captions and transcripts to your uploads.

So the real question is not whether Vimeo is free. It is whether your videos fit on the free side of that line. A filmmaker posting public shorts on Vimeo pages can live on Free indefinitely. A small business that wants its videos inside its own site, behind a password or in a branded player will hit the edges fast. This guide walks through what Free covers, what it leaves out, what happens at the limit, and when the cheapest paid plan earns its price. For the full plan grid, see our Vimeo pricing guide.

How the October 2026 storage rule works

Two kinds of video, two kinds of limit

Vimeo calls the new approach managed storage. Before 2026, every video counted toward one storage limit whatever its privacy setting. Now, on Free and on the new plans being rolled out, the limit applies only to embeddable and non-public videos, while public videos with embedding off are unlimited ^[2]. Starter, Standard and Advanced still count uploads and editor videos toward their total; new screen recordings are exempt on paid plans. The help center is explicit on one detail that trips people up. An embeddable video counts toward the 3 GB even when it is public. The storage total is a lifetime cap, not a monthly one, so deleting is the only way to win space back.

The default setting helps here. Free accounts created on or after 1 July 2025 outside the EU, the UK and Australia start new uploads as Public. Check the embed setting on each upload, though, because that is the switch that decides which pool a video lands in. In practice, sort your library into two groups before you upload. Videos you only want people to watch on Vimeo go public with embedding off. Videos for your website, or for a small private audience, go into the 3 GB pool.

Bandwidth follows the same split

Viewing traffic is split the same way. Public videos with embedding off have unlimited bandwidth on Free. Embeddable and non-public videos share 1 TB of bandwidth a month, and that allowance resets every month. Vimeo says streaming is not cut off when an account passes its threshold. Instead, it reaches out after repeated or very large overages, and it says over 99% of users never reach the threshold at all. The outreach has teeth. Without a resolution within seven days, an account can be temporarily suspended, and its embedded videos stop playing. For a Free account, storage will almost always bind first, since the 3 GB pool never resets.

Older accounts and old pages

Two caveats apply. Accounts created before 17 June 2024 may have different Free storage limits, so older users should check their own account page rather than trust a general figure. And many Vimeo product pages still quote the smaller pre-October figure for Free. Those pages predate the change. The help center and the launch post are the current sources, and both give 3 GB for the embeddable and non-public pool.

What you get on the Free plan

The list is longer than most people expect. Free gives you one seat, the owner, and no ads: Vimeo says no ads appear anywhere around videos on its site, which is the main thing that sets it apart from ad-funded hosting. Screen and webcam recordings run up to 30 minutes each through the Chrome extension and Record Studio, and the editor can trim, split and add text. Edited videos export without the Created with Vimeo watermark, according to the launch post. Note that on Free, new Vimeo Record recordings now count toward the storage limit, while earlier recordings are exempt; paid plans do not count new recordings.

Every upload gets automatic captions, and transcripts can be viewed and downloaded on Free. The Free plan help page also lists AI transcription, AI video details, chapters, SEO settings and version history, though older Vimeo pages put chapters and version history on Starter, so check your account. For sharing and feedback you get one review link per video, with an expiry of up to one month, plus five showcases, one channel and one group. Integrations include Zoom, Slack, Webex and Adobe Premiere Pro, and blog changelogs list Canva, Adobe Express and Adobe Media Encoder uploads for Free accounts too. Each video can carry one additional audio language track.

Analytics are thin. Product pages describe basic view counts and impressions on Free, with detailed analytics on paid plans, and a weekly digest email that summarizes key metrics. The player itself is WCAG 2.2 AA certified on every plan. One more reassurance for creators: Vimeo says it never trains generative AI models on customer content, and it states that this holds on the Free plan as well.

The AI tools, and the credit catch

Free has basic AI tools, but translation is a different matter. Subtitle translation runs on AI credits, at 10 credits per minute of video per language, and AI audio dubbing is an Enterprise feature. Free and trial accounts get no free AI credits, and the credit rates page ties credits to a paid plan. A 10-minute video with subtitles translated into two languages would need 200 credits, by our arithmetic. Paid plans receive 250 free credits once, and they expire 30 days after they are granted without renewing. So treat translation as a paid feature in practice, whatever the Free plan page lists.

What the Free plan cannot do

The gaps cluster around control: who sees a video, where it plays and what the player looks like. None of them is hidden. They are the features Vimeo uses to move people from Free to a paid plan, and each one starts at a specific tier. Here is what Free leaves out, with the plan where each gap finally closes for you.

• No password protection on individual videos; passwords arrive with paid plans from Starter.
• No embed domain privacy, so you cannot lock an embed to your own website. Domain-level privacy starts at Starter.
• No player customization beyond size, embed privacy, autoplay, mute and loop. Colors, logo, end screen and branding are paid. Product pages also say Free embeds carry a small Vimeo watermark that paid plans remove.
• No live events or webinars. Those start at Advanced, not at the next tier up.
• No downloads of uploads. Free members cannot enable downloads for viewers, and per the library help pages they cannot download their own uploaded videos either. Videos made in Vimeo's editor are the exception: they download up to 1080p on every plan.
• No team. Folders stay private to the owner, because Free has no extra seats.

The download rule deserves a second look. Keep your original files somewhere else, because Vimeo is not a backup on Free. If you later need viewers to save a file, our guide to downloading Vimeo videos covers the owner settings that paid plans unlock. The live gap matters too. A church, school or company that wants to stream an event will skip Starter and Standard entirely, since live features need Advanced at $75 per seat a month billed annually, or $125 billed monthly. Advanced includes 10 seats, and the pricing page does not state the checkout total, so confirm it before paying.

What happens when you hit the limit

On Free: uploads stop

The 3 GB pool does not reset. When it is full, uploads to it stop. You then have three options. You can delete embeddable or non-public videos, you can change a video to public with embedding off so it leaves the pool, or you can pay. Deletion is the blunt option. Switching settings works only for videos you are happy to show publicly on Vimeo without embedding them anywhere, which rules out most business uses. For anything else, the answer is an upgrade.

When a paid plan lapses to Free

This is the case that catches people. Videos over the limit are restricted, not deleted. Vimeo locks them starting from the most recently uploaded and works backwards until the library fits the cap ^[2]. A restricted video stops playing in embeds, on its page and through links. Nobody can play, edit or download it. Privacy settings that Free does not support, such as passwords, revert to Private, and they come back when you upgrade again. Direct file links stop working on the way down, and so do embeds of restricted videos or of videos that relied on domain-level privacy.

Team members lose access to the team account but keep their own free accounts, and videos they uploaded stay with the owner. Paid AI features, such as credits and translation, go away after a downgrade to Free, while the basic AI tools listed for Free remain. Upgrading within a year of lapsing restores videos that were moved to archive storage. One warning matters more than the rest. Deleting a restricted video is permanent and skips Recently deleted. Do not tidy up a lapsed library in a hurry.

The timing is predictable. Turning off auto-renew on Starter, Standard or Advanced drops the account to Free when the term ends. You keep paid features until the end of the billing cycle, and downgrades between paid plans take effect only at the next renewal date. Accounts left unused for a full year can be marked inactive and removed after advance notice, which applies to Free accounts as well.

Trials, refunds and the charges you cannot undo

Vimeo offers free trials of its paid memberships, except Enterprise. Trials are the right way to test password protection, domain privacy or the branded player before paying. The catch is the end of the trial. An uncancelled trial converts into a paid plan and charges the card you gave, and trial accounts get no free AI credits while they run. Put a reminder in your calendar the day you start one.

Refunds are narrow. You can get a self-serve refund on the initial purchase only, within 14 days of an annual purchase or within 3 days of a monthly one ^[3]. There are no refunds for renewals, trial conversions, add-ons such as extra seats and AI credits, or Apple App Store purchases. There are no partial or pro-rated refunds either. Plans renew automatically. A trial that rolls into a paid plan is not refundable, which is the strongest reason to cancel on time.

When upgrading to Starter makes sense

Starter is the first paid step, at $12 per seat a month billed annually ($144 a year) or $20 billed monthly ^[4]. Paying month to month for a full year comes to $240 against $144 on annual billing, by our arithmetic. Starter includes one seat and 2TB of storage, and you can add seats up to 200. Confirm the checkout total before you pay, since the pricing page labels every rate per seat and does not state that total.

The table shows where the line falls. Starter is worth it the moment one of four things becomes true: your embedded or private videos pass 3 GB, a client needs a password, an embed must play only on your own site, or viewers need a download button. It also raises the per-recording limit from 30 to 120 minutes and adds a custom video URL and unlimited showcases. If none of those apply, stay on Free. Nothing on Starter changes the ad-free player you already have.

Know what Starter does not fix. It has no live streaming and no branding beyond player customization, and it cannot sell video. Standard, at $25 per seat a month billed annually or $41 billed monthly, adds player branding, lead capture and custom calls to action. It includes five seats, so confirm the checkout total first. If selling was your reason to upgrade, note that Vimeo On Demand stopped new purchases and renewals on 21 September 2026 and shuts down on 20 November 2026; Vimeo now points sellers to OTT. US 501(c)(3) nonprofits can get a one-time 25% off code on self-serve plans, not on renewals, and verified US students and teachers a one-time discount code.

Free Vimeo next to free Wistia and YouTube

Free hosting is not unique to Vimeo, so it helps to see what the free tiers trade. Wistia's Free plan, per Wistia's pricing page, gives 25 GB of storage, one user, 200 GB of bandwidth and Wistia branding on the player. Vimeo Free embeds carry a small Vimeo watermark too. Wistia's 25 GB is more than eight times the 3 GB Vimeo gives embeddable videos, by our arithmetic. That bandwidth is per month, so it compares directly with a monthly terabyte. If your goal is embedding a few marketing videos on your own site, Wistia's free storage goes further. If your goal is a public library, unlimited public storage on Vimeo Free wins.

YouTube is the other obvious free option. Its help pages say uploads are limited to 15 minutes by default, with longer uploads for verified accounts, and a maximum file of 256 GB or 12 hours. YouTube's model runs on ads and its Partner Program, and its help pages note that even private videos can be reviewed for ad suitability. Vimeo's pitch on Free is different: no ads, and Vimeo says it does not train generative AI on your content. For the full trade, read our Vimeo vs YouTube comparison.

Where the new Free plan is not offered, and what may change

The launch post says the new free tier is not currently available in Italy and Austria. Readers there should check what sign-up offers them. Regional rules also shape the experience elsewhere. In the EU and the UK, Vimeo no longer promotes or lets people browse other users' videos, and site search on Free is limited to your own library. That makes public posting less useful as a discovery channel in those markets, even though the storage rule is the same.

Two broader changes are worth knowing. Bending Spoons has owned Vimeo since November 2025, and the plan lineup is in motion. The help center describes new plans named Creator, Core, Professional and Studio that are being rolled out gradually on some accounts, while the pricing page still sells Starter, Standard and Advanced. Vimeo has not published prices for Creator, Core or Professional. Check what your own account offers before you upgrade. Vimeo also says everything that was free before remains free, which is a useful promise to hold it to.

The bottom line

Vimeo is free in a real, usable sense: no ads, no time limit, unlimited public videos with embedding off, and 3 GB for embeddable and non-public videos, with captions, transcripts and 30-minute recordings included. It suits creators who post publicly and anyone who wants an ad-free place to share a few private clips. Businesses that embed on their own site, need passwords or domain privacy, or want viewers to download will outgrow it quickly, and Starter is the sensible next step. Before you pay, run a trial, cancel on time if it is not right, and remember that a lapsed plan restricts videos rather than deleting them.