A Creator Lite role in Loom caps you at a five-minute recording even when the workspace around you is on a paid plan. The limit follows your role, not your company's invoice — which is why "we bought Business, why am I still counting down from 5:00?" is such a common and such a confusing question.
Loom's roles and permissions page spells this out in a sentence most people never scroll far enough to read. Here is what it says, what else the role restricts, and what Loom has published about the role going away.
The limits, at a glance
Every row below is quoted or paraphrased from Loom's own help pages — the wording in quotes is verbatim.
| What | Creator Lite | Where Loom states it |
|---|---|---|
| Single recording length | 5 minutes | Roles and permissions: "a 5-minute recording limit" |
| Videos you can store | 25 | Same page: "25 video storage limit" |
| Which plans have the role | "Business , Business+AI and Starter Free plans" | Roles and permissions |
| Recording resolution | "limited to resolutions under Loom Starter free plan" | Manage your video recording quality |
| Downloading your own videos | Not available | Download your Loom video: "Creator Lites can't download videos on any plan." |
| Trim and stitch | Usable, but the result must fit five minutes | Edit your Loom video |
| Paid roles, for contrast | "Unlimited recording time and storage" | Roles and permissions |
The definition itself reads, word for word:
"Free/Creator Lite Users (available on Business , Business+AI and Starter Free plans): Users on Loom Starter and can only record and edit with the limitations of the Starter free plan (25 video storage limit and a 5-minute recording limit) ."
Note the parenthetical: Creator Lite exists on paid plans. It is not a free-account-only condition. A workspace can be on Business + AI and still contain people who record under Starter-level restrictions, because that is what the role is for.
Why the paid plan does not rescue you
Loom's dedicated page on this — "Remove the 5-minute recording limit" — names the role directly:
"The 5-minute recording limit applies to the free Starter plan or workspaces with limited user roles (e.g., Creator Lite)."
That same page lists the other reasons a paying customer sees the countdown, and they are worth ruling out before you go argue with your admin:
"If you encounter a 5-minute recording limit despite having a paid Loom subscription, it is usually because you are logged into the wrong account on your recorder, or your default workspace is a free workspace."
"If you were on a trial subscription that ended, your account may have reverted to the free plan. You'll need to upgrade again to restore unlimited recording."
"If you are part of multiple workspaces, ensure the correct workspace is set as your default."
The detail that catches the most people is about sessions, not roles:
"The desktop app can be signed into a different account and has separate session management from the web or the Chrome extension. You must manually log out of the desktop app to start a fresh session."
So "I'm definitely signed in to the paid account" is a claim about your browser. The desktop app keeps its own login, and Loom says you have to sign out of it manually. Check the account inside the recorder you are actually recording with.
On what the default workspace controls, Loom says: "Your default workspace controls where your videos are automatically stored and the features you have access to on your recordings."
What the countdown looks like
There is no warning banner to miss. On a Starter-level recording, the timer counts down rather than up:
"If you're on a Starter plan, the timer will start at 5:00 and count down until you reach 0:00, at which point your recording will end. Once the video ends, your video share page will open."
The recording does not pause or prompt — it ends and the share page opens. Plan the take accordingly.
Editing is capped too, in a way that surprises people
You might think you can record three short clips and stitch them into one longer video. Loom's editing page closes that door explicitly:
"If you have a Creator Lite role on a paid plan you will be able to use trimming features such as Stitch but you'll have a five-minute video duration . This means if you stitch videos together and the total length exceeds five minutes, you'll need to trim the video down to five minutes or less."
So the five minutes is a ceiling on the finished video, not just on a single take. Stitching is allowed; exceeding five minutes is not.
Working around the length, legitimately
There are two honest paths, and one of them is simply asking for a full Creator seat.
The other is to record outside Loom and bring the file in — but note Loom's condition on that: "Video uploading is only available to users on Loom's Loom's Business, Business + AI or Enterprise plans ." (The repetition is in Loom's own text.) If your workspace qualifies, the upload path has its own numbers you should hit before, not after, a failed upload:
- "Loom limits uploads to 4 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less."
- A "Failed to process" message "most often occurs because the file is over 4 GB, its frames per second are over 60, or its resolution is over 4096 x 2160."
- Loom asks for "an upload speed of at least 5 Mbps."
Loom's own advice for files it rejects is to re-encode them: "We recommend exporting your video using the media specifications in the above table (H.264/AAC to . MP4 file.)" That is exactly the shape a browser-side compressor can produce, without the file leaving your machine.
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
Getting a long screen recording under 4 GB is usually trivial — screen captures are far more compressible than camera footage, and the bitrate is doing most of the damage. If you also need the file in a different container first, MOV to MP4 handles the QuickTime case, and the rest of the toolbox is at all Clapr tools.
The role is being phased out
Loom has published a note at the top of the roles page:
"Please Note: If you signed up to Loom after February 2026 you will only have Admin and Creator roles. Creator Lite roles will be deprecated for all net new users after February 2026 and for existing users on a rolling basis as part of the pricing and billing changes associated with the integration of existing accounts to Atlassian systems."
"On a rolling basis" is as specific as that page gets — it gives no date for any particular workspace. If you are on Creator Lite today, the role may still be there tomorrow; check the current status in the official documentation rather than assuming it has lapsed.
One related footnote on the same page, in case your workspace is the free tier rather than a paid one:
"*Admins on a Starter free plan have the same recording, editing, and sharing limitations as a Free user. If your Loom workspace integrates with Atlassian systems and is on a Starter free plan, you are limited to 10 Free users."
Being an admin does not buy you more than five minutes on a free workspace.
FAQ
Why am I limited to 5 minutes when my company pays for Loom? Most likely your role in the workspace is Creator Lite, which Loom defines as recording and editing "with the limitations of the Starter free plan (25 video storage limit and a 5-minute recording limit)". Loom also lists being signed into the wrong account, having a free workspace set as your default, and an expired trial as causes.
Can a Creator Lite download their own Loom videos? No. Loom states it twice: "Creator Lites can't download videos on any plan" and "Creator Lite and Viewer roles don't have download permissions on any plan."
Can I stitch several short clips to get past five minutes? No. Loom says Creator Lite users can use Stitch, but "if you stitch videos together and the total length exceeds five minutes, you'll need to trim the video down to five minutes or less."
Does Creator Lite affect recording quality as well as length? Yes. Loom's recording-quality page says "Users on a Creator Lite role will be limited to resolutions under Loom Starter free plan," and lists Starter users as able to "choose their recording resolution up to 720p."
Is Creator Lite going away? Loom says accounts created after February 2026 have only Admin and Creator roles, and that Creator Lite "will be deprecated for all net new users after February 2026 and for existing users on a rolling basis." No per-workspace timeline is given on that page.
Quoted from Loom's help documentation on the Atlassian support site, checked 16 September 2026. Loom's pages have disagreed with each other on recording length before — verify the current values in the official documentation. More posts on platform caps: limits.
