Zoom can record a separate audio file for each participant, but Zoom's own documentation states two different caps for how many: the cloud recording settings page says 200, and the desktop app settings page says 80.
That is not a rumour from a forum thread — both numbers are on support.zoom.com right now, in sentences that are otherwise almost word-for-word identical. If you are planning a multi-speaker session around per-speaker tracks, the number you find depends entirely on which help page you landed on first.
The limits, at a glance
| Cloud recording settings (KB0064676) | Desktop app settings, Recording → Advanced (KB0060612) | |
|---|---|---|
| Setting name, verbatim | "Record a separate audio file of each participant" | "Record separate participant audio files" |
| Stated cap | "Records up to 200 speakers individually" | "Record separate audio files for up to 80 participants" |
| Dial-in participants | "The audio for all users who join by phone will be merged into one audio file." | "The audio of users who joined by phone will be merged into one audio file." |
| Audio container | M4A | M4A |
| Documented file naming | Not documented for cloud recordings — see official docs | audio[Name][random number].m4a |
| Files per live session | 150-file cap, which "includes ... audio-only files" | Not documented — see official docs |
Everything in that table is quoted or paraphrased from Zoom's help centre. What Zoom does not document anywhere in these pages is what happens to speaker 201 (or 81): there is no official statement about whether extra speakers are dropped, merged, or something else. Check the official documentation before you design a session around the edge of that number.
Why the two numbers disagree
Put the two sentences side by side and the shape of the problem is obvious.
Cloud recording settings page:
"Record a separate audio file of each participant: Records up to 200 speakers individually and provides you with separate audio files for each speaker. For example, this allows you to have more customization options if you want to edit or apply filters to just one participant's audio to improve the audio quality of the recording."
Desktop app settings page:
"Record separate participant audio files: Record separate audio files for up to 80 participants. For example, this allows you to have more customization options if you want to edit or apply filters to just one participant's audio to improve the audio quality of the recording."
The second halves are identical. Only the destination and the number change.
The most defensible reading — and the one that matches where each sentence lives — is 200 for cloud recording, 80 for computer (local) recording on the desktop app. Both pages are current, both are official, and neither one says anything about the other. Cite whichever applies to the recording destination you are actually using, and link your colleagues to the page rather than the number:
- Cloud: Changing basic and advanced cloud recording settings
- Desktop: Changing settings in the Zoom Workplace desktop and mobile app
What the setting actually produces
The audio-only option is described in one sentence on the cloud settings page, and it answers most of the follow-up questions:
"Record audio-only files: Record the audio of the video separately. Choose to record one audio file for all participants, a separate audio file of each participant, or both. Audio files are in the M4A file format."
Three things fall out of that:
- M4A, not MP3. Zoom names M4A as the audio format. No Zoom help page in this set mentions MP3 output at all — if you need MP3 for an editor or a podcast host, you convert afterwards with something like M4A to MP3.
- "or both" is a real option. You can keep the single mixed audio file and the per-speaker files from the same recording.
- The per-speaker files are separate files, not extra tracks inside one container — which is why they show up in the file count discussed below.
For computer recordings, Zoom documents the naming and the folder:
"If recording separate audio tracks for each participant (computer recording only), each participant's audio track will be named audio[Name][random number].m4a by default. For example, audioJohnSmith98796876.m4a"
"Once in the Audio Record folder, each participant's audio track will be listed as its own file. Each file name begins with the participant's name."
So on a local recording you are looking for an Audio Record subfolder inside your recording folder, with one M4A per speaker, each prefixed with a name. Zoom gives this naming convention for computer recordings only; it does not publish an equivalent pattern for cloud per-participant files.
When you don't have per-speaker tracks
The setting has to be on. If it was off during the meeting, no help page in Zoom's documentation describes a way to split a finished mixed recording back into per-speaker files — and the developer documentation is blunt about the dependency: the participant_audio_files array is only returned "when the Record a separate audio file of each participant setting is enabled."
What you can still do is pull clean audio out of the video file you already have. That is a local operation on your own recording, and it does not need the meeting to be re-run:
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
This copies the existing audio stream out of the recording rather than re-encoding it, so nothing is degraded on the way out. It runs in your browser tab — the file is read from disk and processed locally, which matters when the recording is an internal meeting you would rather not upload to a stranger's server. If you also need the video in a different container first, see converting a Zoom recording to MP4.
Platform-specific gotchas
- Dial-in callers never get their own file. Both pages say phone audio is merged into one file. If half your panel joins by phone, per-speaker tracks buy you much less than you expect.
- Per-participant audio can't be trimmed. Zoom's trimming page states: "Separate participant audio and in-meeting chat messages can't be trimmed." Trim the recording and the per-speaker files are not along for the ride.
- The 150-file cap counts them. For cloud recordings, "There is a limit of 150 files that can be generated from a live session's cloud recordings. This includes different recording layouts, audio-only files, chat transcript, and language interpreter views." Per-speaker files are audio-only files, so a large panel eats into that budget.
- Stopping and restarting makes new files. "Pausing a cloud recording does not create a separate file, but stopping a recording and starting a new cloud recording does create a new file." Three stop/start cycles means three sets of everything.
- Cloud recording needs a paid seat. "In order to start a cloud recording, you must be a Licensed user on a paid account."
- No local recording from a phone. "It's not possible to Record to computer files from an iOS or Android device." The 80-participant desktop setting is a desktop-app setting.
- Local files play on the machine that made them. "To play a computer recording, you must be accessing it from the same device on which it was recorded" — copying the folder to an editing workstation is not something Zoom supports.
FAQ
How many separate audio files can Zoom record? Zoom states 200 on the cloud recording settings page ("Records up to 200 speakers individually") and 80 on the desktop app settings page ("Record separate audio files for up to 80 participants"). Go by the destination you are recording to, and check the page that matches it.
Where are the separate participant audio files saved?
For computer recordings, in an Audio Record folder inside your recording folder, one M4A per speaker, each file name beginning with the participant's name. Zoom does not publish an equivalent naming rule for cloud per-participant files.
Why did everyone on the phone end up in one file? That is documented behaviour, not a bug. Both settings pages say phone audio is merged into a single audio file.
Can I get per-speaker tracks from a recording I already made? Not according to Zoom's documentation — the setting has to have been enabled when the meeting was recorded. You can still extract the mixed audio from the recording you have, which is enough for transcription or a rough cut.
What format are the files, and can I get MP3? M4A. Zoom's settings page says "Audio files are in the M4A file format" and no page in its documentation offers MP3 output, so convert after the fact if you need it.
Do per-participant files count against cloud storage limits? Zoom does not state this directly for per-participant audio, so check the official documentation. What it does state is that audio-only files count toward the 150-file cap on a single live session.
Recording limits are the part of every platform that documentation gets wrong most often — see more limits explained, including OBS audio track limits for the same problem on the streaming side. Everything on this site runs locally in your browser: browse all Clapr tools or go straight to extracting audio from a video.
All figures quoted from Zoom's official help centre, checked 16 September 2026. Where two Zoom pages disagree, both are linked above — verify against them before relying on a number.
