Does Zoom Work in China?

Joining meetings

Zoom isn’t blocked in mainland China. GreatFire Analyzer, which tests websites from mainland China, lists zoom.us as not blocked. It rates some other Zoom addresses as intermittent or blocked. When Zoom moved to selling through Chinese partners in 2020, it said users in mainland China could keep joining Zoom meetings as participants, according to TechNode.

Zoom asks people joining from China to verify a phone number by text message. A Zoom staff member said in 2020 that this is required to comply with China’s network security rules. The same staff member said signed-in users verify once, and users who aren’t signed in verify every time they join. The Education University of Hong Kong tells its users in mainland China that they need to provide a phone number to join. We couldn’t confirm whether a foreign phone number is accepted.

Reports on quality are mixed. Sunset Browser, which sells a browser with a built-in VPN, says Zoom sometimes connects without a VPN, but video can drop to audio only and screen sharing tends to fail first. Feisworld, a blog, called Zoom inaccessible in mainland China in 2023.

Error 13215 and free accounts

If Zoom shows error code 13215, you can’t join meetings hosted by that user at the moment, according to Zoom’s help center. In a post on X in August 2025, Zoom encouraged users in China to upgrade to a licensed (paid) version for uninterrupted access. To fix the error, the host needs a paid account, or you need to sign in to a paid account before you join.

If you’ll join meetings hosted on free accounts, sign in to a paid account first, or ask the host to upgrade.

Hosting from China

We couldn’t confirm whether a visitor can host Zoom meetings from mainland China. In August 2020, Zoom stopped services, sales and updates for users with a billing address in mainland China and moved to selling through Chinese partners, according to TechNode. Zoom’s China phone number page, updated in June 2025, says in its list of service limits that Zoom can’t sell to businesses in China. Neither covers accounts from other countries.

With a roaming eSIM or VPN

You don’t need either to reach Zoom. They’re a backup. An eSIM that routes your data abroad takes it out of mainland China before it reaches the internet, and a VPN does the same on any connection, including hotel Wi-Fi. See eSIM or VPN for China and VPN for hotel Wi-Fi in China.

Airalo, which sells eSIMs, says Zoom works on its China eSIM without a VPN. We found no Zoom statement on how it decides you’re in China, so we couldn’t confirm whether a roaming eSIM or a VPN avoids the phone check or error 13215.

Other meeting apps

See our pages on Microsoft Teams and Google Meet.