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Hosting a Zoom meeting with a large number of participants can be tough. Adding a co-host to your session allows you to share host privileges, letting them take some of the workload like managing participants and screen sharing. Here's how it's done.

Enable the Co-Host Setting in Zoom

Before you can add a co-host to a Zoom video conference, you'll need to enable the setting. To do this, head over to the Zoom web portal, sign in to your Zoom account, and then select the "Settings" tab.

Settings tab in the left hand pane of the Zoom Portal

You'll now be in the Meeting tab of the Settings menu. Here, scroll down until you find the "Co-Host" option.

Zoom has a lot of options on this page, so it's easy to overlook something. To make things easier, we'd recommend using the "Control+F" keyboard shortcut (Command+F for Mac) and typing "co-host" in the search box.

search for co-host in the search box

Using the Search feature will bring you right where you need to be. Toggle on the slider next to the "Co-Host" option to enable Zoom's co-host feature.

Toggle the slider to the right to enable the co-host feature

With this enabled, the host can now assign a co-host to a meeting. The co-host has the same in-meeting controls as the host. However, a co-host can't start meetings scheduled by the host.

Add a Co-Host in a Zoom Meeting

To assign a participant as a co-host, you'll first need to select the "Manage Participants" button at the bottom of the conference call window during a Zoom call.

Manage participants

A list of participants will appear in the right-hand pane. Here, hover over the name of the participant you wish to make the co-host and select the "More" option.

More button near participant name

From the menu that appears, select "Make Co-Host."

make co-host option in dropdown menu

A pop-up message will appear confirming that you want to make this participant the co-host of your meeting. Select the "Yes" button to proceed.

are you sure you want to make x co-host of this meeting

Verify that the selected participant has the (Co-host) label next to their name.

co-host will appear next to the participant name

Remove a Co-Host in a Zoom Meeting

If you want to revoke co-host privileges, hover over the co-host's name, click the "More" option, and then select "Withdraw Co-Host Permission" from the menu.

withdraw co-host permission

You can add an unlimited number of co-hosts to a Zoom meeting using this method. If you need to leave the meeting earlier than expected, be sure to pass over hosting privileges before you do, or else the video conference will abruptly end the moment you exit the call.