Alcoholics Anonymous offers several distinct meeting types, each with a different format, audience, and purpose. With more than 115,000 groups worldwide, there’s a lot of variety in how meetings are structured. Understanding the differences helps you find a meeting that fits your comfort level, whether you’re attending for the first time or looking for something new in your recovery.
Open vs. Closed Meetings
The most fundamental distinction in AA is whether a meeting is “open” or “closed.” Every AA meeting is listed as one or the other, and the difference comes down to who can attend.
Open meetings welcome anyone with an interest in AA’s recovery program. That includes people who don’t identify as alcoholics: family members, friends, students, counselors, or anyone who wants to learn how the program works. Nonalcoholics attend as observers, meaning they’re welcome to listen but typically aren’t expected to share during discussions.
Closed meetings are restricted to AA members or anyone who has a drinking problem and wants to stop. The smaller, more private setting allows people to speak more candidly about their experiences. If you’re unsure whether you belong at a closed meeting, the only requirement is a desire to stop drinking. You don’t need a formal diagnosis or a certain amount of sobriety. At both open and closed meetings, participants are generally asked to keep the conversation focused on recovery from alcoholism.
Speaker Meetings
In a speaker meeting, one or two people share their personal story with the group for most of the session. The speaker typically walks through three phases: what their drinking was like, what happened that led them to AA, and what their life looks like now in recovery. These presentations usually last 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes longer.
Speaker meetings are often listed as open, which makes them a natural starting point if you’re new or attending with a supportive friend or family member. You can sit and listen without any pressure to talk. The format also gives you a sense of how varied people’s paths into recovery can be, since speakers come from every background and stage of life. Some groups follow the speaker’s story with a brief period for audience questions or reflections, but many simply close after the talk.
Discussion Meetings
Discussion meetings are more interactive. A chairperson or group leader introduces a topic, a passage from AA literature, or one of the 12 steps, and the floor opens for members to share their thoughts and experiences related to that topic. People take turns speaking, usually for a few minutes each, and cross-talk (directly responding to or commenting on someone else’s share) is discouraged at most groups.
Nobody is required to speak. If the conversation reaches you and you’d rather not share, you can simply say “I’ll pass” or “I’m just listening tonight.” Discussion meetings tend to feel more personal and conversational than speaker meetings, and many regular attendees find them valuable for working through specific challenges. Because of that intimacy, discussion meetings are more commonly listed as closed.
Step and Big Book Meetings
Step meetings focus on one of AA’s 12 steps per session, often working through them in order over the course of several months. The group reads a section about the step, then members share how that step has played out in their own recovery. These meetings offer structured, in-depth exploration of the program’s core principles.
Big Book meetings follow a similar format but center on AA’s primary text, “Alcoholics Anonymous” (commonly called the Big Book). The group reads a passage aloud, sometimes going around the room paragraph by paragraph, and then discusses it. Some groups work through the book cover to cover over many weeks; others focus on selected chapters. Both step and Big Book meetings appeal to people who want a deeper understanding of AA’s philosophy rather than a general sharing session.
Newcomer Meetings
Many local AA communities hold meetings specifically designed for people who are new to the program. These sessions cover the basics: how meetings work, what the 12 steps are, what a sponsor does, and how to get started. The tone is deliberately welcoming, and long-time members often attend specifically to answer questions and share early-recovery experiences.
If you’ve never been to an AA meeting before, a newcomer meeting removes much of the guesswork. You won’t be expected to know the routines, the readings, or the unwritten customs that regular members take for granted. Some areas list these as “beginners’ meetings” in their local directories.
Demographic-Specific Meetings
Some communities offer meetings tailored to specific groups of people. The most common are men’s meetings and women’s meetings, where members may feel more comfortable discussing topics they wouldn’t raise in a mixed group. LGBTQ+ meetings serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer members who want a space where their identity isn’t something they need to explain or defend while also working on sobriety.
Young people’s meetings (often listed as “YPAA” for Young People in AA) cater to members in their teens, twenties, and thirties who face age-specific social pressures around drinking. There are also meetings for specific professions, for parents, and for people who are also navigating other recovery programs. The purpose of all these groups is the same: creating a safe space where shared experience makes it easier to be honest.
Online and Virtual Meetings
AA meetings are available online through video conferencing, audio-only calls, and text-based chat rooms. These virtual options originally grew to serve geographically isolated members who couldn’t reach an in-person group, but they expanded dramatically and now operate around the clock across multiple time zones.
Online meetings follow the same formats as in-person ones: speaker, discussion, step study, and Big Book. They’re autonomous groups, just like any physical meeting, and they apply the same open or closed designations. One practical difference is anonymity. AA’s guidelines caution that even “closed” or “private” online groups can inadvertently reveal a member’s identity, so participants are encouraged to take personal responsibility for protecting their own anonymity and that of others. If privacy is a concern, audio-only meetings or using a screen name rather than your real name can help.
Not everyone is comfortable with the technology, and some members feel that in-person connection is harder to replicate on a screen. But for people with mobility limitations, unpredictable schedules, or limited local options, online meetings make consistent attendance possible in a way that wasn’t available a generation ago.
How Meetings Are Listed
When you look up meetings in your area through AA’s website or a local intergroup directory, each listing typically includes a few shorthand labels. You’ll see whether it’s open or closed, what format it follows (speaker, discussion, step study), and whether it’s in person or online. Many listings also note the primary language and whether it’s a demographic-specific group.
There’s no rule about attending only one type. Most people in long-term recovery go to several different formats throughout the week, choosing speaker meetings when they want to listen and discussion meetings when they want to talk something through. If your first meeting doesn’t feel like the right fit, trying a different format or group before making a judgment is worth the effort. The variety exists because no single format works for everyone.