# Apple Podcasts Scraper: Shows, Ratings, Charts & Episodes (`best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Apple Podcasts without login: keyword search, show lookup by URL or ID, top charts by country and genre, star ratings with counts and histogram, RSS feed URL, and full episode archives with audio URLs, duration and transcript links. $0.50 per 1,000 podcasts, $0.20 per 1,000 episodes.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [A Q](https://apify.com/best_apis) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Apple Podcasts Scraper: Shows, Ratings, Charts & Episodes

Scrape **Apple Podcasts** in one fast Actor, with no Apple account, login or API key:

- **Search podcasts** by keyword (up to 200 per term and country, in Apple's ranking order)
- **Look up shows** in bulk by Apple Podcasts URL or ID
- **Top Podcasts charts** by country and genre (rank 1 to 200)
- **Ratings**: star rating, total number of ratings and the **1-5 star histogram**, plus update frequency (Daily, Weekly...)
- Show details: author, genres, **RSS feed URL**, episode count, latest episode date, explicit flag, 600x600 artwork
- **Episodes** (optional): the show's full public archive from its RSS feed, with **audio URL**, duration, release date, **season and episode number**, episode type, description, and **transcript and chapter links** (Podcasting 2.0), with Apple's own index as fallback
- Multi-country, date filter for episodes ("last 30 days")

No listener reviews, no owner emails or other personal data: just public show and episode metadata.

### Pricing: $0.50 per 1,000 podcasts, $0.20 per 1,000 episodes

| | This Actor | Typical Apple Podcasts scrapers on Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Podcast (with ratings) | **$0.50 per 1,000** | $3 per 1,000, or $50 per 1,000 for "directory" tools |
| Episode | **$0.20 per 1,000** | $3 per 1,000 |
| Actor start | $0.0005 per GB of memory (256 MB default) | up to $0.005 |

You pay only for rows you receive. **Max results**, **Max episodes per podcast** and **Max rows in total** cap every run, and your Apify maximum cost per run is respected exactly.

### Use cases

- **Podcast guest booking and sponsorship research**: find shows in your niche, compare them by ratings count, rating and update frequency.
- **Chart tracking**: schedule a daily run on the Top Podcasts chart per country and genre and track rank changes.
- **Content and media monitoring**: get the newest episodes of the shows you follow, with audio URLs ready for transcription.
- **AI and RAG pipelines**: collect episode descriptions, transcript links and audio URLs for indexing.
- **Market research**: measure a category (number of shows, ratings, publishing cadence) across countries.

### Input examples

Search, with ratings:

```json
{ "searchTerms": ["true crime", "startup"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 50 }
```

A show and its last 20 episodes:

```json
{ "podcasts": ["https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584"], "includeEpisodes": true, "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 20 }
```

Top 100 Technology podcasts in the UK and Germany:

```json
{ "chart": "top", "chartGenre": "1318", "countries": ["gb", "de"], "maxResultsPerQuery": 100 }
```

Empty input returns today's US Top 20 podcasts.

### Output

Podcast row:

```json
{
  "type": "podcast", "source": "chart", "rank": 1, "chart": "top podcasts us", "country": "us",
  "podcastId": 1200361736, "title": "The Daily", "author": "The New York Times",
  "url": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736", "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/Sl5CSM3S",
  "primaryGenre": "Daily News", "genres": ["Daily News", "News"], "episodeCount": 2764, "latestEpisodeDate": "2026-10-29T09:45:00.000Z",
  "explicit": false, "rating": 4.3, "ratingCount": 106069, "ratingHistogram": { "5": 77777, "4": 8651, "3": 5073, "2": 3987, "1": 10581 },
  "updateFrequency": "Daily", "artworkUrl": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/.../600x600bb.jpg"
}
```

Episode row:

```json
{
  "type": "episode", "podcastId": 1434243584, "podcastTitle": "Lex Fridman Podcast",
  "title": "#503 – AI Crisis in Math: Navier-Stokes, Riemann Hypothesis & Complexity Theory",
  "releaseDate": "2026-10-26T22:52:28.000Z", "durationSecs": 13360, "season": null, "episodeNumber": null, "episodeType": "full",
  "audioUrl": "https://media.blubrry.com/takeituneasy/ins.blubrry.com/takeituneasy/lex_ai_math_ai_crisis.mp3", "audioType": "audio/mpeg",
  "audioBytes": 160582933, "link": "https://lexfridman.com/math-ai-crisis/", "description": "Ankur Moitra, Steven Brunton and Alex Kontorovich...",
  "transcriptUrl": null, "chaptersUrl": null, "source": "rss"
}
```

Inputs that fail (unknown ID, no results) are listed in the **FAILURES** record and the run continues.

### How it works

Search, lookup and charts use Apple's public iTunes Search API and Top Podcasts RSS. Ratings come from the public show page. Episodes come from each show's own public RSS feed. Requests to Apple go through one polite lane (0.8 s spacing, automatic back-off on throttling), so runs stay reliable instead of failing on rate limits.

### FAQ

**Why are some ratings null?** Very new or small shows have no ratings yet.

**How many episodes can I get?** All of them: the RSS feed contains the full archive for most shows. Apple's own index (fallback) has the latest 200.

**Can I use it from the API, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent (MCP)?** Yes. Input is flat JSON, and output is a dataset you can download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Related: [Apple App Store Scraper](https://apify.com/best_apis/apple-app-store-scraper), [YouTube Transcript Scraper](https://apify.com/best_apis/youtube-transcript-scraper), [RSS Feed Reader](https://apify.com/best_apis/rss-feed-reader).

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search Apple Podcasts (e.g. true crime, AI, marketing). Up to 200 results per term and country, in Apple's ranking order.

## `podcasts` (type: `array`):

Apple Podcasts show links (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/.../id1434243584) or numeric IDs. Looked up in bulk.

## `chart` (type: `string`):

Add Apple's Top Podcasts chart for each country (rank 1 to 200). With empty input the Actor returns today's US top 20.

## `chartGenre` (type: `string`):

Optional genre for the top chart.

## `countries` (type: `array`):

Two-letter store countries (us, gb, de, fr, in, br...). Search, lookup and charts run once per country.

## `maxResultsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Per search term and per chart, per country (Apple's maximum is 200).

## `includeRatings` (type: `boolean`):

Add star rating, number of ratings, 1-5 star histogram and update frequency from the public show page.

## `includeEpisodes` (type: `boolean`):

Add episode rows for every podcast found, from the show's public RSS feed (full archive: audio URL, duration, season and episode number, transcript and chapter links), with Apple's index as fallback.

## `maxEpisodesPerPodcast` (type: `integer`):

Newest episodes first.

## `episodesPublishedAfter` (type: `string`):

Optional. Only episodes newer than this: a date (2026-01-01) or a relative time like "7 days", "3 months".

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap for the whole run (podcasts + episodes), so cost stays predictable.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "true crime"
  ],
  "podcasts": [
    "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584"
  ],
  "chart": "",
  "chartGenre": "",
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 5,
  "includeRatings": true,
  "includeEpisodes": true,
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 3,
  "maxItems": 5000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `episodes` (type: `string`):

No description

## `full` (type: `string`):

No description

## `failures` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "true crime"
    ],
    "podcasts": [
        "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 5,
    "includeEpisodes": true,
    "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 3
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchTerms": ["true crime"],
    "podcasts": ["https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584"],
    "maxResultsPerQuery": 5,
    "includeEpisodes": True,
    "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 3,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "true crime"
  ],
  "podcasts": [
    "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerQuery": 5,
  "includeEpisodes": true,
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 3
}' |
apify call best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,best_apis/apple-podcasts-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/epQEt3ASZF4qbha3O/builds/YBtN4cWlDb8VkRxXX/openapi.json