Apple Podcasts Scraper: Top Charts, Show Search & Episodes (Official API)

Export Apple Podcasts top charts for any genre and country, search podcasts by keyword, genre and storefront, and list episodes from a show's public RSS feed, as clean JSON, CSV or Excel. You don't need an API key, a login or a browser.

The actor uses only official, public Apple sources:

• the iTunes Search API and iTunes Lookup API (itunes.apple.com/search, /lookup)
• Apple's public Apple Podcasts top charts feeds (itunes.apple.com/{country}/rss/toppodcasts/...)
• each show's own public RSS feed, at the feedUrl Apple publishes for the show

It does not crawl the Apple Podcasts website. It returns show, publisher and episode metadata only. It collects no personal data (no listener, reviewer or contact data).

Use cases

• Podcast sponsorship and ad sales: list the top 200 Business, Technology or True Crime shows in the US, UK, India or any other storefront, with each show's episode count, latest release date and RSS feed.
• Guest booking and PR outreach: find active shows on your topic (activeWithinDays, minEpisodeCount) and see their publishers and genres.
• Chart tracking: schedule a daily charts run and store rank history in a dataset, Google Sheets or your warehouse.
• Podcast tools and AI agents: pull episode titles, publish dates, durations, audio URLs and plain-text descriptions from RSS for search, transcription or summarisation pipelines.
• Market research: compare which shows chart in each genre across countries.

Modes

Mode	What you get	Main inputs
search	Shows that match your keywords, optionally limited to one genre, for one or more storefronts	searchTerms, genreId, countries, resultsPerSearch, minEpisodeCount, activeWithinDays
charts	Apple Podcasts top shows (up to 200) per country, for all podcasts or one genre, with rank. Optionally enriched with RSS feed URL, episode count and genres	genreId, countries, chartLimit, enrichChartShows
episodes	Episodes for each show, read from its public RSS feed	shows (Apple Podcasts URL, Apple ID or RSS URL), maxEpisodesPerShow, episodesPublishedAfter

maxItems caps the total number of rows (and so your cost) in every mode.

Genres: Arts, Business, Comedy, Education, Fiction, Government, Health & Fitness, History, Kids & Family, Leisure, Music, News, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Society & Culture, Sports, TV & Film, Technology and True Crime.

Example: top 50 Business podcasts in the UK and India

{ "mode": "charts", "genreId": "1321", "countries": ["gb", "in"], "chartLimit": 50, "maxItems": 100 }

Example: active AI podcasts with at least 20 episodes

{ "mode": "search", "searchTerms": ["artificial intelligence", "machine learning"], "genreId": "1318",
  "countries": ["us"], "minEpisodeCount": 20, "activeWithinDays": 30, "maxItems": 200 }

Example: the latest 10 episodes of two shows

{ "mode": "episodes", "shows": ["https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736", "1322200189"],
  "maxEpisodesPerShow": 10 }

Sample output

A chart row (from the local test run on 23 Oct 2026, summary shortened):

{
  "type": "chartEntry",
  "source": "Apple Podcasts top charts feed",
  "chartCountry": "gb", "chartGenreId": "1321", "chartGenre": "Business",
  "chartUpdated": "2026-10-22T21:11:20-07:00",
  "rank": 1,
  "showId": "1291423644",
  "showName": "The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett",
  "publisher": "DOAC",
  "appleUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-diary-of-a-ceo-with-steven-bartlett/id1291423644",
  "primaryGenre": "Business",
  "summary": "Welcome to The Diary Of A CEO where you'll find raw, human conversations …",
  "feedUrl": "https://rss2.flightcast.com/xmsftuzjjykcmqwolaqn6mdn",
  "genres": ["Business", "Society & Culture"], "genreIds": ["1321", "1324"],
  "episodeCount": 906,
  "latestReleaseDate": "2026-10-22T05:00:00Z",
  "explicit": false, "contentAdvisoryRating": "Clean",
  "artworkUrl": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/…/600x600bb.jpg",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-23T04:11:23.605119Z"
}

An episode row:

{
  "type": "episode", "source": "Show's public RSS feed",
  "showId": "1200361736", "showName": "The Daily", "publisher": "The New York Times",
  "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/Sl5CSM3S",
  "episodeTitle": "The Election That Will Define Israel’s Future",
  "episodeGuid": "f2d5e37f-dc9e-4f9f-bb99-cc20088a43e9",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-22T09:45:00Z",
  "durationSeconds": 2032, "episodeType": "full", "explicit": false,
  "audioUrl": "https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/…/default.mp3",
  "audioType": "audio/mpeg", "audioBytes": 32514044,
  "description": "Israelis on both sides of the political spectrum see next week’s vote as the most consequential in their country’s history."
}

sample_output.json holds more real rows from the local test run. Search rows have the same show fields as chart rows, plus searchTerm, searchCountry and searchRank.

Pricing

Pay per result: $2 per 1,000 rows ($0.002 per row). Every show, chart entry or episode is one row. There's no start fee, and you never pay for rows you don't get. Use maxItems to cap spend, for example maxItems: 200 costs at most $0.40.

FAQ

Is this allowed? Does it scrape Apple Podcasts? It calls Apple's public iTunes Search and Lookup APIs and the public charts feeds, and reads the RSS feeds that podcasters publish for distribution. It doesn't crawl the podcasts.apple.com website. Please respect Apple's and each podcaster's terms when you reuse the data.

Does it collect reviews or personal data? No. Rows contain show, publisher and episode metadata only.

How fresh are the charts? Each run reads the live feed. The chartUpdated field shows when Apple last refreshed the chart.

Why do some rows have no feedUrl or episode count? A few shows don't publish a feed through the Lookup API, or the Lookup API returned no record for that storefront. Those fields are null rather than guessed.

How fast is it? Apple asks clients to keep the iTunes Search API to about 20 requests per minute, so the actor waits about 3 seconds between Apple requests and retries 403/429/5xx responses with backoff. A 200-show chart with enrichment needs 3 requests. A search costs 1 request per term and country.

Can I monitor new episodes? Yes. Schedule episodes mode with episodesPublishedAfter, or use maxEpisodesPerShow: 1 to see each show's newest episode.

Notes and limits

• The iTunes Search API returns at most 200 shows per term and country. Use more specific terms or several terms for broader coverage.
• Charts are limited to the 200 positions Apple publishes per storefront and genre.
• This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Apple Inc. Apple Podcasts is a trademark of Apple Inc.

Local development

pip install -r requirements.txt
# edit storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json, then:
python -m src
# end-to-end test (4 runs against the live Apple APIs, with assertions):
python tests/run_local_test.py