Apple Podcasts Search, Episodes and Reviews Scraper

Podcast researchers and media analysts get show metadata, episode lists and listener reviews from Apple Podcasts in one Actor instead of three separate lookups. Search by name, pull a show's full episode history, or export its reviews, all with the same clean schema.

Get structured podcast data from Apple's public iTunes API as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call it as a tool from Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or any MCP client. Built on the same public JSON endpoints that power Apple Podcasts search and the App Store review feeds, so no browser or login is needed. Pay only for the results you receive.

What you get

Three modes, one Actor:

• Search: find podcast shows by keyword, with show name, publisher (artistName), feed URL, episode count, genres, artwork and Apple Podcasts link.
• Episodes: list a show's episodes, with title, release date, duration, description and episode link.
• Reviews: pull a show's listener reviews, with title, text, star rating, app version and review date. Reviewer names are never collected.

Every result is a flat record tagged with mode and podcastId, so search, episode and review rows from the same run drop straight into one table, spreadsheet or database.

Why use this instead of the app

• One Actor covers discovery (search), content (episodes) and sentiment (reviews)
• Pagination and rate-limit pacing handled for you, with automatic retries
• Results in JSON, CSV, Excel or via API, or piped into Zapier, Make, n8n and Google Sheets
• Works as an MCP tool, so AI agents can look up podcast data on demand
• No browser, no proxies, no personal data: fast runs and a tiny cost per result

Input

Field	Type	Default	Meaning
mode	string	search	search, episodes or reviews
searchTerm	string		Keyword to search podcast shows for (mode search)
podcastIds	array		Numeric Apple Podcasts show IDs, e.g. 1200361736 (modes episodes and reviews)
country	string	us	Two-letter iTunes storefront country code
maxResults	integer	100	Cap on results saved. You are charged per result, so this caps your cost.

Example input:

{
  "mode": "reviews",
  "podcastIds": ["1200361736"],
  "country": "us",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Output

Sample rows from a live run:

podcast	artist	genre	episodes
NPR News Now	NPR	Daily News	4
Apple News Today	Apple News	Daily News	1652
Global News Podcast	BBC World Service	Daily News	2949

Example results (one of each mode, shortened):

{
  "mode": "search",
  "podcastId": 1200361736,
  "collectionName": "The Daily",
  "artistName": "The New York Times",
  "feedUrl": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl",
  "trackCount": 2719,
  "releaseDate": "2026-09-01T10:00:00Z",
  "primaryGenreName": "Daily News",
  "genres": ["Daily News", "Podcasts", "News"],
  "collectionViewUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736",
  "artworkUrl600": "https://example.com/art600.jpg",
  "country": "USA",
  "contentAdvisoryRating": "Clean"
}

{
  "mode": "episodes",
  "podcastId": "1200361736",
  "trackId": 1000700000000,
  "trackName": "An Episode Title",
  "releaseDate": "2026-09-10T10:00:00Z",
  "trackTimeMillis": 1800000,
  "description": "Episode description.",
  "episodeUrl": "https://example.com/episode.mp3",
  "episodeGuid": "guid-123",
  "collectionId": 1200361736,
  "collectionName": "The Daily"
}

{
  "mode": "reviews",
  "podcastId": "1200361736",
  "reviewId": "10001",
  "title": "Great show",
  "content": "I listen every day.",
  "rating": 5,
  "appVersion": "2.1",
  "updated": "2026-09-01T00:00:00-07:00"
}

Field reference by mode:

• search: mode, podcastId, collectionName, artistName, feedUrl, trackCount, releaseDate, primaryGenreName, genres[], collectionViewUrl, artworkUrl600, country, contentAdvisoryRating
• episodes: mode, podcastId, trackId, trackName, releaseDate, trackTimeMillis, description, episodeUrl, episodeGuid, collectionId, collectionName
• reviews: mode, podcastId, reviewId, title, content, rating (1 to 5), appVersion, updated

Pricing

Pay per event. You are charged $2.00 per 1,000 results saved to the dataset, plus a fraction of a cent per run start. Nothing is charged for results you do not receive. Set "Max total charge per run" in the run options to cap spending on any run. When a run reaches your cap it stops cleanly and keeps everything it already saved.

Rough guide: 1,000 results cost $2.00 and take about 30 seconds.

Use it from an AI agent (MCP)

This Actor is available as an MCP tool through the Apify MCP server. Add it to your client, then ask the agent for the data in plain language.

Claude Desktop, Claude Code or Cursor (mcp.json / claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=brightpath-data/apple-podcasts-search-reviews",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" }
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT and other clients that support remote MCP servers: add https://mcp.apify.com/?actors=brightpath-data/apple-podcasts-search-reviews as a connector with your Apify token.

Example prompt once connected: "Search Apple Podcasts for true crime shows, then pull the 50 most recent reviews for the top result."

Use it from code

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/brightpath-data~apple-podcasts-search-reviews/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"reviews","podcastIds":["1200361736"],"maxResults":100}'

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("brightpath-data/apple-podcasts-search-reviews").call(run_input={"mode": "reviews", "podcastIds": ["1200361736"], "maxResults": 100})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

Limits and fair use

• Up to 10,000 results per run. For larger reviews exports, split by podcast ID or run again for new reviews.
• The iTunes search endpoint has no offset pagination, so search mode returns at most 200 shows per run regardless of maxResults.
• The reviews feed serves at most 10 pages (about 500 reviews) per podcast ID; run again later for newer reviews.
• All requests are paced at 1.5 seconds apart. The search/lookup API has an informal limit of about 20 requests per minute; this pacing keeps mixed usage well under it. Large reviews-only runs across many podcast IDs will take longer as a result.
• Reviewer names are never collected, only review text, title, rating, app version and date.

Data source and legal

Data comes from Apple's public iTunes Search and Lookup API and the public customer-reviews RSS-to-JSON feed, both served without authentication at itunes.apple.com. This Actor collects public, non-personal data only: reviewer names are dropped, and review content remains the property of its authors. Use results for analysis, monitoring and research. This Actor does not bypass logins, paywalls or access controls. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Support

Found a problem or need a field added? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. Fixes for broken runs are prioritized.