Podcast RSS Feed Scraper + Podcast Index (Podcasting 2.0)

Turn any podcast RSS feed, show website or show name into clean, ready-to-use data: one show record per podcast and one episode record per episode, with audio URL, duration, dates, season and episode numbers, show notes, chapters and transcript links, funding, value-for-value (Lightning) splits, hosts and guests (podcast:person), location, podroll, live items and publishing statistics.

Works without any API key. Add a free Podcast Index key (optional) to also search 4+ million podcasts, read the trending and recently updated lists, look up shows by Podcast Index ID or GUID, and fall back to Podcast Index's stored copy when a feed is down.

• No login, no cookies, no proxies. Public RSS feeds only.
• Pay only for rows saved. Not-found inputs, blocked feeds, duplicates and episodes outside your date filter are never charged.
• Hard spend caps: the run stops before going over your limit.
• Huge feeds (3,000+ episodes, 20 MB+) are parsed as they stream in and fit in 256 MB of memory.

What you can do with it

• Podcast research & lead lists: build lists of shows in a niche with language, categories, host platform, publishing frequency, last episode date and whether the show is still active.
• Episode monitoring: schedule a daily run with "Only episodes from the last 1 day" to get every new episode of the shows you follow.
• AI & transcription pipelines: get the audio URL plus transcript (podcast:transcript) and chapter (podcast:chapters) links for every episode.
• Podcasting 2.0 audits: see which shows use funding, value-for-value, transcripts, chapters, persons, podroll, live items or podping.
• Archive exports: export a full back catalogue to JSON, CSV or Excel.

Quick start (no key needed)

1. Paste one or more podcasts into Podcasts, one per line:
   • an RSS feed URL: https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml
   • a show website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1 (the feed the page advertises is used)
   • a show name: Hardcore History
2. Set Max episodes per feed (newest first; 0 = show records only).
3. Click Start. Results appear in the Shows and Episodes tables; download them as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Example input:

{
  "feeds": ["https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml", "Hardcore History"],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 10
}

Optional: free Podcast Index API key (2 minutes)

Podcast Index is a free, open podcast directory with 4+ million shows. Its API is free, but every user needs their own key.

1. Go to https://api.podcastindex.org/signup and enter your e-mail address.
2. Open the activation link in the e-mail you receive and click Accept on the terms page.
3. A second e-mail arrives within a minute with your API Key and API Secret (keep it: it is the only copy of the secret).
4. In this Actor's input, open the section Podcast Index key (optional, free) and paste the key into Podcast Index API key and the secret into Podcast Index API secret.
5. Both fields are stored encrypted by Apify (secret inputs) and are never written to the dataset or the log.

What the key adds

Feature	Without key	With free key
RSS feed URLs, show websites	Yes	Yes
Show names	Yes (fyyd.de / gpodder.net directories)	Yes (Podcast Index first, then fyyd.de)
Keyword search	Yes (fyyd.de, up to 50 shows per search)	Yes (Podcast Index, up to 1,000)
Podcast Index feed IDs and podcast GUIDs as input	No (skipped, not charged, with a note)	Yes
Trending and recently updated lists	No (skipped with a note)	Yes, filter by language, category, hours
Podcast Index fields on show records (ID, Apple ID, crawl status, dead flag)	No	Yes
Use Podcast Index's stored episodes when a feed is blocked or offline	No	Yes

What happens without a key: everything RSS-based works fully. Inputs that need the key are skipped (and not charged) and the run log and RUN_SUMMARY tell you exactly which and how to get the key. A wrong key or secret is detected with one test request at the start: the run continues in RSS-only mode and tells you to re-check the two fields.

Output

Every row has recordType: show or episode. Rows of the same type always have the same columns in the same order (the examples below are shortened to the filled columns; all other columns are present as null, including the Podcast Index columns when you run without a key). Dates are ISO 8601 in UTC. Real output from a run on 2026-11-03 (feed https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1.rss, description shortened):

Show record:

{
  "recordType": "show",
  "title": "How to Start a Podcast",
  "author": "Buzzsprout",
  "feedUrl": "https://rss.buzzsprout.com/1.rss",
  "inputFeedUrl": "https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1.rss",
  "websiteUrl": "https://www.buzzsprout.com/1",
  "language": "en-us",
  "categories": ["Education", "How To", "Courses"],
  "keywords": ["podcasting", "how to podcast", "podcast strategies", "podcast tutorial"],
  "explicit": false,
  "showType": "serial",
  "podcastGuid": "7d1a25c1-c5d2-540b-95eb-ba83ec2521de",
  "locked": true,
  "locationName": "Jacksonville, FL, USA",
  "locationGeo": "geo:30.3321838,-81.65565099999999",
  "locationOsm": null,
  "generator": "Buzzsprout (https://www.buzzsprout.com)",
  "hostingProvider": "Buzzsprout",
  "episodesInFeed": 11,
  "firstEpisodeAt": "2024-01-01T05:00:00.000Z",
  "lastEpisodeAt": "2026-10-02T20:00:00.000Z",
  "avgDaysBetweenEpisodes": 100.6,
  "publishingFrequency": "less than monthly",
  "isActive": true,
  "avgEpisodeMinutes": 24.4,
  "episodesWithTranscripts": 11,
  "episodesWithChapters": 10,
  "episodesWithValue": 0,
  "seasons": 1,
  "dataSource": "rss",
  "feedStatus": "ok",
  "foundBy": "input"
}

Episode record:

{
  "recordType": "episode",
  "showTitle": "How to Start a Podcast",
  "title": "The Key to Making Your Podcast Stand Out // Eric Nuzum",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-02T20:00:00.000Z",
  "durationSeconds": 2144,
  "audioUrl": "https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/1/episodes/2562823-the-key-to-making-your-podcast-stand-out-eric-nuzum.mp3",
  "audioType": "audio/mpeg",
  "audioBytes": 25757065,
  "episodeType": "bonus",
  "seasonNumber": 1,
  "explicit": false,
  "description": "In this special bonus episode, Travis sits down with one of the godfathers of podcasting - Eric Nuzum. ...",
  "link": "https://www.buzzsprout.com/1/2562823",
  "transcripts": [
    { "url": "https://www.buzzsprout.com/1/2562823/transcript", "type": "text/html", "language": null, "rel": null },
    { "url": "https://www.buzzsprout.com/1/2562823/transcript.vtt", "type": "text/vtt", "language": null, "rel": null }
  ],
  "transcriptUrl": "https://www.buzzsprout.com/1/2562823/transcript",
  "guid": "Buzzsprout-2562823",
  "podcastGuid": "7d1a25c1-c5d2-540b-95eb-ba83ec2521de",
  "feedUrl": "https://rss.buzzsprout.com/1.rss",
  "dataSource": "rss"
}

Feeds that use more Podcasting 2.0 tags (for example https://feeds.podcastindex.org/pc20.xml, tested 2026-11-03) also fill funding, value (recipients with name, type, address and split), persons, podroll, liveItems, blockedOn, chaptersUrl and soundbites.

Views. The Output tab opens in Overview (shows). There are also Episodes, Podcasting 2.0 tags and Detailed (every field) views.

Changed in v1.1: the nested location object is now locationName, locationGeo, locationOsm; every row type has a fixed column order, with null for anything the feed doesn't set.

All fields are described in the dataset schema (Output tab). A run summary is saved as RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store: per input what was saved, what was skipped and why, total charged and why the run stopped.

Privacy: owner e-mail addresses (itunes:owner, managingEditor, webMaster, the e-mail in podcast:locked) are never saved, and podcast:person entries that are e-mail addresses are dropped. Value-for-value recipient addresses are kept because they are public payment addresses published for listeners.

Pricing

Pay per event, no subscription. Prices per 1,000 rows by Apify plan:

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold / Platinum / Diamond
Show record	$2.10	$1.90	$1.70	$1.50
Episode	$2.10	$1.90	$1.70	$1.50
Actor start (once per run)	$0.0003	$0.0003	$0.0003	$0.0003

Examples on the Free plan: one show with its 10 newest episodes = $0.0234; 100 shows from a search without episodes = $0.2103; a full 3,000-episode archive = $6.30. Set Max spend for this run or Apify's Maximum cost per run and the Actor stops before going over it.

Why this Actor (comparison, checked 2026-11-03 on Apify Store)

Actor	Price per 1,000 rows (Free plan)	Start fee	Inputs
This Actor	$2.10 (down to $1.50)	$0.0003	RSS URL, website, show name, Podcast Index ID/GUID, keyword search, trending, recent
logiover/apple-podcasts-episode-scraper	$2.50 (down to $1.75)	$0.00005	Apple Podcasts via iTunes API + RSS
parseforge/podcastindex-episodes-scraper	$8.50	none	Podcast Index search query
nexgendata/podcast-episodes-scraper	$20.00	$0.00005	RSS feed or show name via Apple Podcasts
xtech/feed-extractor	$2.00	$0.00005	Generic RSS / Atom / JSON Feed
automation-lab/rss-feed-reader	$1.15	$0.035	Generic RSS / Atom

Competitive pricing for podcast-specific rows (show records + episodes + Podcasting 2.0 tags). The table above is a factual snapshot of Store prices as of the check date — other Actors can change their prices anytime. Generic feed readers (xtech, automation-lab) may cost less per row but return generic feed items, not podcast show records.

What you get in one run here: show records with publishing stats next to the episodes; Podcasting 2.0 tags (funding, value-for-value splits, persons, podroll, live items, soundbites, alternate enclosures, transcripts, chapters); website auto-discovery of the feed; bot walls reported with a clear reason instead of silently empty results; an optional Podcast Index fallback for dead feeds; owner e-mails left out on purpose. Prices of other Actors can change at any time; check their pages.

FAQ

Do I need a Podcast Index key? No. RSS feeds, websites, show names and keyword search all work without one. The key (free at https://api.podcastindex.org/signup) only adds Podcast Index IDs/GUIDs, the trending and recent lists, richer search and the dead-feed fallback.

Where do I paste the key? Input tab, section "Podcast Index key (optional, free)": key into "Podcast Index API key", secret into "Podcast Index API secret". Both are needed.

I pasted the key but it says it was not accepted. Check you did not swap key and secret and that there are no spaces. The run then continues in RSS-only mode; you are not charged for skipped inputs.

Can I use Apple Podcasts or Spotify links? Not in this Actor. Paste the show's RSS feed or its name instead. For Apple ratings, reviews and charts use hydrocore/apple-podcasts-scraper.

A feed says "blocked". The host answered with a bot-protection page (Cloudflare, PerimeterX, DataDome, Akamai ...) or needs a login. This Actor does not bypass bot protection or log in. Nothing is charged. Ask the publisher for a public feed URL, or, with a Podcast Index key, the Actor uses Podcast Index's stored copy.

Are private or premium feeds supported? No. Feeds that need a login, token or payment are reported as blocked and skipped.

How do I get only new episodes every day? Set "Only episodes from the last" to 1 day (or use "Only episodes published on or after"), turn off "Save show records" if you only want episodes, and schedule the Actor. Older episodes are skipped for free.

How are duplicates handled? The same feed listed twice (or two URLs that redirect to it, or two feeds with the same podcast:guid) is collected once. Duplicate episodes inside a feed are skipped. Duplicates are never charged.

How big can a feed be? Up to 80 MB. Feeds with thousands of episodes are parsed while they download, so the default 256 MB memory is enough.

Why is a show's episodesInFeed smaller than on Apple? Many hosts publish only the newest 100-300 episodes in the RSS feed. With a Podcast Index key, indexEpisodeCount shows what Podcast Index has seen.

Is this legal? The Actor reads public RSS feeds, which publishers make available so that apps can read them, plus public directory APIs. It does not log in, bypass protection or collect owner e-mail addresses. You are responsible for how you use the data (for example, respect copyright on audio and show notes).

What happens with slow or unreachable sites? Each feed gets 12 seconds to start answering (big feeds can then stream for up to 3 minutes as long as data keeps flowing). Timeouts are not retried, and once a run has spent about a minute on failing sites, failing inputs get no more retries. The failed input is listed in the run summary with the reason, and no row is charged for it.

Support

Found a feed that is parsed wrongly? Open an issue on the Issues tab with the feed URL and what you expected.