# Apple Podcasts Scraper — Search, Episodes & Top Charts (`northbell/apple-podcasts-scraper`) Actor

Apple Podcasts scraper: search podcasts, get any show by URL or ID, every episode from its RSS feed (title, date, duration, audio URL, description), and the top charts by country and genre with rank changes between runs. Only new episodes since your last run. No login.

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

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 podcasts

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 — Search, Episodes & Top Charts

Get **Apple Podcasts** data as clean JSON: search podcasts by keyword, look up any show by its URL or ID, read **every episode** from the show's feed — title, date, duration, **audio URL**, season and episode number, description — and pull the **Top Charts** by country and genre, with each show's **rank change since your last run**.

### What you get

| Row | Fields |
|---|---|
| `podcast` | `podcastId`, `name`, `publisher`, `url`, `feedUrl`, `genre`, `genres`, `episodeCount`, `latestEpisodeAt`, `explicit`, `artworkUrl`, `country` — plus `rank`, `previousRank`, `rankChange`, `isNewInChart` for charts and `search`, `rank` for searches |
| `episode` | `podcastName`, `title`, `publishedAt`, `durationSeconds`, `audioUrl`, `audioType`, `audioBytes`, `season`, `episodeNumber`, `episodeType`, `explicit`, `link`, `guid`, `description`, `isNewSinceLastRun` |

Owner email addresses that some feeds contain are **not** collected.

### Use it for

- **Podcast research and guest booking** — every show on a topic with its publisher, genre, episode count and how recently it published
- **Chart tracking** — schedule the Top Shows or a genre chart and see who climbed, who dropped and who is new, in any country
- **Episode feeds for AI** — new episodes with audio URLs, ready for transcription or summaries
- **Competitor monitoring** — new episodes from a list of shows, every morning

### Input

```json
{ "mode": "charts", "genres": ["technology", "business"], "countries": ["us", "gb"], "maxResults": 50 }
```

```json
{ "mode": "podcasts", "podcasts": ["https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736"], "includeEpisodes": true, "onlyNew": true }
```

Measured on October 7, 2026: a search of 5 shows in 4 seconds; The Daily with its 3 newest episodes in 4 seconds; the US and Japan technology charts (20 shows) in 7 seconds. Data comes from Apple's public search API, Apple's chart feeds and each show's public RSS feed — no login, no API key.

### Pricing

**$1.50 per 1,000 podcasts**, **$0.50 per 1,000 episodes**, plus $0.01 per run. Error rows are free. The $0.01 run-start fee is the one charge every run pays, even one that returns nothing.

### For AI agents

`{"mode": "search", "searches": ["startups"], "maxResults": 10}` returns 10 podcasts with feed URLs. Rows have `type`: `podcast`, `episode` or `error`.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Search podcasts by keyword, read specific podcasts from their Apple Podcasts URL or ID, or read the top charts.

## `searches` (type: `array`):

Search mode: what you would type in Apple Podcasts.

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

Podcasts mode: Apple Podcasts URLs (podcasts.apple.com/…/id123) or numeric IDs.

## `genres` (type: `array`):

Charts mode: empty = the overall Top Shows chart.

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

Two-letter Apple country codes, e.g. "us", "gb", "jp". Empty = "us".

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

How many podcasts to return for each search or chart. Apple returns at most 200.

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

Reads each podcast's RSS feed: title, date, duration, audio URL, season and episode number, description.

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

How many of the latest episodes to return for each podcast. Set 1 if you only need the podcast itself.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

With Include episodes: from the second run on, return only episodes not returned before. Schedule it for a new-episode feed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "searches": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "includeEpisodes": false,
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 50,
  "onlyNew": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `podcasts` (type: `string`):

Podcasts with publisher, genre, episode count and chart rank.

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

Episodes with date, duration and audio URL.

# 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 = {
    "searches": [
        "artificial intelligence"
    ],
    "countries": [
        "us"
    ],
    "maxResults": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northbell/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 = {
    "searches": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "countries": ["us"],
    "maxResults": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northbell/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 '{
  "searches": [
    "artificial intelligence"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "maxResults": 20
}' |
apify call northbell/apple-podcasts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northbell/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/QNeXbmU9WHnrWsSKd/builds/zYaXFtRKTEZdVNU7A/openapi.json