Apple Podcasts Scraper

Apple Podcasts Scraper

Apple Podcasts Scraper extracts podcast episode data from Apple Podcasts by search term, iTunes collection ID, or direct RSS feed, including episode titles, show notes, audio URLs, durations, release dates, transcripts, and show metadata.

Discover shows by keyword or pull specific podcasts by iTunes ID or RSS feed, then extract every episode's audio URL, duration, description, and Podcast 2.0 fields like transcripts and chapters — well beyond Apple's ~200-episode lookup cap.

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Use Apify Actor parsebird/apple-podcasts-scraper to scrape Apple Podcasts episodes. Example with ApifyClient: client.actor("parsebird/apple-podcasts-scraper").call(run_input={"searchTerms":["artificial intelligence"],"country":"us","maxPodcastsPerSearch":10,"maxEpisodesPerPodcast":20}). Inputs: searchTerms string[] discovers shows via iTunes Search; podcastIds string[] iTunes collection IDs for deterministic pulls; rssFeeds string[] direct RSS URLs bypassing Apple; country string default "us"; maxPodcastsPerSearch integer default 50; maxEpisodesPerPodcast integer default 100 (iTunes hard cap ~200); useRssForFullArchive boolean default false unlocks the full archive via RSS; minReleaseDate/maxReleaseDate string YYYY-MM-DD; explicit string enum all/clean/explicit default all; minDurationSeconds integer default 0; fetchShowMetadata boolean default true. Output fields: podcastId, podcastName, author, episodeId, episodeGuid, episodeTitle, episodeNumber, season, episodeType, description, showNotesHtml, releaseDate, durationMs, durationSec, audioUrl, audioExtension, audioFileSize, artworkUrl600, episodeAppleUrl, feedUrl, transcriptUrl, chapters, keywords, explicitness, genres, primaryGenre, country, trackCountTotal, source, scrapedAt. API docs: https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/ and https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/. Token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations.

What is Apple Podcasts Scraper?

Apple Podcasts Scraper is an Apple Podcasts scraper and Apple Podcasts API alternative for pulling structured episode data without manually browsing the app or website. Supply search terms, iTunes collection IDs, or RSS feed URLs, and the actor returns one row per episode, ready for analysis, monitoring, or downstream automation.

Use it for podcast data extraction workflows: content research, competitive monitoring, transcript pipelines, or building your own podcast search index through Apify.

What can Apple Podcasts Scraper do?

• 🔍 Discover podcasts by keyword using the iTunes Search API and expand every result into episodes.
• 🎯 Pull specific shows deterministically by iTunes collection ID.
• 📡 Fetch episodes directly from a podcast's RSS feed, bypassing Apple entirely.
• 📚 Unlock a show's full episode archive via RSS, beyond the iTunes Lookup API's ~200-episode cap.
• 🎙️ Extract Podcast 2.0 fields when available: transcript URLs, chapter markers, season and episode numbers.
• 🧹 Filter episodes by release date range, explicit rating, and minimum duration.
• ⏰ Run on demand or with Apify schedules for recurring monitoring.
• 🔌 Access results through the Apify API, webhooks, and integrations.
• 💾 Download datasets as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML from Apify storage.

What data can you extract from Apple Podcasts?

Field	Description
podcastName	Podcast show title
author	Show author or network
episodeTitle	Episode title
episodeNumber / season	Episode and season numbers, when the RSS feed exposes them
description	Plain-text episode description
showNotesHtml	Full HTML show notes, when available via RSS content:encoded
releaseDate	Episode publish date and time
durationSec	Episode duration in seconds
audioUrl	Direct audio file URL
episodeAppleUrl	Link to the episode on Apple Podcasts
transcriptUrl	Transcript file URL, when the feed publishes a Podcast 2.0 <podcast:transcript>
chapters	Chapter markers, when the feed publishes a Podcast 2.0 chapters JSON file
genres / primaryGenre	Show category classification
trackCountTotal	Total episode count for the show

How to scrape Apple Podcasts episodes

1. Open Apple Podcasts Scraper on Apify.
2. Add one or more searchTerms, for example artificial intelligence, or add specific podcastIds or rssFeeds for deterministic pulls.
3. Set country to the iTunes storefront you want to search or look up shows in.
4. Set maxPodcastsPerSearch and maxEpisodesPerPodcast to control how much data each run pulls.
5. Enable useRssForFullArchive if you need a show's complete back catalog instead of just its most recent episodes.
6. Optionally add minReleaseDate, maxReleaseDate, explicit, or minDurationSeconds to narrow results.
7. Run the actor, open the dataset, and export results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or through the Apify API.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchTerms	array of strings	No*	-	Keyword queries to discover podcasts via the iTunes Search API.
podcastIds	array of strings	No*	-	iTunes collection IDs for direct, deterministic lookups.
rssFeeds	array of strings	No*	-	Direct podcast RSS feed URLs. Bypasses Apple entirely.
country	string	No	us	iTunes storefront (30 supported). Affects ranking and country-restricted shows.
maxPodcastsPerSearch	integer	No	50	Max podcasts returned per search term. iTunes hard cap is 200.
maxEpisodesPerPodcast	integer	No	100	Max episodes pulled per iTunes lookup. iTunes returns roughly the 200 most recent.
useRssForFullArchive	boolean	No	false	After each iTunes lookup, also fetch the show's RSS feed to unlock the full archive and Podcast 2.0 fields.
minReleaseDate	string	No	-	Drop episodes released before this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
maxReleaseDate	string	No	-	Drop episodes released after this date (YYYY-MM-DD).
explicit	string	No	all	all, clean, or explicit content filter.
minDurationSeconds	integer	No	0	Drop episodes shorter than this duration. Useful for filtering trailers and ads.
fetchShowMetadata	boolean	No	true	Enrich each episode with show-level fields: genres, total episode count, explicitness.

* Supply at least one of searchTerms, podcastIds, or rssFeeds.

Example — discover and pull AI podcasts in the US:

{
  "searchTerms": ["artificial intelligence", "machine learning", "LLM"],
  "country": "us",
  "maxPodcastsPerSearch": 50,
  "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 100
}

Example — full archive of a single show beyond the iTunes 200-episode cap:

{
  "podcastIds": ["1434243584"],
  "useRssForFullArchive": true,
  "fetchShowMetadata": true
}

Example — direct RSS feeds only, no iTunes lookup:

{
  "rssFeeds": [
    "https://feeds.simplecast.com/54nAGcIl",
    "https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/"
  ]
}

Output example

{
  "podcastId": "1434243584",
  "podcastName": "Lex Fridman Podcast",
  "author": "Lex Fridman",
  "episodeId": "1000766518218",
  "episodeGuid": "https://lexfridman.com/?p=6494",
  "episodeTitle": "#500 – Khabib Nurmagomedov: Dagestan, MMA, UFC, Islam, Conor, Fedor & Football",
  "episodeNumber": null,
  "season": null,
  "episodeType": "full",
  "description": "Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the greatest fighters of all time...",
  "showNotesHtml": null,
  "releaseDate": "2026-08-12T13:11:45Z",
  "durationMs": null,
  "durationSec": null,
  "audioUrl": "https://media.blubrry.com/takeituneasy/ins.blubrry.com/takeituneasy/lex_ai_khabib_nurmagomedov.mp3",
  "audioExtension": "mp3",
  "audioFileSize": 5242880,
  "artworkUrl600": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Podcasts115/.../600x600bb.jpg",
  "episodeAppleUrl": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/.../id1434243584?i=1000782963648",
  "feedUrl": "https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/",
  "transcriptUrl": null,
  "chapters": [],
  "keywords": null,
  "explicitness": "clean",
  "genres": ["Technology", "Podcasts", "Science"],
  "primaryGenre": "Technology",
  "country": "USA",
  "trackCountTotal": 501,
  "source": "itunes+rss",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-21T11:25:03Z"
}

Fields reflect what the source actually publishes — some feeds omit duration, show notes HTML, or Podcast 2.0 fields, and those fields come back null rather than a guessed value. Download results in JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML from the Apify dataset.

Python API example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("parsebird/apple-podcasts-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchTerms": ["artificial intelligence"],
    "country": "us",
    "maxPodcastsPerSearch": 10,
    "maxEpisodesPerPodcast": 20,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript API example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('parsebird/apple-podcasts-scraper').call({
  searchTerms: ['artificial intelligence'],
  country: 'us',
  maxPodcastsPerSearch: 10,
  maxEpisodesPerPodcast: 20,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

See Apify's official Python client and JavaScript client documentation for more options.

How much does it cost to scrape Apple Podcasts?

What is the price per Apple Podcasts episode?

Plan	Price per event	Price per 1,000
Free	$0.0023	$2.30
Bronze	$0.0021	$2.10
Silver	$0.0019	$1.90
Gold	$0.0016	$1.60

Each episode-scraped event means one podcast episode was extracted and pushed to the dataset. A run collecting 1,000 episodes costs $2.30 on the Free plan or $1.60 on Gold. Apify's free trial credits cover test runs.

Use cases

• Build a podcast search index or discovery tool for a niche category.
• Monitor competitor or industry podcasts for new episodes and topics.
• Feed episode audio URLs and transcripts into a transcription or summarization pipeline.
• Track show metadata (genres, episode counts, explicitness) across a portfolio of podcasts.
• Archive a show's complete back catalog before a feed migration or hosting change.

How it works

1. The actor validates searchTerms, podcastIds, rssFeeds, and the optional filters.
2. For each search term, it queries the iTunes Search API and deduplicates discovered shows against any directly supplied podcastIds.
3. For each unique podcast, it calls the iTunes Lookup API to pull up to maxEpisodesPerPodcast recent episodes and, optionally, show metadata.
4. If useRssForFullArchive is enabled, it also fetches the show's RSS feed, merges Podcast 2.0 fields into matching episodes, and adds any older episodes beyond the iTunes cap.
5. For direct rssFeeds, it fetches and parses the feed without any iTunes lookup.
6. It applies the minReleaseDate, maxReleaseDate, explicit, and minDurationSeconds filters, then pushes one row per episode to the default Apify dataset and charges one PPE event per pushed episode on the Apify platform.

What are the limitations of Apple Podcasts scraping?

• The iTunes Lookup API returns roughly the 200 most recent episodes per show; use useRssForFullArchive for older episodes.
• Fields like durationSec, showNotesHtml, transcriptUrl, and chapters depend on what the show's RSS feed publishes — many feeds omit some of them.
• Podcast search ranking and country-restricted catalogs vary by the country storefront selected.
• RSS-only input (rssFeeds) has no Apple identifiers, so podcastId, episodeId, and episodeAppleUrl are not available for those rows.

Is it legal to scrape Apple Podcasts?

Is scraping Apple Podcasts legal?

Apple Podcasts Scraper reads Apple's public iTunes Search and Lookup APIs and podcasters' own public RSS feeds — the same data a podcast app or Apple Podcasts itself uses. Scraping publicly available data is generally allowed in many jurisdictions, but you should review Apple's terms and each feed's usage terms and make sure your use case complies with applicable laws. For background, read Apify's guide: Is web scraping legal?.

Other Apple Podcasts scrapers / Related Actors

Actor	Best for
Apple Podcasts Scraper	Podcast episode and show data by search, ID, or RSS
RSS Feed Extractor	Generic RSS/Atom feed parsing for any site
YouTube Search Scraper	Structured YouTube search results

FAQ

Does Apple Podcasts Scraper require an Apple Podcasts login?

No login or API key is required. The actor uses Apple's public iTunes Search and Lookup APIs and podcasters' public RSS feeds.

How do I find a podcast's iTunes collection ID?

It's the numeric segment in an Apple Podcasts URL. For podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lex-fridman-podcast/id1434243584, the ID is 1434243584. Paste it into podcastIds for a fast, deterministic pull.

Why do I only get ~200 episodes per show?

That's the iTunes Lookup API's hard cap. Enable useRssForFullArchive to pull the show's complete archive directly from its RSS feed.

Can I schedule recurring runs to catch new episodes?

Yes. Use Apify schedules to run the actor daily, weekly, or at any interval.

Can I use it as an Apple Podcasts API?

Yes. Start runs and fetch datasets through the Apify API, Python client, JavaScript client, webhooks, or integrations.

Why are some fields null?

Not every podcast RSS feed publishes every field. Duration, show notes HTML, transcripts, and chapters are only populated when the source feed includes them.

Where can I report issues or request fields?

Open the Issues tab on the actor page and include your input example, run ID, and the fields you expected.