# Podcast Search & Episodes: Apple Podcasts, Charts, RSS (`swiftkit/podcasts`) Actor

Search podcasts by keyword in any country, get every episode of a show from its RSS feed (titles, dates, durations, audio links), track top podcast charts per country, and get alerts for new episodes. Apple's official podcast directory APIs plus public RSS feeds. $1 per 1,000 results.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/swiftkit/podcasts.md
- **Developed by:** [SwiftKit](https://apify.com/swiftkit) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Marketing, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Podcast Search & Episodes: Apple Podcasts, Charts, RSS

Podcast data in three modes, from **Apple's official podcast directory APIs** and each show's
**public RSS feed**:

- **Search shows** by keyword in any country: title, publisher, genres, episode count, latest
  episode date, explicit flag, artwork, Apple Podcasts link and **RSS feed URL**
- **Episodes** of any show: the full history from its RSS feed (or the latest 200 from Apple when a
  feed isn't available) with title, publish date, duration, audio file URL, season and episode
  numbers, and optional show notes
- **Top charts** per country (top 10 to 200), enriched with each show's feed URL and episode count
- **New-episode alerts:** "only new episodes" returns just episodes you haven't seen yet, so a daily
  schedule gives you a feed of new releases

Give shows as Apple Podcasts links, Apple podcast IDs or RSS feed URLs.

### Who it's for

- **Podcast marketers and PR:** find shows in a niche for guest pitching, with feed URLs and activity.
- **Analysts and ad buyers:** chart positions by country, show catalogs, publishing frequency.
- **Apps and AI pipelines:** episode lists with audio URLs to feed a player, an index or a transcriber.
- **Fans and researchers:** export a show's complete back catalog.

### Input

| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| What to get | Search | Search, Episodes or Charts |
| Search: keywords | – | e.g. `startup`, `true crime` |
| Episodes: shows | – | Apple links, IDs or RSS URLs |
| Countries | `us` | Store countries (two letters) |
| Search/Charts: max shows | 50 | Up to 200 |
| Episodes: max per show | 50 | Newest first |
| Episodes: include show notes | off | Descriptions as plain text |
| Episodes: only new episodes | off | For scheduled alerts |

### Output

An episode, real data:

```json
{
  "type": "episode",
  "show": "The Daily",
  "podcastId": 1200361736,
  "publisher": "The New York Times",
  "source": "rss",
  "title": "Chris Rock Has Been Thinking About Forgiveness",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-03T10:00:00.000Z",
  "durationSec": 3776,
  "audioUrl": "https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/...",
  "audioType": "audio/mpeg",
  "episodeType": "full",
  "explicit": false,
  "guid": "068e1ced-4723-48d3-b0fb-3b21ca7ff431"
}
```

Show rows (search and charts) have `podcastId`, `title`, `publisher`, `feedUrl`, `appleUrl`,
`genres`, `episodeCount`, `latestEpisodeDate`, `explicit`, `artwork`, plus `rank` for charts.

Other statuses: `not_found`, `no_episodes` (ended or paywalled shows) and `error`. None are charged.

### Pricing

You pay **per result row** (one show or one episode). See the Pricing tab.

### Limits, honestly

- Apple allows about 20 directory requests a minute, so the tool paces itself. Many keywords
  × many countries take a while.
- Episodes come from the show's own RSS feed. Private, paywalled or removed feeds can't be read;
  then the tool falls back to Apple's latest 200 episodes when possible.
- No reviews or listener names, and no audio download: you get audio links. To turn episodes into
  text, pass the show (or its episode audio links) to [Audio & Video Transcription](https://apify.com/swiftkit/transcribe).
- Charts are Apple Podcasts' top shows per country (overall chart).

### More tools from SwiftKit

- [Audio & Video Transcription](https://apify.com/swiftkit/transcribe): episode audio to text and SRT/VTT subtitles with Whisper
- [App Store Scraper](https://apify.com/swiftkit/app-store): iOS app search, details, charts and keyword ranks
- [RSS Feed Reader](https://apify.com/swiftkit/rss-feeds): news, blogs and podcasts from any feed, only new items
- [Website to Markdown for AI](https://apify.com/swiftkit/web-to-markdown): clean page content for LLMs

### Questions?

Open an issue on the Issues tab.

# Actor input Schema

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

Search finds shows, Episodes lists a show's episodes, Charts gets Apple's top podcasts.

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Used in Search mode, e.g. startup, true crime, AI news.

## `shows` (type: `array`):

Used in Episodes mode: Apple Podcasts links (https://podcasts.apple.com/.../id1200361736), Apple podcast IDs, or RSS feed URLs.

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

Two-letter store codes, e.g. us, gb, de, jp. Search and Charts run once per country; Episodes uses the first.

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

Per keyword and country (search) or per country (charts). Up to 200.

## `maxEpisodesPerShow` (type: `integer`):

Newest first.

## `includeDescription` (type: `boolean`):

Episode descriptions as plain text.

## `onlyNewEpisodes` (type: `boolean`):

Return only episodes this tool hasn't returned before for the same show. Schedule it for new-episode alerts.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchTerms": [
    "startup"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "maxEpisodesPerShow": 50,
  "includeDescription": false,
  "onlyNewEpisodes": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Shows or episodes.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "startup"
    ],
    "countries": [
        "us"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("swiftkit/podcasts").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 = {
    "searchTerms": ["startup"],
    "countries": ["us"],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("swiftkit/podcasts").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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "startup"
  ],
  "countries": [
    "us"
  ]
}' |
apify call swiftkit/podcasts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,swiftkit/podcasts"
        }
    }
}
```

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/byiNRccRSl1EIME2M/builds/WpwkYZGvXogH0RSya/openapi.json