# 🎙️ Podcast Episode Scraper - Feeds, Notes & Audio URLs (`that_red_bird/podcast-episode-scraper`) Actor

⚡ Turn any podcast RSS feed into structured episodes. ✅ Titles, show notes, audio file URLs, durations, seasons and episode numbers. ✅ Filter by keyword, date or minimum length. Also resolves YouTube video metadata.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/that\_red\_bird/podcast-episode-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [mohamed alaya](https://apify.com/that_red_bird) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, News, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Podcast Episode Scraper

Turn any **podcast RSS feed** into structured episode data — the same feed Apple Podcasts and
Spotify read, parsed into clean rows.

### What you get per episode

`title` · `publishedAt` · `duration` and `durationMinutes` (normalised from `1:02:33`,
`3600` or `45:00`) · `episodeNumber` · `season` · `description` (show notes, HTML stripped) ·
**`audioUrl`** and `audioType` / `audioBytes` · `guid` · `link` · `explicit`

Every row also carries `podcastTitle`, `podcastAuthor` and `podcastImage`.

### Filtering

`keywords` (title and show notes) · `since` (ISO date) · `minDurationMinutes` ·
`maxEpisodesPerFeed` · `includeShowNotes`.

`minDurationMinutes` is handy for skipping trailers and ad-only entries. Feeds are routinely
tens of megabytes, so the episode cap is enforced **during** parsing, not after.

### YouTube videos (optional)

Pass `youtubeUrls` to also get video metadata: `title` · `channel` · `durationSeconds` ·
`views` · `publishedAt` · `captionLanguages` · `hasCaptions`.

**Transcripts are not promised, and here is why.** As of August 2026 YouTube returns an empty
body for every `api/timedtext` caption request in all formats, and its InnerTube player API
answers `UNPLAYABLE` for the Android, iOS, Web and TV clients. Captions now require a browser
with a proof-of-origin token. When a transcript cannot be retrieved you get
`transcript: null` and `transcriptUnavailableReason` explaining it — never a silent empty
string pretending to be a result.

### Typical uses

Podcast search and discovery tools · downloading or archiving back catalogues · feeding
audio into your own transcription pipeline via `audioUrl` · guest and topic research ·
tracking a competitor's publishing cadence · building a niche podcast directory.

# Actor input Schema

## `feeds` (type: `array`):

One or more podcast RSS feed URLs. Every podcast publishes one — it is what Apple Podcasts and Spotify read.

## `youtubeUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional. Returns video metadata (title, channel, duration, views, caption languages). Transcript text is NOT available — YouTube now blocks server-side caption fetches.

## `maxEpisodesPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

Feeds can be tens of megabytes; this caps parsing as well as output.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Case-insensitive match on episode title and show notes.

## `since` (type: `string`):

ISO date, e.g. 2026-01-01. Older episodes are dropped.

## `minDurationMinutes` (type: `integer`):

Drop shorter episodes — useful for skipping trailers and ads.

## `includeShowNotes` (type: `boolean`):

Include the episode description as plain text. Turn off for a lighter dataset.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many feeds to fetch in parallel.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional Apify proxy configuration.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/vergecast"
  ],
  "maxEpisodesPerFeed": 50,
  "includeShowNotes": true,
  "concurrency": 3
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `downloadCsv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

## `count` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "feeds": [
        "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/vergecast"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("that_red_bird/podcast-episode-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 = { "feeds": ["https://feeds.megaphone.fm/vergecast"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("that_red_bird/podcast-episode-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 '{
  "feeds": [
    "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/vergecast"
  ]
}' |
apify call that_red_bird/podcast-episode-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,that_red_bird/podcast-episode-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/3oQYLwbDCHKN7AFTc/builds/1sSM3RFfPBHXvDRyE/openapi.json