The Apple Podcasts app shows a transcript while you listen, but it only lets you copy a short passage at a time and has no way to save the whole thing. Spoken gives you the full transcript of the same episode as one document: clean text, real speaker names instead of "Speaker 1", and a timestamp on every turn. Paste the episode's link and it appears with a free excerpt you can read before paying anything.
How it works
- 1
Copy the link
Three dots on the episode, then Share Episode, then Copy Link.
- 2
Paste it here
The episode appears with its show, its date and a free excerpt.
- 3
Keep the text
Read it on the page and copy all of it. One credit per episode.
- Where the link is. On a Mac the three-dots menu has Copy Link directly. The link looks like
https://podcasts.apple.com/…?i=1000…, and the?i=part is what names the episode. A link without it points at the show. - Why a link beats a name. An episode link is an exact match, so you get that episode and no lookalikes. Its title opens a page with the first part of the transcript on it, free.
- What it costs. The full transcript costs one credit. The smallest pack is 100 credits for $15, and they never expire. Re-reading an episode you already fetched is free.
What you can do in the app, and what you can't
| In the Apple Podcasts app | With Spoken | |
|---|---|---|
| Read along while listening | Yes | No, Spoken is text only |
| Search inside one episode | Yes | Yes, and across every file you keep |
| Copy the text | A short passage at a time | The whole transcript |
| Keep a copy | No | Yes, the text is yours to keep |
| Speakers | Not labelled by name | Real names where they can be identified |
| Price | Free | Free excerpt, then one credit per episode |
If you only want to follow along while you listen, the app already does that well. Spoken is for when you want to do something with the words: search every episode you have saved for a name, quote a passage in something you are writing, or hand the whole conversation to an AI model and ask it questions.
What the transcript looks like
**Matthew Walker** (6:25)
Yeah, I think we, many of us can resonate with the idea of dental hygiene,
but turns out there's something called sleep hygiene. …
**Andrew Huberman** (12:18)
There are a couple of quick points that are based on some what I consider
really nice studies. …That is from the free demo episode, a Huberman Lab conversation you can read in full without a key. The paragraphs follow the pauses in the conversation, so it reads like a document and not like subtitles.
Does it work for every show?
No. Spoken has transcripts for shows that publish them, in English and several other languages. The search above answers it in one step: if the episode appears, its transcript is available. A new episode's transcript can arrive a few hours after the episode does, so a miss on something released today is worth a second try later.
For scripts and agents
The same search works from the command line and accepts the link as the query. The demo key pt_demo needs no signup.
curl -G https://spoken.md/search \
--data-urlencode "q=https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000651996090" \
-H "x-api-key: pt_demo"
# the search returns the episode id; fetch the transcript with it
curl -H "x-api-key: pt_demo" https://spoken.md/transcripts/1000651996090To pull a whole show this way, see how to get podcast transcripts programmatically. Listening on Spotify instead? The Spotify version of this page takes a Spotify link.
FAQ
Can I download a transcript from Apple Podcasts?
The Apple Podcasts app has no download or export for transcripts. You can read one on screen and copy a short passage at a time. To get the whole transcript as a file, paste the episode's link into Spoken, which returns it as text you can copy and save.
How do I copy the full transcript of an Apple Podcasts episode?
In the Apple Podcasts app you can only select and copy a short passage at a time. With Spoken you paste the episode's link once and get the whole transcript as text, which you can copy or save in one go.
Where is the transcript in the Apple Podcasts app?
On an iPhone, touch and hold the episode and tap View Transcript, or tap the transcript button in the player while it plays. On a Mac, click the View Transcript button in the player. Not every episode has one.
What does a transcript cost?
Spoken charges one credit per episode. Spoken credits start at 100 for $15 and never expire, and re-reading an episode you already fetched costs nothing. The excerpt on every spoken.md episode page is free.
Are the speaker names real, or "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2"?
Spoken's speaker names are real names wherever they can be identified from the episode itself. When a name can't be established, the label stays generic rather than guessing.
Can I get every episode of a show, not just one?
Yes. Each show's page says how many of its episodes have a transcript and what the whole archive costs; browse the shows to find yours. Spoken's API lists a show's episodes, so a script can fetch them one by one.
Thousands of transcripts fetched by people building searchable podcast archives
Read the free excerpt first. When you want the whole episode, start small.
No subscription. Credits never expire.