A podcast API gives a program access to podcast data, and the first question is which data. Directory APIs return shows and episodes with their metadata. The platforms' own APIs return the same for their catalogue. Corpus search APIs find the episodes where something was said. Transcript APIs return the words of an episode you already picked.
The four kinds
| You want | Kind of API | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Shows, episodes, artwork, feed URLs, descriptions | Directory | Podcast Index, Listen Notes, Taddy |
| The same, for one platform's catalogue | Platform | iTunes Search API, Spotify Web API |
| Every episode that mentions a name or a phrase | Corpus search | Podchaser, Pod Engine |
| The full text of an episode, with who said what | Transcript | Spoken |
This site is the last kind. Spoken searches episodes, lists every episode of a show that has a transcript, and returns each transcript as Markdown with real speaker names.
Directory APIs
Podcast Index is a free, open index of podcast feeds with an API over it: search by term, look a show up by feed URL, list its episodes. You register for a key and it costs nothing. If a publisher links a transcript file in its feed, the episode record carries that link.
Listen Notes is the best-known commercial podcast search API. Its free plan covers 300 requests a month and returns metadata; transcript text is on paid plans only.
Taddy is a GraphQL API over about 4 million shows, with search, charts and webhooks for new episodes. The free plan covers 500 requests a month, and transcripts start on its paid plans.
The platforms' own APIs
The iTunes Search API is Apple's public lookup for its catalogue. It needs no key, returns shows and episodes as JSON, and is rate-limited to light use. It has nothing for transcripts.
The Spotify Web API returns show and episode metadata to an app that holds an access token. It does not return audio files or transcripts, even for episodes that show a transcript inside the Spotify app.
Corpus search APIs
Podchaser and Pod Engine index millions of episode transcripts and answer "which episodes mentioned X"; Podchaser's search can be filtered by audience size. That is the right tool for brand monitoring and guest research. They are priced as monthly platform subscriptions, which is a lot to pay if you already know which episodes you want.
Transcript APIs
There are two ways to get an episode's words. A retrieval API returns the transcript that was published with the episode, in seconds. A speech-to-text API downloads the audio and generates one, in minutes, with speakers labelled "Speaker 0". The podcast transcript API page explains the difference, and the 2026 comparison ranks the options.
Spoken is a retrieval API with three calls that matter:
- 1
Find
Free text, or an episode link from Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube.
GET /search?q= - 2
List
Every episode of a show that has a transcript.
GET /podcasts/{id}/episodes - 3
Read
Markdown with speaker names and a timestamp on each turn.
GET /transcripts/{id}
curl -G https://spoken.md/search --data-urlencode "q=huberman sleep" -H "x-api-key: pt_demo"
# list a show from the podcastId in a search result
curl -H "x-api-key: pt_demo" https://spoken.md/podcasts/1545953110/episodes
curl -H "x-api-key: pt_demo" https://spoken.md/transcripts/1000651996090pt_demo is a real key that needs no signup. It searches and lists anything, and fetches the demo episode.
Using two together
Most podcast apps need a directory API and a transcript API side by side: one for the catalogue screen, one for the text. Take the episode's title or its link from the directory API and pass it to Spoken's search, which returns the episode id to fetch. Only episodes with a transcript come back from search, so an empty result means there is none to fetch.
What Spoken does not return, and what does
- Artwork, descriptions, categories and feed URLs: a directory API. Podcast Index is the free one.
- Audio files: the show's own feed, whose URL a directory API gives you.
- Charts and audience figures: Podchaser or Taddy.
- A transcript for an episode published without one: a speech-to-text API, run on the audio.
FAQ
Is there a free podcast API?
Yes. Podcast Index is a free, open directory API, and the iTunes Search API returns show and episode metadata with no key. Listen Notes and Taddy have free plans with monthly request limits. For transcripts, Spoken's search and episode-list endpoints are free on any key, and the pt_demo key fetches a demo transcript without signup; transcripts beyond that cost one credit each.
Does Apple Podcasts have an API?
Apple offers the iTunes Search API, which finds shows and episodes and returns their metadata as JSON without a key. It has no endpoint for transcripts. To get the transcript of an episode you found there, pass its link or its name to a transcript API such as Spoken.
Does Spotify have a podcast API?
The Spotify Web API returns metadata for shows and episodes and needs an access token. It has no endpoint for transcripts or audio files. Spoken's search accepts a Spotify episode link and returns the matching episode, whose transcript you can then fetch.
Which podcast API has transcripts?
Spoken returns the transcript of a published episode as Markdown with real speaker names, priced per episode. Taddy, Listen Notes and Podchaser include transcripts on paid plans as one field of a larger database API. Speech-to-text APIs generate a transcript from the audio for any episode, without speaker names. The 2026 comparison has all of them side by side.
What is the best podcast API?
It depends on the data. For show and episode metadata, Podcast Index is free and open and Listen Notes is the best-known commercial one. For searching what was said across millions of episodes, Podchaser and Pod Engine. For the full text of specific episodes with named speakers, Spoken.
Can an AI agent use a podcast API directly?
Yes, if the API has an MCP server or plain HTTP endpoints with machine-readable docs. Spoken has both: a hosted MCP endpoint, the spoken-mcp package on npm, and an OpenAPI document.
TL;DR: Use a directory API for the catalogue, a corpus search API to find mentions, and a transcript API for the words. If the words are what you need, Spoken returns them per episode with the speakers named.
Thousands of transcripts fetched by developers building summarizers, RAG pipelines, and podcast tools