Original research
The Podcast Census 2026
· By Slice, from the Podcast Index database of 26 September 2026
The short answer
There are 4,391,041 podcasts in the open Podcast Index once duplicates, mirror feeds and test feeds are removed, and 413,475 of them (9.4%) published an episode in the 90 days to 26 September 2026. Among podcasts that have stopped, 24.4% stopped after episode 1.
4,391,041
podcasts counted. 413,475 of them published in the last 90 days.
What did we find?
- 4.4 million podcasts, 413,475 of them active. Only 9.4% published an episode in the 90 days to 26 September 2026; 16.4% did in the past year. n = 4,391,041 shows after cleaning
- Episode 1 is where most podcasts stop. 24.4% of podcasts that have stopped never made a second episode, and 56.5% stopped before episode 7. n = 3,636,474 finished shows
- Half reach episode 7. One in 13 reaches 100. 49.1% of all podcasts have 7 or more episodes, 7.5% have 100 or more, and 1.0% have 500. n = 4,391,041
- The typical finished podcast lasted 125 days. That is the median from first to last episode for finished shows with two or more episodes. Counting one-episode shows, it is 45 days. n = 2,750,073 (2+ episodes)
- 1.0 million podcasts started in 2020. 2.5% are still going. The lockdown year started more shows than any other, nearly three times 2019, and kept fewer of them than any year since 2015. n = 1,000,043 shows whose first episode is in 2020
- The video boom is not in the feed: 0.7% of active shows publish video files. Video podcasts are watched on YouTube and Spotify. In the open RSS feed every other app reads, the newest episode is almost always audio. n = 412,583 active shows with a known file type
- Likely automated feeds are 1.7% of new shows but 10.1% of the episodes in this year’s new feeds. Of feeds first seen since 2023, 22,165 meet our "likely automated or bulk-published" criteria. In feeds first seen in 2026, they hold 10.1% of all episodes, up from 2.8% for feeds first seen in 2023. n = 1,288,140 feeds first seen 2023 to 2026
How many podcasts are there in 2026?
The index holds 4,731,573 feeds. Taking out empty feeds, duplicates, mirror copies and test feeds leaves 4,391,041. Nine in ten of them have gone quiet: a podcast is easy to start and easy to leave running with nobody behind it.
Podcasts started each year
Show the numbers
| First episode | Podcasts |
|---|---|
| ’15 | 87k |
| ’16 | 112k |
| ’17 | 143k |
| ’18 | 215k |
| ’19 | 355k |
| ’20 | 1.00m |
| ’21 | 735k |
| ’22 | 328k |
| ’23 | 283k |
| ’24 | 279k |
| ’25 | 347k |
| ’26* | 210k |
* To 26 September 2026, the dump date.
By the date of each show’s oldest episode in its feed. 2026 runs to 26 September 2026. 250,613 shows started before 2015; 13,827 shows at Podcast Index’s 1,000-episode reading limit are left out because their first episode is not visible. n = 4,095,147.
How many podcasts survive past episode 1?
The podcast graveyard, by episode count. Every podcast reaches episode 1; 78.1% reach episode 2, and the curve keeps falling from there.
Drag to an episode number. How many podcasts get that far?
49 of every 100 podcasts reach episode 7.2,156,796 shows.
Share of all podcasts that reached each episode
Show the numbers
| Episodes | Share reaching it | n |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100% | 4,391,041 |
| 2 | 78% | 3,430,448 |
| 3 | 71% | 3,110,857 |
| 7 | 49% | 2,156,796 |
| 10 | 41% | 1,793,888 |
| 25 | 22% | 977,102 |
| 50 | 14% | 593,379 |
| 100 | 8% | 330,729 |
| 500 | 1% | 45,128 |
n = 4,391,041. Episode counts are the items in each feed; a feed that deleted old episodes counts low.
The episode where most podcasts quit
Among the 3,636,474 podcasts that have stopped (nothing in the past year, started before 2026), the single most common last episode is episode 1: 24.4%. Episode 2 is next at 8.0%. More than half, 56.5%, stopped before episode 7, and the median finished show made 5.
Show the numbers
| Last episode | Share of finished shows | n |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 24.4% | 886,401 |
| 2 | 8.0% | 291,079 |
| 3 | 7.5% | 271,178 |
| 4 | 6.9% | 252,498 |
| 5 | 5.5% | 198,439 |
| 6 | 4.3% | 155,677 |
| 7 | 3.4% | 124,946 |
| 8 | 2.9% | 106,489 |
| 9 | 2.5% | 91,075 |
| 10 | 3.2% | 114,600 |
| 11 | 1.9% | 70,159 |
| 12 | 1.7% | 62,011 |
n = 3,636,474 finished shows. Part of the bump at 10 is feeds that only ever list their latest 10 episodes.
How many shows from each year are still going
Pick a year. Of every 100 podcasts that started that year, how many are still publishing?
2.5 of every 100 podcasts started in 2020 published in the last 90 days.1,000,043 started that year.
Show the numbers
| Started | Still active (90 days) | n |
|---|---|---|
| ’15 | 4% | 87,238 |
| ’16 | 4% | 112,494 |
| ’17 | 4% | 143,489 |
| ’18 | 4% | 215,195 |
| ’19 | 4% | 355,133 |
| ’20 | 2% | 1,000,043 |
| ’21 | 3% | 734,544 |
| ’22 | 8% | 327,795 |
| ’23 | 11% | 283,251 |
| ’24 | 17% | 278,774 |
| ’25 | 23% | 347,000 |
Active means an episode in the 90 days to 26 September 2026. Of the 2020 class, 2.5% is still publishing; of the 2025 class, 22.7%. Median lifespan of a finished show with 2+ episodes: 125 days (n = 2,750,073).
Is the video podcast boom showing up in podcast feeds?
No. Everyone is filming their podcast, but the files in the open feed are audio. The newest episode is a video file for 0.7% of active podcasts and 1.9% of all of them. The video goes to YouTube and to Spotify’s own player, and the RSS feed that Apple, Overcast and every other app read gets the MP3.
New podcasts whose newest episode is video, by start year
Show the numbers
| Started | Video share | n |
|---|---|---|
| ’15 | 2.5% | 86,951 |
| ’16 | 1.0% | 112,184 |
| ’17 | 1.6% | 143,108 |
| ’18 | 2.3% | 214,685 |
| ’19 | 1.6% | 354,564 |
| ’20 | 0.9% | 999,219 |
| ’21 | 1.5% | 733,732 |
| ’22 | 5.1% | 326,796 |
| ’23 | 3.8% | 281,296 |
| ’24 | 0.6% | 276,647 |
| ’25 | 0.5% | 345,499 |
| ’26* | 0.7% | 209,318 |
* To 26 September 2026, the dump date.
Video means the newest episode’s file is .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .webm or .mkv; shows whose file type is not in the URL are left out. The 2022 and 2023 bumps are video-sharing sites (PeerTube servers, 3Speak) and a French schools platform that publish every channel as a feed.
How much of podcasting is automated now?
A feed cannot tell you whether a person or a model made it, so we do not claim to count AI podcasts. We count feeds that are likely automated or bulk-published, by either of two signals:
- Extreme cadence: at least 100 episodes, an average of 4 or more a day, over at least 30 days.
- Bulk publishing: one author name on 100 or more shows first seen by Podcast Index in the same year.
Both catch legitimate publishers too: audiobook archives, radio stations putting out every hour, broadcasters with hundreds of programmes. We name no shows. Of feeds first seen since 2023, 22,165 of 1,288,140 meet either signal (1.7%). They are few, but because they publish so much, their share of the episodes keeps climbing.
Share of episodes in new feeds that come from likely automated feeds
Show the numbers
| First seen | Share of episodes | n |
|---|---|---|
| ’21 | 3.9% | 1,517,246 |
| ’22 | 2.3% | 500,040 |
| ’23 | 2.8% | 389,040 |
| ’24 | 4.6% | 287,162 |
| ’25 | 5.0% | 372,723 |
| ’26* | 10.1% | 239,215 |
* To 26 September 2026, the dump date.
By the year Podcast Index first saw the feed (2020 was its bulk import, so it is not a year of new shows). Right now 936 active feeds average four or more episodes a day. 2021 includes one-off imports of audiobook archives and broadcasters’ back catalogues.
| First seen | New feeds | Likely automated | Share of feeds | Share of episodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 1,517,246 | 69,301 | 4.6% | 3.9% |
| 2022 | 500,040 | 10,733 | 2.1% | 2.3% |
| 2023 | 389,040 | 8,123 | 2.1% | 2.8% |
| 2024 | 287,162 | 4,353 | 1.5% | 4.6% |
| 2025 | 372,723 | 5,576 | 1.5% | 5.0% |
| 2026* | 239,215 | 4,113 | 1.7% | 10.1% |
What the likely automated feeds since 2023 are about
By Apple Podcasts category, for the 22,165 flagged feeds (Arts includes the audiobook archives). 68% of them do not say which software wrote the feed, against about a third of all new feeds since 2023.
Languages of the same feeds: English 54%, French 10%, Not stated 8%, Vietnamese 5%, Spanish 5%.
What are podcasts called?
16.8% of podcast names contain the word “podcast” (in English-language shows, 18.2%). The median name is 19 characters and 3 words long. 4.6% of English shows follow the exact pattern “The ___ Podcast”.
Patterns in English-language podcast names
n = 2,394,940 English-language shows.
The most common words
Share of English-language names containing the word, leaving out “the”, “and”, “of” and other small words. n = 2,394,940.
How long podcast names are
Show the numbers
| Characters | Share of names | n |
|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | 3% | 113,858 |
| 6-10 | 11% | 489,354 |
| 11-15 | 21% | 906,979 |
| 16-20 | 21% | 940,127 |
| 21-25 | 16% | 690,814 |
| 26-30 | 10% | 430,751 |
| 31-40 | 10% | 456,425 |
| 41-50 | 4% | 178,889 |
| 51-75 | 3% | 140,722 |
| 76-100 | 1% | 33,674 |
| 101+ | 0% | 9,448 |
All languages, n = 4,391,041.
The names most often reused
“podcast” (845), “introduction” (422), “audio” (391), “music” (390), “sermons” (318), “hola” (310), “real talk” (287), “let's talk” (271), “entrevista” (268), “covid-19” (264), “podcasts” (254), “life” (229). Counted only where at least half the feeds have different authors, so it is a name many people chose rather than one publisher’s many feeds.
Is your podcast name taken?
Search every name in the census: exact matches, the same name give or take “The” and “Podcast”, and names close enough to be confused with it. The full version, with a shareable result, is the podcast name checker.
Already have a show? Check your podcast: how its episode count, age and cadence rank against all 4.4 million podcasts and the 413,475 active ones.
Which languages and countries do podcasts come from?
English is 54.5% of all podcasts and 66.0% of active ones. Spanish has the biggest fall: 15.4% of every show ever started, 5.7% of the ones still publishing. 362 language codes appear in all.
Share of active podcasts by language
From each feed’s language tag. Active = an episode in the last 90 days, n = 413,475.
Countries, where the language tag names one
Feeds do not state a country, but 1,045,271 (23.8%) use a regional language tag such as en-GB or pt-BR. It is a hint, not an address: many hosts write en-US for everybody.
n = 1,045,271 shows with a regional tag.
Where are podcasts hosted?
Spotify’s free host (formerly Anchor) holds 43.2% of every podcast ever started but 23.9% of active ones. Buzzsprout runs the other way: 2.8% of all, 11.2% of active. Free hosting gets shows started; paid hosting is where the ones that last tend to live.
Share of active podcasts by host
By the domain of each feed’s URL. n = 413,475 active shows.
What are podcasts about?
Each show’s first Apple Podcasts category. Share of all shows; in brackets, share of active shows. n = 4,391,041.
How was this counted?
From the Podcast Index public database, 4,731,573 feeds, published 26 September 2026. Active means an episode in the 90 days before that date. Duplicates, mirror feeds and test feeds are removed first. Every definition, the cleaning step by step and the known limits are on the methodology page.
Data: Podcast Index, the open, independent index of podcasts, which it publishes free for any use. Thank you to everybody who keeps it that way.
Can I get the data?
Yes. Every figure on this page, one row per number with its n, is free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. Credit “The Podcast Census 2026, Slice, from Podcast Index data” and link to this page.
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Questions
How many podcasts are there in 2026?
4,391,041 podcasts with at least one episode are in the Podcast Index open database as of 26 September 2026, after removing duplicates, clones and test feeds. 413,475 (9.4%) published in the previous 90 days and 720,181 (16.4%) in the previous year.
How many podcasts make it past episode 1?
78.1% of podcasts have two or more episodes. Among podcasts that have stopped publishing, 24.4% stopped after one episode and 56.5% before episode 7 (n = 3,636,474).
How long does the average podcast last?
The median finished podcast with two or more episodes ran 125 days from its first episode to its last (n = 2,750,073). Including one-episode shows, the median is 45 days, and the median finished show made 5 episodes.
What percentage of podcasts are video?
In RSS feeds, very few: the newest episode is a video file for 0.7% of podcasts active in the last 90 days and 1.9% of all podcasts. Video podcasts mostly live on YouTube and Spotify, which an RSS census cannot see.
How many podcasts are AI-generated or automated?
We cannot tell AI from human from a feed, so we count feeds that are likely automated or bulk-published: at least 100 episodes, an average of 4 or more a day, over at least 30 days, or one author name on 100 or more shows first seen by Podcast Index in the same year. 22,165 of 1,288,140 feeds first seen since 2023 meet either (1.7%), and they hold 10.1% of the episodes in feeds first seen in 2026.
Where does this data come from?
The Podcast Index public database dump (podcastindex_feeds.db) published 26 September 2026, 4,731,573 feeds. Podcast Index is an open, independent index of podcast RSS feeds. The full method and the cleaning steps, with the count each one removed, are on the methodology page.
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