What is Readpodcast AI?
Readpodcast AI is a web app that makes transcripts of podcast episodes and public YouTube videos. You search its index of public shows, which is built on open RSS feeds and Podcast Index, or paste a Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or RSS link. Each transcript has timestamps and speaker names, scrolls along with playback and can be searched, and it comes with an AI summary, keywords, a mind map, notable quotes and key takeaways.
Everything runs on credits. Opening one episode or video costs 50 credits and each message to the transcript-grounded chat costs 20. The free plan gives 100 credits a month, enough for two episodes, but no chat and no copying or exporting. Paid plans add Markdown, PDF and mind-map exports. The interface comes in 15 languages, and transcripts are made with in-house systems and third-party AI providers, which the company does not name.
How much does Readpodcast AI cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 100 credits a month; one episode over 2 hours a month; no AI chat, copy or export |
| Lite | $4.90/month | 1,000 credits, about 20 episodes or 50 chat messages |
| Standard | $9.90/month | 3,000 credits, about 60 episodes; priority email support |
| Pro | $19.90/month | 7,500 credits, about 150 episodes |
Free ($0): 100 credits a month (2 episodes, no chat or export). Lite $4.90/month (1,000 credits, about 20 episodes); Standard $9.90/month (3,000 credits, about 60); Pro $19.90/month (7,500 credits, about 150). 50 credits per episode, 20 per chat message; credits do not roll over.
Is Readpodcast AI worth it?
You remember a guest saying something sharp about pricing around the 40-minute mark of a 2-hour interview, and finding it again means scrubbing through audio on your phone.
Readpodcast AI turns the episode into text you can search. Paste a link from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or an RSS feed, or search its index of public shows, and you get a transcript with timestamps and real speaker names, plus a summary, quotes, takeaways and a mind map. A paid plan adds a chat that answers from the transcript. At $4.90 a month for about 20 episodes, a single episode costs roughly 25 cents.
The Apple Podcasts page is the weakest case for it. Apple has shown free, searchable, time-synced transcripts in its own app since iOS 17.4 in March 2024, in 11 languages including English, French, German and Spanish. If you only want to read along, that costs nothing. What Readpodcast adds is speaker labels, Spotify and YouTube in the same place, the AI extras, and files you can take away.
The catch: the free plan is a sample, not a tool. You get two episodes a month, no chat, and you cannot copy text or export it, so the quote you came for has to be retyped. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over. The privacy policy says transcripts and chat go to third-party AI providers it does not name, and it says nothing either way about whether your chats are used for training. Accuracy figures are not published, there is no API, and the terms forbid redistributing transcripts in bulk.
Our take: for a student or researcher who quotes podcasts every week, $4.90 a month is a fair price for exports and speaker names. For listening on an iPhone, Apple's free transcript button gets you most of the way.
Where it earns its place
A postgraduate student citing interviews from business podcasts in a dissertation
Find and quote exact lines with timestamps
Paste each Apple Podcasts or Spotify link, search the transcript for the term and export it as Markdown or PDF. Lite at $4.90 a month covers about 20 episodes; check quotes against the audio, since the terms warn transcripts can be wrong.
A newsletter writer covering two weekly industry shows
Pull the key arguments from each episode without relistening
Read the summary and takeaways, then ask the chat follow-up questions grounded in the transcript. Eight episodes plus 20 chat messages a month uses 800 credits, inside the Lite plan's 1,000.
A language learner following Spanish and French podcasts
Read along with episodes that are too fast to follow by ear
Open the transcript and let it scroll with playback, tapping a line to replay it. The free plan's two episodes a month is enough to see whether it suits you before paying.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Sign up with an email address, then paste an episode link or search a show; the transcript opens in the browser, with nothing to install.
- Integrations
- Accepts Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and RSS links and uses Podcast Index for search; exports are Markdown, PDF and mind-map images on paid plans. No API is published.
- Data and privacy
- The privacy policy says inputs go to unnamed third-party AI providers and does not say whether chats or activity are used to train models; account data is kept up to 30 days after deletion and conversations and support records up to 12 months. Which AI tools train on your data?
- Cost at scale
- Pro at $19.90 a month covers about 150 episodes, or 375 chat messages, which works out to roughly 13 cents an episode; there are no team plans or shared workspaces.
- Limits
- Free accounts get one episode over 2 hours a month; credits reset monthly with no roll-over; purchases are generally non-refundable; bulk resale or redistribution of transcripts needs written permission.
What’s good
- Transcripts with speaker names and clickable timestamps
- Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and RSS links in one place
- About 20 episodes for $4.90 a month on Lite
- Failed transcriptions refund their credits automatically
What’s not
- Free plan cannot copy or export text and has no chat
- Apple Podcasts already shows free transcripts in its app
- AI providers unnamed; training use not stated
- No API, no accuracy figures, credits do not roll over
Best for
Students, researchers and writers who regularly need to quote or search podcasts and YouTube talks they did not record.
Readpodcast AI alternatives
Readpodcast AI: common questions
- Is Readpodcast AI worth it?
- A tidy, cheap way to read and quote podcasts you don't host, but Apple's own app already gives away the transcript, so you are paying for exports and chat. We rate it 3.4 out of 5.
- How much does Readpodcast AI cost?
- Free ($0): 100 credits a month (2 episodes, no chat or export). Lite $4.90/month (1,000 credits, about 20 episodes); Standard $9.90/month (3,000 credits, about 60); Pro $19.90/month (7,500 credits, about 150). 50 credits per episode, 20 per chat message; credits do not roll over.
- What are the downsides of Readpodcast AI?
- Free plan cannot copy or export text and has no chat; apple Podcasts already shows free transcripts in its app; aI providers unnamed; training use not stated; no API, no accuracy figures, credits do not roll over.
- Who is Readpodcast AI best for?
- Students, researchers and writers who regularly need to quote or search podcasts and YouTube talks they did not record.
- How much does Readpodcast AI cost for a team or in production?
- Pro at $19.90 a month covers about 150 episodes, or 375 chat messages, which works out to roughly 13 cents an episode; there are no team plans or shared workspaces.
- Is Readpodcast AI safe for company data?
- The privacy policy says inputs go to unnamed third-party AI providers and does not say whether chats or activity are used to train models; account data is kept up to 30 days after deletion and conversations and support records up to 12 months.
- What are the best Readpodcast AI alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) and AssemblyAI.
Answers checked Nov 11, 2026.