How Podcasts Make Money (And Which Ones Are Earning the Most)

The short version: most podcasts make money through sponsorship reads sold on a cost-per-thousand-downloads basis, plus listener subscriptions, live shows, and their own products, but the median podcast earns close to nothing while a tiny handful of shows like Call Her Daddy and The Joe Rogan Experience pull in tens of millions a year through exclusive distribution deals, not ad sales alone. If you're starting a podcast to get rich from ads, you're chasing the wrong number. If you're starting one to build an audience that buys other things from you, the maths works out completely differently.

If you want to go deeper on this: The Best Types of Affiliate Marketing Sites to Join in 2026 (And Which.

The four ways podcasts earn money

I've run podcasts myself and advised clients who make five figures a month from a show with under 5,000 downloads an episode, so I'm not working off theory here. There are really only four income streams that matter, and most shows use two or three of them at once.

• Sponsorship and advertising sold on a CPM basis (cost per thousand downloads), either pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll
• Listener funded income through Patreon, Apple Podcasts subscriptions, or Spotify's paid tiers, usually for bonus episodes or ad-free feeds
• Live events, tours, and merchandise, which is where the big shows make a surprising chunk of their money
• The podcast as a funnel into something else entirely, a course, a coaching programme, a book, speaking fees, or client work

That last one is the one nobody wants to talk about, so I will. For most working podcasters, the show itself doesn't pay the bills. It's the thing that gets people into your world so they buy the thing that does. I know consultants earning six figures a year whose podcast download numbers wouldn't get them a single decent sponsor, because the podcast was never the product. It was the doorway.

What CPM means and what it pays in practice

CPM stands for cost per mille, or cost per thousand downloads. A brand pays you an agreed rate for every thousand times your ad gets downloaded, usually measured across the first 30 days after an episode goes live. In 2026, typical rates in the US and UK markets sit around:

• 15 to 20 pounds ($19 to $25) per thousand downloads for a 30-second pre-roll spot
• 25 to 40 pounds ($31 to $50) per thousand downloads for a 60-second mid-roll spot, which converts better because the listener is already hooked
• 10 to 15 pounds ($13 to $19) per thousand downloads for a post-roll spot, which almost nobody hears because most people stop listening before the end

Do the maths on that and you'll see why small shows struggle. A podcast pulling 3,000 downloads an episode, which is a respectable number for a niche business show, earns roughly 45 to 90 pounds per mid-roll ad slot. Run two ads an episode, once a week, and that's maybe 500 to 700 pounds a month before the ad network takes its cut, which is typically 20 to 30 percent if you're going through a marketplace rather than selling direct. That's why understanding why podcasts include ad breaks in the first place matters more than people think. It's not filler. It's the entire revenue mechanism, and the placement decides whether it earns anything.

A real example from a client's numbers

A client of mine runs a B2B podcast in the marketing and tech space, averaging around 4,200 downloads per episode across two episodes a month. She has two recurring sponsors, both paying a flat monthly fee rather than strict CPM, because at that download level a lot of sponsors prefer simplicity over per-episode invoicing. Combined, those two deals bring in about 900 pounds a month. On top of that she runs a small Patreon-style membership for 40 subscribers paying 5 pounds a month for an extra bonus episode, which adds 200 pounds. Total podcast income: roughly 1,100 pounds a month. But her actual annual revenue from the podcast ecosystem, including the three consulting clients who found her through the show last year, was over 60,000 pounds. The show is not the business. The show is the introduction to the business. That distinction is the single most useful thing I can tell anyone weighing up whether podcasting is worth their time.

Which podcasts earn the most, and why the numbers are misleading

The headline figures you'll see quoted are real, but they almost never come from straightforward ad sales. Here's what's happening at the top of the market:

• The Joe Rogan Experience reportedly signed a deal with Spotify worth more than 200 million dollars over several years, renewed in 2024 for a further multi-year term reported at around 250 million dollars. That is a licensing and exclusivity deal, not ad revenue counted episode by episode.
• Call Her Daddy, hosted by Alex Cooper, signed a deal with SiriusXM reported at around 125 million dollars over three years, after previously being on Spotify. Again, this is a platform buying exclusive access to an audience, not a per-download ad sale.
• SmartLess, hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, reportedly earns tens of millions annually through a mix of ad sales and an equity-style distribution deal, helped enormously by three already-famous hosts bringing existing audiences with them.
• Crime Junkie and My Favorite Murder both built organic audiences from nothing and now earn substantial six-figure to low seven-figure sums annually largely through direct-sold advertising, live tours, and merchandise, which is a far more replicable model for anyone starting today than the celebrity deals above.

Here's the uncomfortable bit that most coverage of this topic skips past: the enormous numbers attached to the biggest podcasts are almost entirely platform bidding wars for an existing famous person's audience, not proof that podcast advertising itself pays well. Joe Rogan didn't become a great podcaster and then get rich from ad reads. He had millions of existing fans from UFC commentary and stand up, and platforms paid for access to that audience. If you're starting a podcast from zero in 2026, the Rogan number tells you almost nothing useful about your own likely earnings. The Crime Junkie story, built slowly from a small local audience into a genuine media business, is the far more instructive one.

Live events and merchandise, the underrated income line

True crime and comedy shows in particular have found that touring is where the real money sits once a show has a loyal enough following. My Favorite Murder has sold out arena tours at 40 to 90 dollars a ticket across hundreds of dates. That's revenue that doesn't depend on any ad network, doesn't get squeezed by download fraud concerns, and builds a direct relationship with fans who then buy merchandise, books, and future tickets. For a mid-size show with even a few thousand true fans, a single live night at a 300-capacity venue charging 20 pounds a ticket can outearn several months of ad revenue in one evening.

Listener funded models: smaller than people assume

Patreon, Apple Podcasts subscriptions, and Substack-style membership tiers get a lot of attention because they feel like the "fair" model, direct payment from fans rather than ads. In practice, conversion rates are brutal. Industry benchmarks suggest somewhere between 1 and 3 percent of a podcast's regular listeners will ever convert to a paying member, even with strong bonus content. A show with 10,000 regular listeners might convert 150 to 300 of them at 5 pounds a month, which is 750 to 1,500 pounds monthly, useful but rarely enough on its own to replace a day job unless the audience is very large or the price point much higher.

Step by step: how a new podcast starts earning

If you're starting from nothing, here's the realistic order things happen in, based on what I've watched work for clients and my own shows:

• Step 1: Publish consistently for at least 20 to 30 episodes before expecting any sponsor interest. Nobody sponsors a show with six episodes and no track record.
• Step 2: Once you're averaging 500 or more downloads per episode in the first 30 days, start reaching out directly to brands already relevant to your niche rather than waiting for a network to find you. Direct deals keep more of the money than marketplace platforms.
• Step 3: Layer in affiliate links for tools or products you already use and recommend on air, which for many small shows earns more per episode than a formal sponsorship slot at this stage.
• Step 4: Build a simple email list from your show notes so you own the audience relationship outside of any single platform's algorithm.
• Step 5: Once you have a engaged core audience, even a small one, test a paid offer, whether that's a low-cost membership, a workshop, or your actual consulting or coaching service.

Before any of that, be honest about the basic production bar you're aiming for, because what equipment you need to start a podcast is far less than most gear guides suggest, and overspending on kit before you've proven the concept is a common way people burn out before episode ten. Same goes for output pace. I get asked constantly about how many episodes a week is realistic to publish, and the honest answer is that consistency at a sustainable pace beats a heroic burst that dies after a month, every single time.

What this looks like outside the US and UK

Sponsorship rates and audience expectations shift a lot depending on market. Podcasting in India, for instance, is growing fast but ad rates per download are typically much lower than US CPMs, meaning most Indian podcasters who earn well do it through brand partnerships, YouTube simulcast revenue, and their own courses or consulting rather than pure ad reads. Anyone curious about that specific market should look at the real figures in how much podcasters earn in India, from zero to crores, because the gap between the top 1 percent and everyone else is even starker there than in Western markets.

The uncomfortable truth about "how podcasts make money"

Most articles on this topic list the four or five monetisation methods and leave it there, implying that if you tick enough boxes the money follows. It doesn't, not reliably. The median podcast, and there are now more than 4 million of them worldwide according to figures reported by Podcast Index and covered by outlets including The Guardian, earns effectively nothing. Sponsors want a minimum audience threshold, usually somewhere around 5,000 downloads an episode, before they'll even have the conversation, and getting there takes most shows well over a year of consistent weekly output with no guarantee of arrival at all. If your only goal is ad revenue, you're competing against a market where the top 1 percent of shows take a wildly disproportionate share of total ad spend, similar to how income distribution works across most creator economies. The shows that make a living from podcasting overwhelmingly do it by treating the podcast as marketing for something else, a service, a product, a personal brand that converts into paid work. That's not a cynical take. It's simply what the numbers show once you look past the headline deals.

For a wider look at where podcasting sits against other ways people are building income on the side right now, it's worth comparing it honestly against which side hustles make the most money in 2026, because podcasting rarely tops that list on pure income per hour invested, even though it wins on long-term brand building.

If you want the full breakdown of exactly how the money flows for the hosts themselves once a show is established, including which deal structures pay best and which are a waste of a mid-size audience's use, I've covered that in more depth in how podcasts make money for their hosts.

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Here are the tools for recording a podcast worth a look, including smaller independent ones. Here are the tools for editing a podcast that save the most time on each episode.

It's worth bookmarking a shortlist of podcast hosts compared as well. When you've got a minute, check out a hands-on look at Spreaker as a podcast host.

Frequently asked questions

How many downloads does a podcast need before it can make money from ads?

Most ad networks and direct sponsors start taking a show seriously once it hits around 5,000 downloads per episode within the first 30 days, though smaller niche shows with a highly targeted business audience can sometimes attract sponsors at 1,000 to 2,000 downloads if the audience fits the brand precisely.

Do podcast hosts get paid per download or per episode?

It depends on the deal. Marketplace platforms typically pay a CPM rate, meaning per thousand downloads, calculated over a set window such as 30 days. Direct sponsorship deals with established brands more often pay a flat monthly or per-episode fee agreed in advance, regardless of exact download numbers.

Is Joe Rogan's podcast income representative of what most podcasters earn?

No. Rogan's reported deals with Spotify, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are platform bidding wars for an already-massive existing celebrity audience, not standard ad revenue. They tell you almost nothing about likely earnings for a podcaster starting from zero in 2026.

What's the fastest realistic way to earn money from a new podcast?

Affiliate links for tools you use, and using the show to funnel listeners into a paid service, course, or consulting offer you already sell, both tend to pay off faster than waiting for a formal ad sponsorship, which usually requires months of consistent downloads before any brand will even reply to an email.