Buzzsprout Pricing and Podcast Ad Payouts

Buzzsprout pricing starts at $15 a month for the Audio plan, $25 for Audio + Video and $30 for Multi-Podcast, all quoted on annual billing. There is also a free plan with 2 hours of uploads a month where episodes stay up for 90 days. Buzzsprout Ads pays podcasters 0.7 to 1.4 cents per monetized download, which is $7 to $14 for every 1,000 ad downloads. The hosting bill is small. What your downloads earn is the number that decides whether the show pays for itself.

The prices below come from Buzzsprout's own pricing page and its Buzzsprout Ads help articles. Several roundups still quote the older hosting tiers priced by monthly upload hours, so check the date on anything you read. This guide covers what each plan costs, who needs which one, what Buzzsprout Ads requires and pays, and why a direct sponsor read earns many times more. If you already host somewhere and want to sell reads to brands, our podcast sponsorship marketplace is where advertisers find shows by audience and price.

How much does Buzzsprout cost?

Buzzsprout costs $15 a month on the Audio plan, $25 on Audio + Video and $30 on Multi-Podcast when billed annually, which works out to $180, $300 and $360 a year. The free plan costs nothing but deletes episodes after 90 days.

Unused upload hours do not roll over, and going over your hours is billed at your plan's hourly rate on the next invoice. Transcripts are included on the paid plans. Cohost AI and Magic Mastering are paid add-ons, and Buzzsprout does not list their prices on the pricing page.

Is Buzzsprout free?

Buzzsprout has a free plan, but it is a trial in practice. You get 2 hours of uploads each month, episodes are hosted for 90 days and then removed, and paid add-ons and video distribution are not available. A show that wants to keep a back catalog, which sponsors check before they book, needs a paid plan. At $15 a month the Audio plan costs less than most single podcast ad reads earn.

Which Buzzsprout plan do you need?

Most single shows need Audio. At $15 a month you get 72 hours a year, enough for a weekly 60 minute show with room to spare. Pick Audio + Video if you publish video to YouTube or Spotify, and Multi-Podcast only if you run more than one show, since the 180 hours are shared across them. Because upload time is billed by the hour, a daily show runs out of hours quickly and should do the arithmetic before buying: episodes a year times average length in hours, against 72.

How much does Buzzsprout Ads pay podcasters?

Buzzsprout Ads pays between 0.7 and 1.4 cents per monetized download, according to Buzzsprout's reporting help article. A monetized download is a download that contains a Buzzsprout ad, and a download with two ads counts twice. That is $7 to $14 per 1,000 ad downloads, and it is the amount you keep, not the price the advertiser paid.

These figures assume every download carries both ads, which is the best case. Earnings appear on your reporting page after an advertiser's campaign reaches its purchased impressions, then the credit lands in your Buzzsprout Wallet. You can apply it to your hosting invoices or withdraw it by PayPal once the credit is over $50.

How many downloads do you need for Buzzsprout Ads?

You need 1,000 downloads in a rolling 30 day window to turn on Buzzsprout Ads, and the count moves daily. Buzzsprout also requires a paid plan, a verified email and three podcast categories. At least five published episodes must run 23 minutes or longer, and most of your 25 most recent episodes must be at least 23 minutes. Episodes without identifiable ad breaks may not qualify at any length. A 15 minute daily show can never qualify, however many downloads it gets.

Is Buzzsprout worth it?

Buzzsprout is worth it as a simple host with clean stats, and the $15 Audio plan is a fair price for that. It is a weak reason to join if the goal is ad income. A 5,000 download episode earns at most $140 through Buzzsprout Ads. Sold directly, the same two reads at a typical host-read CPM of $25 earn $250 and you keep all of it, with no download or length rule other than the one the sponsor sets. Our breakdown of podcast advertising rates shows what brands pay by audience size.

The gap grows as you grow. At 20,000 downloads an episode the automatic ad ceiling is $560 for two slots, while two direct reads at $25 CPM are $1,000. Hosting fees stay flat while your audience grows, so the sponsorship price is the lever you control. Repurposing each episode into clips and posts with an episode repurposing tool gives sponsors more places to appear, which is something you can charge for.

How fast does a Buzzsprout plan pay for itself?

Take a weekly show on the $15 Audio plan, which costs $180 a year, with 2,000 downloads an episode. Through Buzzsprout Ads, two slots per download at the top rate of 1.4 cents earn $56 an episode and $2,912 over 52 episodes, if every download carries both ads, which it will not. The same show selling two host-read ads direct at $25 per 1,000 earns $100 an episode, or $5,200 a year, and one booked read of $50 covers more than three months of hosting. The direct route needs a sponsor to say yes. The automatic route needs only downloads, which is why many shows run both: automatic ads fill the slots no brand bought.

Whatever you choose, keep the numbers a sponsor asks for in one place: downloads per episode over the last 90 days, the audience split by country, episode length and publish cadence. Your host's stats page has the first two. A sponsor will not pay without them, and a show that publishes them gets booked faster than one that says "contact me for rates".

Buzzsprout vs Libsyn pricing

Buzzsprout is simpler and Libsyn is cheaper at the entry end. Libsyn plans run from $8 to $150 a month with a 30 day trial and its automatic ads pay a 50% or 60% revenue share. Buzzsprout pays a fixed cents-per-download figure and requires 23 minute episodes. Our Libsyn pricing guide lists each plan and the payout terms, so you can compare them on your own schedule and download count.

Where to start

Host where you like, then sell the reads yourself. On Sponsorships you publish your downloads, audience and a price per read, brands contact you directly, and you keep 100% of every deal. The Creator plan is $19.50 a month billed yearly, and the sponsorship rate card builder turns your download numbers into prices you can publish today. One direct read pays for months of hosting.