iHeartRadio Advertising Cost: Podcast Rates

iHeartRadio advertising has no published rate card. Podcast ads inside iHeart's own shows are sold by iHeartMedia's sales team on a quote, and the widely repeated "start from $250" figure comes from AudioGo, a self-serve audio platform whose network includes iHeartRadio but which does not let you choose iHeartRadio on its own. On the CPM bands AudioGo publishes for 2026, a host-read spot runs about $18 to $35 per thousand downloads on a small show and $50 to $120 on a top-100 show, so a single read on a 500,000-download iHeart title lands somewhere between $25,000 and $60,000. The budget you have decides which of four routes you are actually buying.

This page lays out those four routes with what each one really sells, the minimums that are published and the ones that are not, and the arithmetic that turns a CPM into an invoice. If you are new to buying audio, our overview of podcast advertising and how to sponsor a podcast directly covers the formats and pricing models first.

How much does it cost to advertise on iHeartRadio?

It depends on which product you mean, because "advertising on iHeartRadio" covers three different things: a spot on a broadcast radio station, an audio ad that plays between songs or streams in the iHeartRadio app, and an ad inside an iHeartPodcasts episode. iHeartMedia sells all three, and it publishes a price for none of them. Its own advertise page routes every buyer to a local representative, a national phone line (844-844-4432) or a contact form with a "Podcasts" option.

The scale you are paying for is real. iHeartMedia describes itself as the number one US podcast publisher, with more than 150 million podcast downloads and streams a month on Podtrac's August 2026 ranking and more shows in the Apple Top 200 than any other publisher. Scale like that is exactly why there is no public card: the price is negotiated per show, per flight and per format.

Here are the four ways a US brand can actually buy, side by side:

Sources: iHeartMedia's advertise and contact pages, AudioGo's iHeartRadio and pricing pages, and AdExchanger's report on iHeart's podcast private marketplace. None of this is a quote.

What is the minimum spend for iHeartRadio advertising?

There is no official minimum for buying iHeart podcasts directly, and anyone who tells you a number is guessing. The only published minimum is AudioGo's $250, and it comes with a catch the guides that repeat it tend to skip. AudioGo's own FAQ says it does not let you select a single publisher exclusively. Your ad runs wherever your targeting finds listeners across its network, and iHeartRadio listeners who match your targeting are eligible to hear it. So $250 buys you a test on a network that includes iHeartRadio. It does not buy you an ad on iHeartRadio, and it certainly does not buy a host read inside an iHeart podcast.

There is one more trap. Older how-to guides describe a self-serve iHeart Ad Builder with a budget slider. The address those guides link to, iheartadbuilder.com, now redirects to iHeartMedia's general advertising page, which sends you to a rep, the phone line or the contact form. If you were planning around a self-serve iHeart tool, plan around a sales conversation instead.

What do iHeartRadio podcast ads cost per episode?

Podcast ads are priced per thousand downloads, so the useful number is the CPM multiplied by the downloads a show delivers per episode. AudioGo publishes 2026 bands by show tier: $18 to $35 for shows under 25,000 downloads an episode, $25 to $50 for 25,000 to 100,000, and $50 to $120 for premium and top-100 shows above 100,000. Mid-roll costs the most, pre-roll a little less, post-roll least, and host reads carry a premium over produced spots.

Our arithmetic on AudioGo's published CPM bands, not an iHeartMedia quote. The bottom two rows are the ones iHeart's flagship shows sit in, which is why a direct iHeart podcast buy is a planned five or six figure line item rather than a test. For comparison, the rates on the biggest independent show in the country are broken down in our note on what it costs to advertise on the Joe Rogan Experience.

How do I advertise on iHeartRadio podcasts?

Contact iHeartMedia's sales team through its advertise page or on 844-844-4432, pick "Podcasts" on the form, and bring a brief. Sales teams at large networks price faster when you arrive with the four things they will ask for anyway:

• A budget and a flight. The total you can commit and the weeks it should run. A number up front gets you a real plan instead of a discovery call.
• The audience, not the show. Age, interests and region. The rep will map that to specific titles and to network-wide inventory.
• The format. Host read, produced spot or both. Host reads cost more and are limited by the host's calendar.
• How you will measure it. A promo code, a vanity URL or pixel-based attribution. Agree on it before the flight, not after.

If you buy through an agency instead, expect a fee on top of media. Our guide to podcast advertising agency fees covers the 15% to 20% commission and retainer models and when paying them makes sense.

Can you advertise on iHeartRadio podcasts with a small budget?

Not inside iHeart's own shows in any practical sense. A single mid-roll on a premium iHeart title costs more than most small brands spend on a quarter of marketing, and there is no self-serve way to buy one. What a small budget can do is one of two things. You can run a $250 to $1,000 AudioGo test to see whether audio moves your numbers at all, knowing you are buying network reach rather than iHeart. Or you can buy host reads on independent shows whose audience matches yours, where one read on a 20,000-download show costs a few hundred dollars and the host reads your copy in their own voice.

The second option is the one that works like an iHeart podcast buy, just at a size a small brand can afford. While you draft the brief, it helps to have several versions of your ad copy written and ready to test, because a host read lives or dies on the talking points you hand over.

Is iHeartRadio advertising worth it?

It is worth it for brands that need national reach quickly and have the budget to buy it properly: a planned multi-week flight across several shows, with a promo code or attribution in place from day one. It is usually not worth it for a brand spending under $10,000 on audio, because at that size you either cannot buy the inventory directly or you end up on network-wide streaming inventory that is not what you set out to buy. At that budget, the same money spread across several well-matched independent shows buys more host reads, more targeting control and a relationship you can renew.

iHeartRadio vs booking independent podcasts direct

That second column is what Sponsorships is built for. On the Brand plan, $79 a month billed yearly, you browse podcasts, newsletters and YouTube channels by niche, see each creator's audience and published rates, shortlist, send a brief and contact the host directly. The platform takes 0% of the deal. If you want to compare how networks and marketplaces charge before you commit, our roundup of podcast advertising networks and our breakdown of podcast advertising minimum spend set the two models side by side.

How long does it take to launch an iHeartRadio campaign?

Through AudioGo, campaigns typically start within 24 to 48 hours of approval, and AudioGo will produce the spot from your script within 24 hours for $10. A direct iHeartMedia podcast buy takes longer because it runs through proposal, insertion order and the host's recording schedule, so plan several weeks ahead of the flight you want. Host reads on independent shows usually book one to four weeks out, depending on how full the host's calendar is.