How Long Should a Podcast Be? (& One Length to Avoid!)

How long should a podcast be? Some say 20 minutes, others swear by an hour, and you'll even hear claims that it should match the average commute. The truth is, there's only one length you should avoid, and that's the one that doesn't suit your content.

If you have 20 minutes of strong material, 20 minutes is perfect. If you can carry listeners for an hour with genuine value, that's the right length, too. What matters is that your podcast delivers on its promise without padding or cutting corners.

In this guide, we'll look at listener habits, industry data, and podcasting nuances to help you decide how long your episodes should be. Let's dive in...

Content Dictates Podcast Episode Length

While 20 minutes of value suggests an ideal episode length of 20 minutes, stretching it out to an hour adds filler. Cutting it to 15, on the other hand, leaves value out.

The good news is that, unlike radio, podcasting isn't tied to a schedule. You don't need to fill an hour or wrap up on the half hour. Listeners choose when and how they listen, so your only job is to make the content as good as possible and stop once it is done.

Do Listener Habits Matter?

I often hear advice about shaping podcast length around the average commute or shower time. In reality, listeners dip in and out. They might catch five minutes at breakfast, 15 on the way to work, and the rest later.

Thanks to syncing across devices, people can move easily between speakers, earbuds, and cars, too. Very few expect to finish an episode in one sitting, so duration shouldn't be pinned to daily routines.

Podcast Length Consistency Helps - But Don't Force It

Should all your episodes be the same length? Not necessarily. Content comes first. But some consistency helps in the ballpark range.

If you usually publish episodes in the 20-40 minute bracket, putting one out that's less than ten minutes long might raise a few eyebrows. If there's a solid content-driven reason behind it, that's totally fine. But big swings and deviations in your average length time is something to be wary of.

If your favourite daily one-minute "this day in history" podcast suddenly dropped an hour-long episode because the host ended up going on a rant about vets' fees and parking tickets, you'd feel a little miffed. But if they had an unexpected in-depth interview with a renowned historian, you'd be all ears.

Format and Publishing Schedule

So much in podcasting is tied to the type of podcast you make, as well as how often you publish.

• Highly produced shows such as dramas or documentaries take time to edit, so episodes are often shorter, with longer gaps between releases.
• Interviews or discussions can run longer, but remember that a one-hour episode rarely means one hour of work. Editing and production can take three or four times that.
• Frequent publishing such as a daily or weekly show usually means shorter episodes. A daily news briefing of under five minutes makes sense.

So if you plan to release an hour of polished audio drama on a daily basis, best of luck with that (and please, let me know how you did it!)

Are Long Episodes a Problem?

Absolutely not. But, as a rule of thumb, I think that once you go past 90 minutes, there should be an excellent reason for it.

For example, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History runs three to six hours, and episodes are downloaded millions of times. The length matches the depth of the content, so it works.

But if you've recorded a value-packed two-hour conversation, I get that you might feel uneasy about publishing it at such a length, especially if your other episodes don't even run half as long.

In these situations, you've got the freedom to chop them and create two or more episodes. You don't need to cut out any value; you can just package it into more consistent lengths, if you feel the need!

What the Data Says About Podcast Episode Length

This entire guide can be summed up in one sentence: "Content should always dictate length". But it's still useful to know what others are doing, as well as how the landscape has typically looked. Here's some data to help build a picture of average podcast lengths.

Listener Preferences (2024)

In our own listener-focused survey, we asked podcast fans about their preferred episode length.

• Over half preferred episodes between 15 minutes and one hour
• 32% had no preference
• 15% liked episodes longer than an hour

The data doesn’t suggest that ultra-short episodes are unpopular. They clearly have an audience and work well for frequent, even daily, shows. But when listeners search for a new podcast, they are often looking for something longer.

Top 200 Podcasts (2021)

Rob Walch of hosting platform Libsyn shared these stats on episode 188 of their official podcast, The Feed. In 2021, he analysed shows in Apple Podcasts’ top 200, essentially the most successful podcasts, and found that:

• 8% averaged 22 minutes or less
• 78% averaged 40 minutes or more
• 5.5% averaged two hours or more
• Half of all episodes were under an hour, half were over

2005–2019 sample of 18 Million Episodes

In 2019, Dan Misener of Pacific Content published data showing that podcast episodes are, on average, getting shorter.

• Average episode length was 41 minutes and 31 seconds
• Episodes were getting shorter year on year
• Categories varied: video games, wrestling and gaming were longest, while language learning, astronomy and daily news were shortest

Buzzsprout (2025)

Hosting provider Buzzsprout publishes monthly data based on the 120k+ shows publishing on the platform. Here's their average podcast length data from August 2025:

• Less than 10 minutes: 19%
• 10–20 minutes: 16%
• 20–40 minutes: 30%
• 40–60 minutes: 20%
• Over 60 minutes: 14%

Indie Podcaster Survey (2025)

Finally, in our upcoming Independent Podcasters Report, we asked 550+ indie creators their average episode length:

• 20–39 minutes 36%
• 40–59 minutes 30%
• 10–19 minutes 16%
• 60 minutes or more 13%
• Less than 10 minutes 5%

So, looking at the numbers, most podcast episodes tend to fall somewhere between 20 and 60 minutes. Still, an average isn’t a rule. The right length is whatever you can keep up and whatever your listeners actually enjoy.

How Long is a Podcast Season?

We're talking podcast episode length here, but it's worth touching on season length, too.

A season is simply a collection of episodes, often themed around a particular angle of your overall topic. For example, our show Podcraft focuses on how to podcast, but we run seasons on specific areas such as gear, promotion, or monetisation.

The length of a season depends on how much you need to say. Many podcasters opt for six, eight, or twelve episodes, which mirrors TV streaming platforms. If your topic needs 20 episodes, that is your season length. And if you are worried about it dragging on, you can always add a mid-season break.

How Long Should a Podcast Be? The Bottom Line

There is no single correct length for a podcast. Industry data shows that popular shows range from a few minutes to several hours, and listener preferences are just as varied. What really matters is that your episode length matches your content, your release schedule, and your workflow.

So how long should a podcast be? As long as it needs to be, and no longer. The only length worth avoiding is one that doesn't fit what you have to say.

And when it comes to workflow, the same principle applies: don’t spend more time than you need to. That’s where Alitu comes in. Its recording, editing, and publishing tools save you hours each week, so you can focus on creating, not fiddling with software.