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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
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Apple Podcasts

45
Value score / 100 Worth paying? No Skip it

Apple Podcasts is a free app with a wide variety of content, but it suffers from significant bugs, intrusive ads, and a clunky user interface, making its value questionable despite its high lifetime rating.

Free + in-app purchases seen up to $59.99 4.9★ lifetime (2,072,879) since 2012

Apple Podcasts offers a vast library of free content, but recent user reviews highlight numerous technical issues like freezing, random playback, and poor video support. The app is also criticized for frequent, loud, and poorly placed ads, which detract significantly from the listening experience and push users away from potential subscriptions.

Free vs paid

The core Apple Podcasts app is free to use and provides access to a wide variety of podcasts R4R25R92. However, users frequently encounter ads, some of which are described as aggressive, loud, and poorly placed R7R12R22R23. While the app offers in-app purchases, reviews suggest these are primarily for ad-free podcast subscriptions from individual shows rather than a universal ad-free experience for the entire app R7R23. There are complaints that even with Apple Music subscriptions, ads are still present in podcasts R23.

Value complaints

  • Ads are frequent, loud, and interrupt podcasts mid-sentence, making the experience frustrating and pushing users to delete the app rather than pay for ad-free options.R7R12R22R23
  • The app does not offer a universal ad-free subscription, and some users complain that even with an Apple Music subscription, they still encounter ads.R23
  • Some podcasts require payment or subscription to access, which is a point of frustration for users who expect all content to be free.R20R63

Where it delivers

  • The app provides access to a wide variety of podcasts and topics, catering to diverse interests.R4R25R41R92
  • When it works, the app is considered easy to use for basic listening.R10R50
  • Many users appreciate the content itself, finding specific podcasts helpful, inspiring, or enjoyable.R2R5R8R19
Worth paying if

It is not worth paying for ad-free subscriptions within Apple Podcasts, as the app's fundamental issues with bugs, autoplay, and poor UI detract from the overall experience regardless of ad presence R6R9.

Skip / stay free if

You should skip Apple Podcasts if you value a stable, ad-free, and intuitive listening experience, as many users report persistent glitches, intrusive ads, and frustrating navigation R6R7R9. Users who listen to video podcasts should also skip, due to significant playback issues R3.

Evidence note: The lifetime rating is very high, but recent reviews are overwhelmingly negative, focusing on severe bugs, poor UI, and aggressive ads. There is no specific pricing information for a universal ad-free experience, only for individual podcast subscriptions.

Frequently asked

Is Apple Podcasts free to use?
Yes, the Apple Podcasts app is free to download and use, providing access to a wide range of podcasts without an initial cost R56.
Does Apple Podcasts have ads?
Yes, Apple Podcasts features ads that are often criticized for being frequent, loud, and poorly placed, sometimes interrupting podcasts in the middle of sentences R7R12R22R23.
Can I get an ad-free experience on Apple Podcasts?
While some individual podcasts offer ad-free subscriptions via in-app purchases (seen at price points like $7.99 and $59.99), there is no universal ad-free subscription for the entire Apple Podcasts app, and some users report still encountering ads even with Apple Music subscriptions R7R23.
Are there many bugs and glitches in Apple Podcasts?
Recent reviews indicate that Apple Podcasts has numerous bugs and glitches, including play/pause buttons not working, random stopping, changes in playback speed, freezing when fast-forwarding or rewinding, and issues with video podcasts R1R3R6R9.
Does Apple Podcasts have an autoplay problem?
Yes, many users report that Apple Podcasts frequently auto-plays unwanted episodes or takes over audio playback from other apps, even when the app is closed or settings are configured to prevent it R11R21R27R37.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 100 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R7] 1/5 · US The amount of adds is disgusting.: 3-4 minute adds every 15-20 minutes. It doesn’t push me to pay for any type of add free subscription, it pushes me to delete the app and never use it again. The adds are more aggressive then YouTube, Netflix or any other streaming service.
  2. [R12] 1/5 · US Commercials are very loud and hurt my ears: New complaint: Every time I go to another app, when I come back to Apple Podcasts app it keeps reverting to the manager and then I go have to manually go back to the podcast. Really wish that podcasts that I subscribe to couldn’t push and download random podcasts thatI have to delete and then it keeps loading because I didn’t listen to. So i have to m
  3. [R22] 3/5 · US Great App: It’s a great app for podcasts to listen to work and other things but…. Currently for some reason I seem to be getting random ads while the podcast is in mid thought or sentence
  4. [R23] 3/5 · US Ad free subscription: It’s a good app that i use for all of my podcasts. But it has a problem with the placement of ads in the middle of sentences or other bad spots. Also the volume of the ads seems to be alot louder than the rest of the podcast. Why can’t this app communicate with apple music subscriptions and allow for an ad free podcast experience?
  5. [R20] 4/5 · US Great, but…: I really like the app. Alongside filtering out “played”, “unplayed”, “downloaded”, and “saved” PLEASE give us the option to filter out episodes that are paid only/subscribers only episodes.
  6. [R63] 4/5 · CA Nice but…: Nice but you need to pay certain podcasts
  7. [R4] 5/5 · US It helps me: I wanna learn marine biology, and it has the correct things for me.
  8. [R25] 5/5 · US More interesting: Topics are very dynamic about basic spiritual healing & all overall recovery in their walk in Christ as in the ministry of making an impact in a highly biblical intelligent, spiritual sociable scientific way as a individual with degrees she’s mastered.
  9. [R41] 4/5 · US Great: Is good to listen to stuff in the car but needs more mandolorian podcasts and agent of shield podcasts other than that it is great
  10. [R92] 5/5 · CA Lots of Variety: There are lots of different podcasts, audio books, etc. Lots of options. It’s just as good as Spotify for podcasts.
  11. [R10] 2/5 · US Skipping purposefully?: The podcast app is very simple, easy to use. However, I believe Apple plays games with some of them. It’s weird that suddenly around election season every year, right-leaning podcasts are suddenly skipping around and not following conversations fluidly. Left-leaning podcasts flow just fine. i.e., listening like normal, suddenly skips backwards a couple minutes (the media pl
  12. [R50] 5/5 · US Super easy: Super easy to use can read any book super fast loading and is very efficient would highly recommended to anyone who is looking listen to books
  13. [R2] 5/5 · US Amazing: This is an amazing app
  14. [R5] 5/5 · US #podcasts: LOVE THIS APP SO MUCH I literally just finished listening to a podcast and it was so good
  15. [R8] 5/5 · US I love d2: Y not d3
  16. [R19] 5/5 · US ki: KGood nook immmi
  17. [R56] 5/5 · CA Awesome: It’s a Awesome and free
  18. [R1] 2/5 · US Needs bug fixing: My go to app for podcasts for years. For the past couple months the play/pause button hasn’t been working on the full screen. Please fix
  19. [R3] 1/5 · US Random issues: -video podcasts don’t play well even when it’s just audio -podcast external controls are not working despite changing preferences in settings -for some reason it randomly stops playing and changes the playback speed when I press play again
  20. [R6] 1/5 · US Makes me want to cancel subscription: I switched to Apple Music from Spotify in December 2025, so now I’ve been using the Apple Podcast app since and it is awful. I listen to podcasts almost daily and the amount of lagging and glitches I experience. Safe to say I have not gotten through a single podcast episode without having to close out of the app and restart. Makes me consider switching back to
  21. [R9] 1/5 · US Used to work well, now super glitchy: I only recently started experiencing issues with Podcasts. God forbid you fast forward or rewind a podcast. The app will freeze and you will lose your spot and have to close out of the app. It’s a very painful experience. I hope they fix it soon.
  22. [R11] 1/5 · US No Joe: Just downloaded the app after deleting it years ago and it automatically and incessantly plays Joe Rogan even when I turned off all replay and auto play functions. So I had to delete it again. There are some many other better apps for podcasts!
  23. [R21] 1/5 · US Automatic Joe Rogan: I had to redownload the podcast app. When I opened it, Joe Rogan was preloaded. I immediately erased it the app. Never again.
  24. [R27] 3/5 · US Big with auto play: Everytime the MapsApp is opened, Podcast immediately starts playing even if the app is closed and another app is playing. There are no settings to stop automatic playing of podcasts when the app the app is closed. Would love a fix.
  25. [R37] 1/5 · US Takes over everything just like apple itself: It sucks that apples made this take over anytime I try to play anything on my phone it overwrites it and starts a friggin podcast Let me control my phone man!!!

Synthesized from 100 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store