Chapters on Apple Podcasts

Chapters are a powerful tool for enhancing the listener experience of your podcast. They make it easier for listeners to navigate within the episode, help them to quickly understand the episode’s structure, and allow them to return to specific sections that pique their interest.

Chapters allow listeners to quickly browse and navigate to segments of an episode. Listeners can use them by:

• Scrubbing: Listeners can tap the play progress bar to reveal chapter markers on iOS and iPadOS. This allows them to quickly preview and skip to different sections of the episode.
  
• Reading Transcripts: When reading along with transcripts, chapter titles appear as section headers in the transcript.
  
• Playing Next: On the Now Playing screen on iOS and iPadOS, listeners can tap the Playing Next button to view a list of chapters at the top of the screen. On macOS, listeners can click the Playing Next button located in the top-right corner of the window to access the chapter list. Tapping a chapter title instantly jumps to that section of the episode.
  

How it works

When you provide chapters in your episode description or in your RSS feed, they display in Apple Podcasts. If chapters aren’t provided, Apple Podcasts generates them for you and an Automatically Created label appears in the chapter list.

Providing your own chapters

If you provide your own chapters, in any supported language, they’ll always be displayed in Apple Podcasts, even if you add them to an episode that's already been published. To provide your own chapters, choose one of the following options:

• Episode Description: Add chapter titles and timestamps directly to your episode description. Start the first chapter at 00:00:00 and include at least three chapters.
• RSS Feed: Submit chapters through your hosting provider and RSS feed using the <podcast:chapters> tag. Check out our list of hosting providers to see if yours supports chapters.
  
• File Metadata: Specify chapters in the header of an MP4 file or by modifying the ID3 tags of an MP3 or AAC file.
  

If you submit chapters through your hosting provider, you can include images. Learn more about chapter artwork.

Best practices for providing your own chapters

Chapters provide the best experience for listeners when you follow these guidelines:

• Include at least three chapters
• Try limiting to no more than six chapters per hour.
  
• Provide chapters if your episode is more than 10 minutes long.
  
• Keep your chapters no shorter than two minutes.
  
• Limit chapter titles to no more than 45 characters and less than five words.
  
• Avoid repeating words across chapters.
  
• Use title casing for chapter titles.
  
• Spell out numbers one through nine, and use digits for numbers greater than 10.
  
• Spell out ordinals up to ten, then use digits. (For example: First, Second, Third, 11th, 12th, 13th) 
  

Automatically created chapters

Automatically created chapters are available starting with iOS 26.2. Apple Podcasts creates chapters for full and bonus episodes in English. Chapters are not generated for trailers or episodes less than 10 minutes long.

Download and edit automatically created chapters

You can download a TXT file with a list of chapter titles and timestamps in Apple Podcasts Connect. You can make changes to this list, and add them to your episode description in your hosting provider’s dashboard or in Apple Podcasts Connect. 

If your hosting provider supports chapters, you can update the timestamps and titles in their dashboard. Chapters will be updated after we refresh your show from the RSS feed.

Chapter settings in Apple Podcasts Connect

If you prefer not to use Apple Podcasts automatically created chapters, you can disable them:

1. Sign in to Apple Podcasts Connect.
2. Go to your show’s Availability tab.
   
3. Deselect the option to display chapters created by Apple Podcasts.
   

Custom settings for specific episodes

You can also tailor chapter settings for specific episodes.

1. In Apple Podcasts Connect, select the episode.
2. In the Audio section, click select the Free RSS or Subscriber Audio version of your episode.
   
3. In the Settings section, click Edit.
   
4. On the Edit Settings screen, select the chapter setting you’d like to use and click Save.
   

Troubleshooting chapter issues

Here are some common issues and how to resolve them:

• Transcripts Required: If we couldn’t generate a transcript for your episode, chapters will not be generated.
• Chapters Not Updating: If you’ve updated your chapters in your RSS feed or in your episode description, the chapters will be updated in the next crawl of your RSS feed. If it’s been more than 24 hours, contact us.
  
• Trailer Exclusion: Chapters are not generated for trailers.
  
• Short Episodes: Episodes shorter than 10 minutes will not have chapters generated.
  
• Private Feed: Chapters are not created for episodes that are not distributed to the Apple Podcasts catalog. Learn more about ways to distribute your show to listeners.