Can you make money with a podcast? How podcasts actually pay

You can make money with a podcast, and plenty of small shows do. But most of that money does not come from advertising. It comes from what the show leads to: clients, members, partners and products. Ads only become meaningful once a show has a large or very specific audience.

So the useful question is not whether podcasts make money, but which model fits your show at its current size. The sections below run from the models that need no audience to the ones that need the most. For earnings by audience size, see how much podcasters make.

Almost everyone starts by looking for sponsors, because that is what monetising a podcast looks like from the outside. It is also the model that needs the most listeners before it pays anything meaningful.

Advertising pays per thousand downloads. That maths is brutal at small scale, and chasing it early tends to produce a lot of unanswered emails and a discouraging total. One host in our own research had made sixty dollars from advertising in total, and described it exactly as you would expect.

The models below are ordered by how few listeners they need. Work down the list rather than up it, because a small show with the right model out-earns a bigger one with the wrong one.

If you are a coach, consultant, therapist, lawyer or anyone who sells expertise, the podcast is a demonstration of that expertise running continuously. Someone who has listened to five episodes arrives already convinced.

This needs no scale at all. A show with two hundred listeners can be extremely profitable if four of them become clients. Nobody counts that as podcast revenue, which is why it is consistently underrated.

The practical requirement is that it is obvious what you do and how to reach you. Say it once per episode, plainly, without a pitch. Most shows in this position never mention it at all.

Membership organizations have a model that individual creators do not. Their members want visibility, and a podcast is a place to give it to them. Chambers of commerce and trade associations already sell spotlights in newsletters and at events. A podcast episode is a richer version of the same benefit.

That turns the show into non-dues revenue instead of a cost line. If a few members a month pay to be featured, or one local sponsor underwrites a season, the program can pay for itself before it has a large audience. The audience that matters is the membership, and they are already there.

To pitch a season sponsor, start from this sponsorship proposal template. To get the program approved internally, use the podcast business plan and budget template.

A small number of committed listeners can out-earn a large number of casual ones. A few hundred people paying a few pounds a month is real income, and it arrives from the audience you already have rather than one you need to build.

The usual shapes are bonus episodes on a private feed, ad-free versions, early access, or a community attached to the show. Private feeds are the most common because the value is obvious and the delivery is automatic.

Patreon and Substack are the two platforms most small shows start with, and both take a 10% platform fee from new creators. See how to use Patreon for a podcast for setup and tier ideas, and Substack vs Patreon for podcasters if you also write a newsletter. Plenty of shows start with friends and family as their first paying supporters, and that is a fine way to cover running costs while the audience grows.

If your show serves a clear public purpose, such as education, health, science or a community, grants are another route. See our list of podcast grants for funders open to individuals and what to do if a grant only funds charities.

The honest catch is that it adds production. If the main show is already a strain, a second stream of bonus content is the wrong answer. Consider a one-off support option instead, which costs you nothing to run.

Affiliate arrangements pay on action rather than on downloads, which means they work at sizes where advertising does not. If two hundred engaged listeners trust your recommendation, that can be worth more than a thousand passive ones.

It only works with things you actually use. Listeners detect a recommendation you do not believe almost immediately, and the credibility you spend is worth more than the commission. Recommend three things you would mention anyway.

Disclose it. Say plainly that the link pays you. Audiences are fine with it when it is stated and unforgiving when they discover it later.

Podcast advertising is priced on CPM, a rate per thousand downloads of an episode, usually counted over its first thirty days. Mid-roll slots command more than pre-roll because listeners who reach the middle are committed.

Run that maths before you pitch anyone. At a few hundred downloads per episode, a standard CPM produces a figure in single or low double digits per episode, which is why the sponsor route disappoints so many small shows. It becomes interesting somewhere in the low thousands per episode, and much earlier if your audience is narrow enough that a specialist advertiser will pay a premium for it.

That last point is the exception worth knowing. A show for a specific profession can charge well above general rates, because the advertiser is not buying a thousand people, they are buying a thousand of exactly the right people.

Every model here needs episodes arriving predictably. Sponsors need a schedule, members need the thing they paid for, and clients need to keep hearing you. A show that publishes when it can is difficult to monetise at any size.

So the most valuable thing you can do for revenue is usually not a pitch. It is making the show cheap enough in time and effort that it keeps arriving. Get that right and the money question becomes a matter of choosing a model rather than hunting for one.