Crunch the numbers behind your show.
Tasha K built a monetized gossip empire on YouTube — then a defamation verdict handed Cardi B a $4 million judgment against her. We run the numbers on what legal risk actually costs a show, and how to price it into your budget.
Your download chart treats every listener the same, but your bank account knows better. We ran the numbers on what a true superfan is worth compared to a casual drop-in — and the gap is wider than most podcasters think. Includes a fill-in worksheet so you can price your own audience.
Registration badges, airport parking, $9 hotel coffees — conference spending adds up fast. We ran the full numbers and divided them by realistic networking outcomes to find what a meaningful connection actually costs, plus a break-even formula for deciding whether to stay home.
Downloads don't take PTO, but your listeners do. We ran the seasonal math on the classic summer slump to find out what June, July, and August actually subtract from a mid-sized show's ad revenue — and whether fighting back is worth the effort.
That $2,000 sponsorship month looks great in your dashboard — until the IRS gets involved. We ran $500, $2,000, and $10,000 monthly shows through federal, state, and self-employment tax math to show what actually lands in your pocket.
Everyone tells you to launch a bonus feed. Almost nobody shows you the math after Apple, Patreon, and Stripe take their cut. We ran the numbers on what one extra episode per week really earns — and how many $5 superfans it takes to beat a single mid-roll ad.
Most podcasters cash their sponsor checks and never think about that money again. We ran the projections on what happens when you route your show's monthly profit into an index fund instead — and the 20-year numbers are honestly kind of embarrassing (in a good way).
Most 'quit your job to podcast' advice stops at 'match your salary.' That math is wrong — and we can prove it. Here's the full calculation, from self-employment tax to health insurance, that tells you what your show actually needs to earn before you hand in your two weeks.
Going ad-free sounds dreamy until you do the arithmetic. We ran the numbers on how many $5/month subscribers it takes to match your CPM income — and why churn quietly rewrites the answer every quarter.
Every extra voice at the microphone adds cost in ways that aren't obvious until you run the numbers. We built three complete cost models — solo, co-hosted, and full production team — and calculated the exact download threshold where each one stops bleeding money.
Most shows that shut down do it right before the curve bends upward. We built a simple model comparing the cost of pushing through months 12–24 against the sponsor revenue you'd be walking away from. Here's how to figure out if your show is one billing cycle from breakeven — or genuinely out of runway.
You landed here wondering what Podcast Calculator actually does — here's the full walkthrough. From cost-per-episode math to the download count that makes sponsorship worth your time, this is your map to running the numbers behind your show.
Every episode you publish is either fresh content or a search-engine landing page for future fans — and sometimes both. We modeled how catalog size changes the odds a stranger binges their way to Episode 1, and found the tipping point where one more episode stops costing you time and starts recruiting listeners.
Podcasters chase reviews like they're lottery tickets, but almost nobody has tried to price them. We ran the numbers on how a stack of 5-star ratings changes what a sponsor will actually pay you — and what to do when your review count is at zero.
Hyper-local podcasts live and die by one number: the size of the pie in your metro area. We ran the math on commuter populations, local CPM rates, and production costs in Austin, Nashville, and Atlanta to find the exact listener count where a city show stops bleeding money.
That marquee guest isn't free — even when they waive their fee. From agency fees and prep marathons to the extra hours your editor will bill you, we run the full numbers on what a 'big get' actually costs and the download count it needs to break even.
Conventional wisdom says consistency wins, but does weekly publishing actually pay? We modeled production hours, download curves, and churn to find out when cutting your schedule in half makes you more money per episode.
Everyone says you can start a podcast for free, so we ran the numbers to see if that's actually true. Here's the full line-item budget for launching on nothing but a smartphone — plus what your first 100 downloads really cost you in time.
Free hosting sounds great until you hit the fine print. We broke down the real math behind unlimited storage, upload caps, and download limits to find exactly when upgrading pays off.
Does a 30-minute show or a 90-minute show pay better for the effort you put in? We ran production time, ad inventory, and drop-off curves through the math — and the answer isn't what most creators expect.