Nobody asks “how much does a podcast cost?” out of curiosity. They ask because they have to defend a number to someone else. So let’s skip the ranges-so-wide-they’re-useless answer and get to what actually determines the figure.
In short: podcast production costs are driven by four variables — video or audio only, how often you publish, how fast you need it back, and how many extra assets each episode produces. DIY costs mostly time (4–6 hours per episode). Outsourced audio production commonly runs $500–$1,200 a month; video roughly doubles that.
The three ways to produce a podcast
| Approach | Cash cost | Your time per episode | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fully DIY | $0–$50/mo | 4–6 hours | Month three, when the person editing gets busy with their real job |
| Freelance editor | $75–$250/ep | 1–2 hours | Scope gaps: notes, artwork, publishing and clips are usually extra or missing |
| Production partner | $500–$2,000/mo | Recording time only | Nothing, if the scope is written properly — but it's a real line item |
The DIY column is the one that misleads people. “Free” assumes the hours are free, and they never are. A weekly show at five hours per episode is roughly 260 hours a year — six full working weeks handed to audio cleanup and show notes.
The hidden cost: your own hours
Run the arithmetic before deciding. Take the loaded hourly cost of whoever would do the work — a marketing manager at a $110k salary costs the business somewhere around $75 an hour once you include benefits and overhead.
- Editing and mastering: 2–3 hours per episode
- Show notes and titles: 45–60 minutes
- Publishing and directory hygiene: 20–30 minutes
- Clips and social assets: 1–2 hours
At the low end that’s roughly four hours, or about $300 per episode of internal cost. At the high end it’s closer to $500. Compare that against the outsourced number before concluding that in-house is cheaper — usually it isn’t, it’s just billed to a different budget line.
What drives the price up
Four variables explain most of the difference between a $500 quote and a $2,000 one:
- Video. Multicam video editing takes several times longer than audio and needs color, framing and sync work. Adding video to an existing audio show is the single largest jump you’ll make — for our packages it’s +$400/mo.
- Frequency. Weekly costs roughly twice biweekly. Obvious, but it’s the variable teams get most wrong — they commit to weekly, then quietly drop to monthly by episode twelve.
- Turnaround. A 72-hour delivery window costs more than a 7-day one, because it takes priority in the production queue.
- Derivative assets. Clips, audiograms, quote cards, newsletters and blog posts are each real production work. This is where scopes balloon, and where you should be most explicit about what you actually need.
Startup costs you only pay once
Launch costs sit separately from ongoing production, and they’re easy to forget when budgeting:
- Cover art and brand package — logo, palette, episode template
- Intro and outro — music licensing plus produced voiceover
- Hosting setup and RSS configuration — done properly once, painful to fix later
- Equipment — $150–$400 per host position for a mic, headphones and a decent room
- Directory submissions — free, but they take lead time before launch day
Our launch packages run from $400 for a basic audio launch up to $2,000 for a full video launch. Whatever you spend here, spend it once and spend it properly — rebranding a show at episode thirty means orphaning everything you already published.
What we charge, published openly
Most agencies hide this behind a quote form. We’d rather you know upfront whether we’re in your budget:
| Package | Starter | Mid tier | Top tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Audio production (monthly) | $500 | $700 | $1,150 |
| Video production (monthly) | $700 | $1,300 | $1,990 |
| Launch package (one-off) | $400 | $1,000 | $2,000 |
Per-episode work without a retainer is $250, and add-ons like show notes ($30) or a newsletter ($95) are priced individually. The full list lives on the pricing page.
Building a realistic first-year budget
A biweekly B2B audio show with outsourced production, produced properly:
- Launch package, one time: around $400–$1,000
- Production, 12 months at $500–$700: $6,000–$8,400
- Hosting: roughly $200–$360
- Add-ons and occasional extras: $500–$1,500
Call it $8,000–$11,000 for year one. A weekly video show with full repurposing lands closer to $25,000–$30,000. Neither number is small, which is why the honest question isn’t “what does it cost?” but “what is a consistent show worth to this business?”
The expensive podcast isn’t the one with the production invoice. It’s the one that stops at episode nine, after you’ve already paid for the artwork, the equipment and eleven weeks of someone’s evenings.
Before you approve a number
- Decide audio or video first — it’s the biggest cost lever you control
- Pick a cadence you can sustain for twelve months, then halve it if you’re unsure
- Cost your own hours honestly at a loaded rate
- List which derivative assets you actually need, and cut the rest
- Budget the launch separately from ongoing production
- Compare quotes on identical scope, not on headline price
If you want the numbers mapped to your specific format and cadence, that’s what the free strategy call is for. And if you’re weighing what a full done-for-you scope covers, the services overview lays out where each package starts and stops.