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How to skip podcast ads, or listen without them

Updated October 16, 2026

Most podcasts are paid for by ads, and most of those ads are in the audio itself: read by the host, or inserted by the show's network before the episode reaches you. Here are the five ways to get past them, from free and manual to automatic.

1. Use the skip-forward button

Every podcast app has one. It's free and works on any show, but you have to notice each break and tap through it, and ads run anywhere from 15 seconds to several minutes. Most apps let you make each jump longer: in Apple Podcasts on iPhone, the forward skip length is in the Podcasts settings, and other apps have the same setting.

2. Jump by chapter

Some shows publish chapter markers, and a few mark their ad breaks as chapters. In an app that shows chapters you can jump straight to the next one, and Castro's paid tier can skip chapters you pick in advance. The catch: it only works when the show marks its ads, and most don't.

3. Pay for the show's ad-free version

Many shows sell an ad-free feed: through Apple Podcasts subscriptions, through membership sites such as Patreon, or as part of a network's membership. You hear no ads at all and the money goes to the show. The cost is per show, set by its makers, so it adds up if you follow many.

4. Don't count on a music subscription

Paying for a music service usually doesn't remove podcast ads. Spotify's help pages say podcasts may include ads for Premium listeners as well as free ones (more on Spotify), and YouTube's say Premium doesn't remove promotions creators build into their videos.

5. Use an app that skips the ads automatically

An ad-skipping player finds the breaks inside each episode and jumps over them for you. Podsnap transcribes every episode on its server, marks the sponsor reads, inserted ads and cross-promos, and skips them while you listen. A break it isn't sure about gets a one-tap skip button instead, and Undo brings back any skip. It plays any show with a feed, though not shows that are only on Spotify.

Which way to pick

Checked October 2026 against Spotify's support page on podcasts, YouTube's Premium help page, Apple's Apple Podcasts page and castro.fm. Services change their plans often.