PodSEO bot

If you see requests from a PodSEO/ user agent in your server logs, this page explains what they are.

Who we are

PodSEO is a podcast SEO and analytics service run by AntaniLabs, Inc. Podcasters use it to see how their show ranks in search and charts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube and Amazon Music, and how it compares with similar shows. To do that we read public podcast data, mainly RSS feeds: for the shows our users track and for the wider catalog that rankings and comparisons are built from.

User agents

Our podcast feed fetchers, including the ones that download episode media, identify themselves with a user agent in this form:

PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; <component>)

Our main feed poller (feed-fetcher) is switching to it gradually through October 2026; until then some feed requests still use an older user agent. If a host refuses a transcript download with HTTP 403, we may retry it once with a browser user agent.

The component tells you which part of PodSEO made the request:

feed-fetcher

Polls public RSS feeds for new episodes and metadata changes, and reads transcript files that feeds link to.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; feed-fetcher)

feed-analyzer

Checks the health of a feed added to PodSEO: size, fetch time, redirects. When a podcaster runs the on-demand check, it also requests the first 256 KB of the latest episode's audio to see which redirects, analytics prefixes and CDN the download goes through.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; feed-analyzer)

managed-feed-proxy

Reads a podcaster's original feed when they have asked PodSEO to host a copy of it.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; managed-feed-proxy)

media-fetcher

Downloads the audio and cover art of an episode a PodSEO user makes clips from. Before reusing a clip it sends a HEAD request to check whether the audio file has changed.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; media-fetcher)

link-check

Reads the first part of a public feed (at most 3 MB, the latest episode titles) to confirm that a podcast's listing on another platform is the same show.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; link-check)

podcast-index-client

Calls the Podcast Index API. It does not contact podcast hosts.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; podcast-index-client)

research

Reads public RSS feeds for PodSEO's audience research: counts how often each show published over the last 90 days. It reads at most the first 3 MB of a feed and does not download audio.
PodSEO/1.0 (+https://podseo.com/bot/; research)

What we fetch

• Public RSS feeds, and the transcript files they link to.
• Episode audio only in two cases: the first 256 KB of the latest episode during a feed check, and the full audio and cover art of an episode a PodSEO user chooses to make clips from.

How often

Polling adapts to how often a show publishes. A show that a PodSEO user tracks is checked at most every 30 minutes. Other shows are typically checked no more than every 12–24 hours, sooner after an error or when a user adds the show. Feeds that have stopped publishing are checked as rarely as every few months.

Our feed poller sends If-None-Match or If-Modified-Since when your server gave it an ETag or Last-Modified header on the previous request, and a 304 Not Modified response ends the request.

Identify us by user agent, not IP

Our requests come from cloud servers, and their IP addresses change. To allow or block our feed fetchers, match the PodSEO/ prefix of the user agent rather than an IP range.

No subscriber counts

Our user agent does not include a subscriber count. People use PodSEO to track shows, not to listen to them, so a count would inflate your numbers.

Contact and opt-out

To ask us to stop fetching your feed or site, or to report a problem, email [email protected] or use the contact form. Include the feed URL or domain.