To put your podcast on YouTube, create a podcast in YouTube Studio, upload each full episode as a video, and add it to that podcast. Then give every episode a short thumbnail, a title that says something different, chapters, and Shorts that point back to it.
That’s the whole job. Getting it right is the part most shows skip.
Your episodes are probably already on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Moving a podcast to YouTube puts it where a lot of people now watch: YouTube says it has more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content (as of January 2025).
This guide walks through the steps as YouTube’s own help pages describe them in November 2026, plus the mistakes we see when we publish shows for clients.
Key takeaways
- Post full video episodes; use audio-only only if gear or know-how is what’s stopping you, because publishing on a steady rhythm matters more than production.
- A podcast on YouTube is a playlist of full-length episodes that you mark as a podcast in YouTube Studio, which makes it eligible for podcast features such as the podcast badge and YouTube Music.
- Your title and thumbnail should say different things, and the thumbnail text should be three to five words placed high in the frame, because many people now watch on a TV.
- Chapters need a first timestamp at 00:00, at least three timestamps, and each chapter at least 10 seconds long.
- Link every Short to a full video with YouTube’s related video setting, or the views from your clips go nowhere.
Should you post video or audio-only?
Post video. If you have a camera and someone who can edit, there’s no good reason to put a still image on YouTube and call it done.
Audio-only is fine in one case: you don’t have the equipment or the know-how to film yet. Not everyone does, and that shouldn’t stop you from starting. An audio episode on YouTube is better than no episode on YouTube.
The bigger point is consistency. Pick whatever gets you publishing quickly, then keep a rhythm you can actually hold. A relationship show we produce goes out every week on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. That steady drumbeat does more for a show than a perfect setup that falls apart after three episodes.
Video matters more each year because of where people watch. YouTube reports that viewers watched over 700 million hours of podcasts on living room devices in October 2025, up from 400 million hours a year earlier. Those viewers are looking at a TV, not a phone. A still image doesn’t give them much to look at.
Three ways to get your podcast to YouTube
YouTube gives you three routes. They all end in the same place: a podcast in YouTube Studio holding your episodes.
| Route | Best for | What you upload | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upload each episode as a video | Shows that film their episodes | A video file per episode | You do the title, thumbnail and chapters yourself |
| Turn an existing playlist into a podcast | Channels already posting full episodes | Nothing new | Only full-length episodes belong in it |
| Connect your RSS feed | Audio-only shows | Nothing; YouTube reads your feed | Episodes become a still image of your show art, and syncing is one-way |
If you film, use the first route. The rest of this guide follows it, with the RSS route covered further down.
How to upload a podcast to YouTube, step by step
These steps follow YouTube’s help page Create a podcast in YouTube Studio, checked in November 2026. Menu names change, so check that page if a button has moved.
YouTube’s own five-minute walkthrough (from 2023, so some screens have moved) is useful if you’d like to see the screens first:
Step 1: Create the podcast in YouTube Studio
- Open YouTube Studio, click Create, then New podcast. YouTube may ask you to verify your account first.
- Choose Create a new podcast. If you already have a playlist of full episodes, choose Set an existing playlist as a podcast instead.
- Add the podcast title, a description, its visibility (Public or Private) and a square podcast thumbnail. YouTube recommends 1280 x 1280 pixels.
- Click Create.
Use your show’s real name. YouTube’s help page warns that a generic title such as “Full Episodes” may be replaced with your channel name in YouTube Music.
Step 2: Upload the full episode
Go to Content > Podcasts, pick your podcast, then Add videos > Upload videos. Upload the full episode in 16:9. A square or vertical video up to three minutes long is counted as a Short, so keep episodes in landscape.
Step 3: Write a title and thumbnail that say different things
This is where most shows lose the click. The most common mistake we see is the same words in the title and on the thumbnail. That’s a wasted slot: the viewer reads the same thing twice and learns nothing new.
Treat them as a pair:
- The title carries the topic and the words people search for.
- The thumbnail carries three to five words that add tension or a reason to click. Not a sentence, and never a paragraph.
Place the thumbnail text in the top third or top half of the image, not along the bottom. People watch video podcasts on TVs now, and text low in the frame gets lost.
Think Netflix. Picture how its titles look on a TV screen: that’s the standard your thumbnails and the whole package are up against.
For the file itself, YouTube asks for a 16:9 image in a format such as JPG or PNG, at least 640 pixels wide, and recommends 3840 x 2160 pixels (custom thumbnails help page). You need a verified account to upload your own.
Writing a title, thumbnail and show notes for every episode is a lot of small work. It’s part of what’s inside the Episode Kit if you’d rather hand it off.
Step 4: Add chapters
Chapters let viewers jump to the part of a long conversation they care about. Add them as timestamps in the description. YouTube’s chapters help page sets three rules:
- The first timestamp starts at 00:00.
- There are at least three timestamps, in order.
- Each chapter is at least 10 seconds long.
Name chapters the way a viewer would describe the moment (“Why we stopped running ads”), not “Part 2”. Your own timestamps override YouTube’s automatic chapters.
Step 5: Add the episode to your podcast and set the order
If you uploaded through Content > Podcasts, the episode is already in your podcast. To add an episode you uploaded elsewhere, pick Add videos > Add your existing videos, choose the videos, then Add to playlist.
Your YouTube podcast playlist is now the home for every full episode. To set the order, edit the podcast and use Default Video Order. YouTube suggests newest first for episodic shows and oldest first for serial shows that are meant to be heard in order.
What changes when YouTube treats your show as a podcast
Marking a playlist as a podcast tells YouTube that these videos are full episodes of a show, not random uploads. According to YouTube’s help page, podcast content may then be eligible for:
- YouTube Music, where eligible episodes can be played in the background and downloaded without a YouTube Music Premium membership.
- Podcast badges on the watch page and the playlist page.
- youtube.com/podcasts, a page YouTube uses to feature podcasts to new listeners.
- Easier discovery from the watch page, recommendations to people with similar interests, and better search.
There are rules. Put only full-length episodes in the podcast, and keep every season in the same one. Don’t mark a clip playlist or a season playlist as a podcast. Shorts you make to promote the show won’t appear in YouTube Music, and content you don’t own can make the playlist ineligible.
You also get podcast analytics: go to Analytics > Overview and pick your podcast to see how it performs as a whole.
Putting an audio podcast on YouTube with your RSS feed
If your show is audio-only, YouTube can read your RSS feed and post the episodes for you. YouTube’s RSS delivery help page lays it out:
- In YouTube Studio, go to Content > Podcasts, hover over your podcast and click Details.
- Under RSS settings, click Connect to RSS feed.
- Enter the code YouTube emails to the address on your feed, then click Verify.
- Choose which episodes to upload and their default visibility.
Know what you’re signing up for. YouTube turns each episode into a still-image video using your show art.
The sync is one-way. YouTube won’t pick up changes to your show details or re-uploaded audio, and if you delete a video on YouTube but leave the episode in your feed, it gets uploaded again.
Episodes arrive as private videos first, so wait until they’ve all finished before you publish. RSS delivery is also only available in select countries and regions.
Use Shorts to send people to the full episode
Most shows upload Shorts and stop there. The views come in, and nobody follows them to the episode.
Fix that with the related video link. In YouTube Studio, open Content, click the Short, choose Related Video, pick a video from your channel and click Save. Viewers then see a clickable link below your channel handle (related video help page). The video has to be public or unlisted, and you need advanced feature access.
The link doesn’t have to go to the episode the clip came from. It can be any public or unlisted video on your channel. For one client, we point the related video on every Short at the same sales video, so all that clip traffic lands in one place. It works, but only if you have a funnel and a process behind that video.
Two more things that have changed:
- Shorts can now run up to three minutes, so a clip can hold a whole story, not just one line.
- Shorts can have a custom thumbnail. Upload one in YouTube Studio on a computer under Content > Shorts, at 9:16. Your account needs to be verified.
Mistakes we see when people move a podcast to YouTube
- Same words in the title and the thumbnail. Two slots, one message.
- A paragraph on the thumbnail. Nobody reads it at TV distance. Keep it to three to five words.
- Text at the bottom of the thumbnail. Put it in the top third or top half.
- Shorts with no related video. The clip gets views and the episode gets none of them.
- Waiting for the perfect setup. A steady weekly episode beats a beautiful one that never ships.
Questions
Can I upload a podcast to YouTube?
Yes. Create a podcast in YouTube Studio, then upload each episode as a video or connect your RSS feed. YouTube can’t turn an MP3 into a podcast by itself: an audio file has to become a video first, or come in through RSS, where YouTube pairs it with your show art.
Should my podcast have its own YouTube channel?
It depends on what else the channel posts. If the channel exists mainly for the show, keep everything there. If it already has a different audience, a separate channel keeps the podcast from confusing your current viewers. Either way, the podcast lives in its own podcast playlist.
What’s the difference between uploading a video and adding a podcast episode?
An episode is still a video. The difference is that it sits in a playlist you’ve marked as a podcast in YouTube Studio. That makes it eligible for podcast features such as the podcast badge and YouTube Music.
Can I put an audio-only podcast on YouTube?
Yes. Connect your RSS feed and YouTube posts each episode as a still image of your show art with the audio. It works, but full video gives viewers, especially those on a TV, much more to watch.
Start with your next episode
Getting a podcast to YouTube is a handful of steps. Doing it well every week is the hard part: the edit, a thumbnail that isn’t a paragraph, chapters, and Shorts that point somewhere.
If you’d rather send the recording and get it all back ready to post, that’s what the Episode Kit is for. You send one recording, and we edit it, write the title and show notes, design the thumbnail, cut the clips and publish the podcast. It’s back within 5 business days of your upload and brief.