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Nobody publishes their prices because the answer is genuinely "it depends." That's not a great answer, so here's a better one.
There's a strange thing that happens when businesses start thinking about launching a podcast. Someone, usually well-meaning, says: "It can't cost much. It's just two people talking, isn't it?"
It is, in the same sense that a Michelin-starred dinner is just food. Technically true. Misses the point.
Here's what podcast production actually costs in 2026, broken down into honest tiers, with a few thoughts on which one is probably right for you. (Spoiler: it's usually Tier 3. It's nearly always Tier 3.)
You record on a USB mic at your desk. You edit it yourself in GarageBand or Descript. You upload it to a free Spotify for Podcasters account.
This works. There are successful podcasts that started exactly like this. The Joe Rogan Experience was two blokes and a webcam for years.
The catch is that doing this and running a business is hard. You'll edit two episodes, get bored, miss a week, miss a month, and quietly let the whole thing die. The industry calls this "podfade." It's the single most likely outcome of a DIY podcast, by a wide margin.
If you have time, technical patience and a real love for it, this tier is fine. If you're commissioning a podcast as a marketing channel for your business, it almost never is.
You record yourself or use a basic remote setup. Someone else edits the audio, cleans it up, adds the intro and outro, and uploads it. You get a half-decent product without doing the bits you hate.
What you typically don't get at this level: video, social clips, transcripts, show notes, strategic input, or anyone helping you book guests. You're getting an editor, not a producer.
This works well for solo founders who want a simple audio-only show and have the discipline to keep recording. It's a sensible starting point if you're testing the format and not sure you'll stick with it. Just be honest with yourself about that second bit.
This is where most SME podcasts should sit, and where most of mine do.
You get a properly recorded session - typically in a studio, with multi-camera video and broadcast-quality audio. The audio is edited, mixed and mastered. You get a video version for YouTube. You get short vertical clips for LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. You get a transcript. You get show notes. You get someone thinking about the show as a whole, not just chopping up the file you sent them.
The reason this tier exists is that audio-only podcasting is, commercially, mostly a YouTube and short-form-video game now. If your podcast doesn't have a video version and at least three clips cut for social per episode, you're shouting into a Spotify-shaped void and wondering why nobody's listening.
(Yes, I know that sounds aggressive. I'm sorry but it's also true.)
Full creative direction. Multiple camera angles. Branded graphics. Pre-produced segments. Sponsorship integration. A producer who books your guests, briefs you before each recording, and treats the show as a project rather than a transaction.
This is what big media companies and serious B2B brands spend. It's also what most people don't need. If you're spending three grand an episode and getting 200 downloads, something has gone badly wrong somewhere - and it's usually not the production quality.
On top of per-episode costs, there's a setup cost most people don't budget for:
It isn't the money. It's the time.
A weekly podcast is fifty-two episodes a year. Even at the lightest production tier, that's fifty-two hours of recording, plus prep, plus promotion. If you can't see how you'll commit to that for at least eighteen months - long enough for the show to find an audience - don't start.
The single biggest waste in podcasting isn't overpaying for production. It's paying for any of it and stopping after six episodes. That cost is the whole budget plus the opportunity cost of whatever else you could have done with the time.
A monthly or fortnightly show. Studio recording with two or three camera angles. Properly edited audio and video. A handful of short clips per episode for social. A transcript. Someone keeping the show on schedule and the production quality consistent.
Realistically, that lands somewhere between £700 and £1,200 an episode, plus a few hundred quid a month in fixed costs.
That isn't a tiny number. But neither is a podcast - it's a content asset that compounds over time, lives forever on the internet, and gives you a reason to talk to people in your industry you'd never otherwise get on a call with. Done properly, it's one of the best business development tools a small company can have.
Done as an afterthought, it's just expensive noise.
Thinking about launching one? Contact me with a rough idea of what you're trying to build, and I'll come back with a quote that tells you what's actually included — and what isn't.
© Ian Bentley Ridgeway 2026, All Rights Reserved
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