Spotify Top Podcasts API

The Spotify Top Podcasts API on Trends MCP returns a live ranked board of podcast titles without a Spotify developer account. From the August 5, 2026 scan (as_of 2026-08-05T04:01:42 UTC), the feed returned 25 shows, led by The Joe Rogan Experience, The Shawn Ryan Show, and Crime Junkie. Pair each title with get_growth on google search or youtube to see whether off-platform demand is rising with the rank. Free tier access starts at 100 requests per month.

What Spotify Top Podcasts data shows right now

From the Trends MCP scan of August 5, 2026, the Spotify Top Podcasts board held 25 ranked shows. Talk, true crime, news, comedy, and sports titles filled most of the list.

Growth follow-ups on show-name keywords (Trends MCP API, recent index date August 1, 2026):

• Joe Rogan Experience on google search: index 19, -24.0% over 7 days, -42.42% over 30 days, -48.65% over 3 months, -36.67% over 12 months
• Joe Rogan Experience on youtube: index 20, +5.26% over 7 days, +11.11% over 30 days, +122.22% over 3 months, +53.85% over 12 months
• Shawn Ryan Show on google search: index 19, +5.56% over 7 days, -42.42% over 30 days, +46.15% over 3 months, -5.0% over 6 months
• Shawn Ryan Show on youtube: index 39, +21.88% over 7 days, -41.79% over 30 days, +69.57% over 3 months
• Diary Of A CEO on google search: index 45, +2.27% over 7 days, -25.0% over 30 days, -8.16% over 3 months, -4.26% over 12 months
• Call Her Daddy on google search: index 7, -22.22% over 7 days, +16.67% over 30 days, -12.5% over 3 months, -36.36% over 12 months
• Good Hang with Amy Poehler on google search: index 13, -13.33% over 7 days, -7.14% over 30 days, -7.14% over 3 months, -50.0% over 6 months
• Tucker Carlson Show on google search: index 4, -20.0% over 7 days, flat 0.0% over 30 days, -20.0% over 3 months and 12 months
• Morbid podcast on google search: index 26, -3.7% over 7 days, +30.0% over 30 days, -3.7% over 3 months, -31.58% over 12 months

Crime Junkie google search and Theo Von youtube returned temporary data_unavailable during this run, so those two follow-ups are omitted rather than guessed.

The exact API calls

get_top_trends with type Spotify Top Podcasts returns the current ranked show list. get_growth with source google search or youtube and the show name returns percentage moves across windows such as 7D, 30D, 3M, and 12M.

{
  "type": "Spotify Top Podcasts",
  "limit": 25
}

{
  "mode": "get_growth",
  "source": "google search",
  "keyword": "Shawn Ryan Show",
  "percent_growth": ["7D", "30D", "3M", "6M"]
}

Trim subtitle clutter when a full board title is long. "The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett" shortens cleanly to Diary Of A CEO. "Morbid" may need Morbid podcast on google search to avoid collision with the common adjective.

Why board rank and search demand diverge

Spotify rank reflects in-app listening position. Google and YouTube indexes reflect people searching for the show outside Spotify. A show can hold rank 1 while google search cools, or climb on youtube while the Spotify rank stays flat for weeks.

Joe Rogan Experience sat at Spotify rank 1 on August 5, 2026, yet google search sat at index 19 with -42.42% over 30 days, while youtube sat at index 20 with +122.22% over 3 months. Shawn Ryan Show held rank 2 with youtube index 39 and +21.88% over 7 days, even as google search fell -42.42% over 30 days. Morbid held rank 12 with google search +30.0% over 30 days at index 26, a cleaner short-window climb than several higher-ranked talk shows.

Use both layers. Rank answers who is winning inside Spotify today. Growth answers whether external discovery is feeding or fading that position.

Who uses Spotify podcast ranks

Media buyers watch whether a top-ranked show still has rising google search before committing sponsorship dollars. Newsletter and clip teams use youtube growth on the same titles to decide which episodes to cut for Shorts or clips. Brand and talent desks compare news-adjacent shows such as The Daily or The Journal. against true-crime and comedy peers when building a weekly watchlist.

A practical loop with August 5 data: pull 25 shows, keep the top 15, then run google search growth on 6 titles and youtube growth on 2 to 3 talk shows. Prefer shows where at least one off-platform window is positive over 30D or 3M. Shawn Ryan Show youtube +69.57% over 3 months and Morbid podcast google search +30.0% over 30 days cleared that bar in this scan; Tucker Carlson Show at google search index 4 with flat 30-day growth did not.

For adjacent attention boards, pair this feed with the Google News Top News API when a podcast guest cycle is news-led, or with YouTube trends when clip demand matters more than search.

Building a podcast demand check in five calls

Five calls are enough for a morning pass. Call 1 pulls Spotify Top Podcasts with limit 25. Calls 2 to 4 run google search growth on three titles from different genres. Call 5 runs youtube growth on the strongest talk show. Log the Spotify rank, google search index, and one 30D or 3M growth figure per title.

On August 5, 2026 numbers, that pass might keep Diary Of A CEO (Spotify rank 9, google search index 45), Shawn Ryan Show (rank 2, youtube index 39, +69.57% youtube over 3 months), and Morbid (rank 12, google search +30.0% over 30 days). Drop or deprioritize titles where every off-platform window is negative and the absolute index is already low, such as Call Her Daddy at google search index 7 with -36.36% over 12 months.

Limits and honest caveats

The board returns ranks and titles only. It does not expose official Spotify stream counts, completion rates, or country splits. Show-name keywords can collide with people, teams, or common words, so verify the growth series looks like a media property before quoting it.

Some follow-ups fail with temporary data_unavailable responses, as Crime Junkie did on google search and Theo Von did on youtube during this run. Retry later or switch sources instead of inventing a figure. Spotify has no dedicated get_growth source string in Trends MCP; google search and youtube are the supported demand proxies around the board.

Getting started

Create a free Trends MCP key, connect MCP or call REST with a bearer token, then request Spotify Top Podcasts with limit 25. The free plan includes 100 requests per month and needs no credit card. Paid plans start at $19 per month for 1,000 requests. See pricing, the free-tier overview on trends API free, and the docs for auth examples.