How to add chapters to your podcast

Updated October 6, 2026. Every rule below is taken from the platform's or host's own help page, linked inline.

Chapters let listeners jump to the part of an episode they want. The catch is that each platform reads them from a different place: YouTube from your video description, Apple Podcasts from your description, RSS feed or audio file, Spotify from your description or a Podlove tag in your feed. Here is what each one does.

1. YouTube: timestamps in the description

If your show goes out as video, chapters come from a list of timestamps and titles in the video description, added in YouTube Studio. YouTube's help page lists the rules:

• the first timestamp starts with 00:00;
• at least three timestamps, in ascending order;
• each chapter is at least 10 seconds long.

Your own chapters override YouTube's automatic chapters. The same page says you may need access to Advanced features first, and that chapters aren't available if the channel has an active strike or the content may be inappropriate for some viewers.

00:00 Cold open
02:41 How she found her first 10 customers
09:18 Pricing too low, and the email that fixed it
1:02:05 Listener questions

Paste your list into the YouTube chapters checker to catch a missing 00:00, an out-of-order line or a chapter under 10 seconds before you publish.

2. Apple Podcasts

According to Apple Podcasts for Creators, there are three ways to give Apple your own chapters:

1. Episode description. Add chapter titles and timestamps to the description. Start the first chapter at 00:00:00 and include at least three chapters.
2. RSS feed. Submit chapters through your hosting provider using the <podcast:chapters> tag. Apple keeps a list of hosts that support it. Chapters submitted this way can include images.
3. File metadata. Chapters in the header of an MP4 file, or in the ID3 tags of an MP3 or AAC file.

Apple says chapters you provide always display, even if you add them to an episode that's already published. If you don't provide any, Apple Podcasts generates them itself (from iOS 26.2, for full and bonus episodes in English; not for trailers or episodes under 10 minutes) and labels them "Automatically Created". You can download those automatic chapters as a TXT file in Apple Podcasts Connect and edit them, or switch them off for the show or a single episode there.

Apple's best-practice list, which is guidance rather than a hard rule: at least three chapters, no more than about six per hour, chapters on episodes over 10 minutes, no chapter shorter than two minutes, titles under 45 characters and fewer than five words, title case, and no repeated words across chapters. Updated chapters appear after Apple's next crawl of your feed; Apple suggests contacting them if it's been more than 24 hours.

3. Spotify

Spotify's help page gives two routes:

• Manual chapters: write chapter titles and timestamps in your episode description, or, if you host elsewhere, use Podlove chapters in your RSS feed.
• Automatic chapters: Spotify generates them from a transcript. English only for now, and not available to every show yet. You can edit or turn them off at creators.spotify.com (not in the mobile app).

Spotify's stated minimum: at least 3 chapters per episode and at least 30 seconds between each chapter's start time. Manual chapters show instead of automatic ones. Note that Spotify's page names Podlove chapters for RSS, not podcast:chapters, so if your host only writes the JSON format, use description timestamps for Spotify.

4. Chapters through your host

Most hosts let you enter chapters once in their dashboard and then write them into your feed and/or audio file. The formats involved:

• podcast:chapters (Podcasting 2.0). A tag in your RSS feed that points to a separate JSON file. The namespace docs note that chapters don't require altering the audio and can be edited after publishing. Each chapter needs a startTime in seconds; title, image and link are optional.
• MP3 (ID3) chapters. Embedded in the audio file itself, so they travel with downloads.
• Podlove Simple Chapters. An RSS format; the one Spotify names.

A minimal podcast:chapters file looks like this:

{
  "version": "1.2.0",
  "chapters": [
    { "startTime": 0,   "title": "Cold open" },
    { "startTime": 161, "title": "How she found her first 10 customers" },
    { "startTime": 558, "title": "Pricing too low" }
  ]
}

What a few hosts say about their own support:

Host features change; check your host's current help page before relying on a specific format.

One list that works everywhere

If you want one chapter list you can paste into YouTube, Apple and Spotify descriptions alike, make it meet the strictest of the stated rules:

• first chapter at zero (00:00, or 00:00:00 for Apple's description format);
• at least 3 chapters, in ascending order;
• at least 30 seconds between start times (Spotify), which also clears YouTube's 10 seconds;
• ideally two minutes or more per chapter, short specific titles (Apple's guidance).

Then enter the same list in your host's chapter editor so it lands in your feed and audio file too.