How to add chapters to a Spotify podcast
Spotify builds chapters from the timestamps in your episode description. No file and no special tool needed. When chapters don't show up, it is almost always one of three rules being broken. Paste your timestamps below to check them.
Check your timestamps against Spotify's rules
One chapter per line, like 00:00 Intro or 1:02:15 Listener questions. Runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
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Spotify's chapter rules
- The first timestamp is 00:00. A list that starts at 00:30 is ignored.
- At least 3 chapters. Two timestamps don't make chapters.
- Each chapter at least 30 seconds long. This is stricter than YouTube's 10 seconds, so a list that works on YouTube can fail on Spotify.
- Timestamps in order, each at the start of its own line. Put the list in the episode description in your hosting platform (Spotify for Creators, Buzzsprout, Transistor, Captivate and so on).
Source: Spotify's episode chapters help page. Chapters can take a while to appear after you publish or edit the description.
One list, every app
A list that passes Spotify's 30-second rule also passes YouTube's, so you can paste the same description everywhere. Run it through the YouTube chapters checker too. Apps that read Podcasting 2.0 chapters (Pocket Casts, Fountain, Podverse) need a chapters file: make one with the chapters.json generator, or convert the list to VTT, Audacity, FFmpeg or CUE with the chapter format converter. Starting from a transcript? Draft the timestamps from it. Writing the rest of the description? Use the show notes template.