How to skip podcast ads, in the app you already use.

Why podcast ads are hard to skip

A web ad blocker works because ads on a page are separate requests it can refuse. A podcast ad is not. It is part of the audio file your player downloads, either recorded into the episode by the host or stitched in by the hosting company at the moment you download it. To the player it is simply more audio, which is why no podcast app can “block” it the way a browser can.

That leaves two kinds of fixes: skip the ad while you listen, or change the file before you listen.

1. Set the skip button to fit an ad break

Most ad breaks run between 30 and 90 seconds. Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts and Castro all let you change how far the skip forward button jumps. In Apple Podcasts the setting lives in the Podcasts section of the iPhone Settings app, in the others it is in the app’s own settings. A 30 second jump clears a short read in one tap and a long one in three.

It costs nothing, and it is still work: you notice the ad, reach for the phone, tap, overshoot into the conversation, and skip back. On a walk or in the car, you usually just listen to it.

2. Jump to the next chapter

When a show ships chapters, every app above shows them, and some shows put the sponsor break in a chapter of its own. Then one tap on “next chapter” lands right after it. It is exact, but it depends entirely on the show, and the shows with the most ads rarely mark them.

3. Pay for the ad-free version

If a show you love sells an ad-free feed, through Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, Patreon, Supercast or its own website, that is the best way to skip its ads. The money goes straight to the people who make it, and the episodes arrive clean in your player. It only works show by show, and most shows do not offer one.

4. Cut the ads out before you press play

This is what Feedcast does. It is a Mac app that downloads each new episode, transcribes it on the Mac, finds the sponsor reads in what is actually said, and cuts them out of your own copy. The cleaned episode then reaches Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts or Castro through a private feed you subscribe to once. From then on, new episodes simply arrive without the breaks.

Because it reads each episode itself rather than relying on a list somebody else keeps, it works on small shows too. Every cut is listed and can be undone, the untouched original is kept, and chapters move with the cut so they still line up.

The honest limits: Feedcast needs a Mac on macOS 26, and the Mac has to be awake when your phone downloads, because the episodes are served from it. Detection is good, not perfect, and host reads that blend into the conversation are the hardest case. The full details are in the podcast ad blocker guide.

Which one should you use?

For one or two favorite shows that sell an ad-free feed, buy it. For everything else, the skip button is free and good enough if you do not mind the tapping. If you listen to hours of podcasts a week and the breaks wear on you, cutting them out once on the Mac is the only way they stop reaching you at all. The App Store version of Feedcast cleans your first five episodes free, so you can hear the difference in your own player before deciding.

Feedcast also writes chapters for episodes that arrive without any, and gives every episode a searchable transcript. See transcripts and chapters, or how the episodes reach your phone through a private podcast feed.