How much does it cost to start a podcast?

How much it costs to start a podcast depends on two choices you make before you buy anything: audio or video, and buying gear or renting a studio by the hour. This guide gives you a budget at four levels, with dated prices for microphones, hosting and software, then works out when renting a studio costs less than buying a home setup.

How much does it cost to start a podcast?

A solo audio podcast costs about $80 to $190 to start, a two-person audio setup about $660 to $880, and a two-person video setup at home $1,500 or more. Renting a studio costs about $50 to $455 per hour in South Florida, and you buy no gear.

The one-time figures add up the listed prices in the next section and leave out stands and cables. Level 2 uses the Samson Q2U and the RODE PodMic USB, and the Shure MV7+ would raise it to about $1,100.

Paid monthly figures add one hosting plan and one editing or recording plan. The Level 3 figure is a planning estimate, not a quote. At Level 1, free tools make the microphone the whole bill.

What does each budget level include?

Levels 1 to 3 each add a layer to the one before: a microphone, then a second microphone and a recorder, then cameras and lights. Level 4 skips the gear and rents a studio that supplies all of it.

Microphone and recorder prices are retail listings from Sweetwater and B&H on October 4, 2026, and software prices come from each company's pricing page on the same day. Our guide to podcast setup and equipment explains what each piece does.

Level 1: solo audio at home, about $80 to $190

• Microphone: one USB/XLR dynamic microphone, the Samson Q2U at about $80 or the RODE PodMic USB at about $190.
• Headphones: the pair you already own.
• Editing: Audacity, which is free, or Descript Hobbyist at $16 a month billed annually.
• Hosting: Spotify for Creators, which is free, or the Buzzsprout free plan. Paid Buzzsprout starts at $15 a month.

The USB connection plugs into your computer, and the XLR connection lets you move to a mixer or recorder later. This setup is enough for a solo show.

Level 2: two-person audio at home, about $660 to $880

• Microphones: two of the Level 1 microphones, about $160 for two Samson Q2U or about $380 for two RODE PodMic USB. The Shure MV7+ is $279 at list price on shure.com and about $299 at retailers, so about $560 to $600 for two.
• Recorder or mixer: an all-in-one such as the RODECaster Duo, about $498, to capture both voices.
• Stands and cables: budget for boom arms or stands and cables. We did not price them.
• Software: Descript Creator or Riverside Pro, each $24 a month billed annually.
• Hosting: Transistor Starter at $19 a month, or Buzzsprout at $15.

Two Samson Q2U plus the RODECaster Duo come to about $660. Two RODE PodMic USB plus the Duo come to about $880. With two Shure MV7+ the total is about $1,060 to $1,100.

Level 3: two-person video at home, $1,500 and up

• Audio: everything from Level 2, because viewers still need to hear you.
• Cameras, lights and a background: these often cost more than the audio gear. Doubling the Level 2 audio budget gives about $1,300 to $1,800, so we use $1,500 as a planning figure. It is an estimate, not a quote: we did not price cameras or lights for this article.
• Hosting with video: Buzzsprout Audio + Video is $25 a month.

A solo show on one camera needs less than this. How many cameras and how much light you need depends on how many people are on camera, and our guides to podcast camera setup and podcast lighting setup explain both before you shop.

Level 4: rent a studio, $50 to $455 per hour

• Self-serve rooms: about $50 to $100 per hour. You run the equipment yourself.
• Crewed multi-camera studios: about $120 to $285 per hour, with a technician or crew.
• Sessions with editing included: about $200 to $455 per hour.
• The Cast Studio: $199 per hour for Studio Essentials (one 4K angle with on-site tech assist), $250 for Studio Recording (full crew, three 4K angles, raw files within 24 hours) and $455 for Studio Recording + Enhanced Edit (a finished 4K multicam edit).

The South Florida ranges come from each studio's own website on October 3 and 4, 2026. Our guide to what a podcast studio costs in Fort Lauderdale explains what each level includes. Hosting is a separate cost.

What are the monthly costs of a podcast?

Monthly costs are hosting, which is free or starts at $15 a month, plus optional editing and recording software, which starts at $16 a month. Hosting stores your episodes and delivers them to podcast apps. Editing software cleans them up, and a remote recording tool captures a guest who is not in the room.

Prices listed October 4, 2026. Higher tiers exist: Buzzsprout Multi-Podcast at $30, Transistor Professional at $49 and Business at $99, Descript Business at $50 billed annually ($65 monthly) and Riverside Grow at $34 billed annually ($39 monthly, 15 hours).

A few details change the math. Buzzsprout's paid Audio Podcast and Audio + Video plans allow up to 72 hours of uploads a year (180 on Multi-Podcast), and a weekly one-hour show uploads about 52 hours. Its paid plans also include automatic transcripts, so you may not need a separate transcription tool. Remote recording only matters when a guest is not in the room, so skip it if everyone sits at the same table.

Start on free tiers while you test the idea, and move to a paid plan when you publish on a schedule. The paid combinations in the levels above come to about $31 to $60 a month. Our guide on how to edit a podcast shows what the editing involves. If you want the podcast to pay for itself, see how podcasts make money.

Is it cheaper to rent a studio or buy equipment?

Renting is cheaper for a handful of video episodes, and buying is cheaper once you record often. Against a $250 studio hour, a $1,500 home video setup breaks even after six sessions.

Example, with our numbers. Two people record two video episodes a month, booking one hour of Studio Recording each time. That is 2 × $250 = $500 a month for a full crew, three 4K angles and raw files within 24 hours, with no gear to buy, store or set up. The studio has three Sony 4K cameras, two Shure microphones with Cloudlifters and a Rodecaster Pro, three to five studio lights and two background lights.

A home video setup flips the bill: a large cost on day one, then a low cost per episode. This table assumes one studio hour per episode and uses the $1,500 planning figure from Level 3 for the two-person video setup.

At two episodes a month, six sessions take three months. Every extra $250 you spend on gear pushes the break-even one session further out. With Studio Essentials at $199, the same setup breaks even after about eight sessions. With Studio Recording + Enhanced Edit at $455, it breaks even after three to four, but that price also includes the edit you would otherwise do yourself.

The table leaves out two things. One is your own time: setting up, filming and editing every episode at home. The other is the result. At home, the room, the light and the look are your living room. At the studio, you choose one of six designed sets, and the crew runs the cameras, lighting and audio.

To run the math for your own show:

1. Count the video episodes you plan to record in the next 12 months.
2. Multiply by the price of one studio session, $250 for Studio Recording.
3. Add up the home setup you would buy: the Level 2 audio plus cameras, lights and a background.
4. Compare the two totals, then add your own hours to the home side.

A mixed approach is also worth a look: record audio episodes at home, and book the studio for video episodes or a flagship interview. That keeps the monthly bill low and spends studio hours where the cameras and the set matter. The three packages and what each one includes are on the podcast studio rental page, and our comparison of podcast studios in Fort Lauderdale shows how other studios compare.

What can you skip at the start?

You can skip an expensive camera, paid editing software and paid hosting, and put your first dollars into a microphone and a quiet room.

• An expensive camera, for an audio show. Audio needs none. Add cameras when you decide to publish video.
• Paid editing software. Audacity is free and open source, and Descript's free tier gives you 60 minutes of media a month.
• Paid hosting while you test. Spotify for Creators is free. Buzzsprout's free plan allows 2 hours of uploads a month and hosts episodes for 90 days, so use it as a trial and move to a paid plan once you publish on a schedule.
• A recorder for a solo show. One USB microphone plugs into your computer. Add a recorder when a second person joins.
• Remote recording, if everyone is in the room. Riverside's free plan gives you 2 hours of multitrack recording at 720p with a watermark, which is enough to test a remote interview.

What hidden costs should you plan for?

The hidden costs of a podcast are mostly time, plus a few small items that never show up on a gear list.

• Editing time. Editing takes hours, and you pay for it in your own time or an editor's fee. At The Cast Studio, Studio Recording + Enhanced Edit includes a 4K multicam edit with mastered audio, your logo, lower thirds and name titles. See podcast editing.
• Cover art. A free tool such as Canva's free tier is enough to start.
• Music. Use royalty-free or licensed music only.
• A website. Optional at the start.
• Studio extras. At The Cast Studio, two more microphones and inputs for up to five camera angles are available for an extra fee, and on-site editing on a Rodecaster switchboard is an additional fee.
• Booking rules. At The Cast Studio, a non-refundable deposit is required, all payments are non-refundable, and rescheduling needs at least 72 hours' notice. Book when you are ready to record.
• File storage. Studio Recording keeps your files for 14 days and Studio Recording + Enhanced Edit for 30 days, so copy them to your own storage when they arrive.

For the whole plan from idea to first episode, see our guide on how to start a podcast.

Sources and method

Prices were checked on October 4, 2026, unless noted.

• Hosting: Buzzsprout (buzzsprout.com/pricing) and Transistor (transistor.fm/pricing). Spotify for Creators is free podcast hosting.
• Editing and recording software: Descript (descript.com/pricing) and Riverside (riverside.com/pricing). Audacity is free, open source software.
• Microphones and recorder: retail listings at Sweetwater and B&H for the Samson Q2U, RODE PodMic USB and RODECaster Duo, and the Shure MV7+ list price on shure.com, which retailers listed at about $299.
• Studio prices: each studio's own website or booking page on October 3 and 4, 2026, as collected in our guides to what a podcast studio costs in Fort Lauderdale and to podcast studios in Fort Lauderdale. The Cast Studio's prices and equipment come from its published packages and Terms of Service (effective February 1, 2026), checked on October 3, 2026.
• Our estimates: the $1,500 starting point for a home video setup is a planning figure, not a quote. We did not price cameras, lights, stands, cables or music licenses for this article.

Totals are sums of the listed prices. Monthly totals add one hosting plan and one editing or recording plan. Prices change often, so confirm each one on the vendor's page before you buy.