# PodCrate > One episode in, one publish-ready crate out. No credit math. PodCrate is a web app for indie podcasters. Upload one episode, or paste a media URL or RSS feed, and get one publish-ready crate: - Show notes - Chapter timestamps, including a YouTube-ready list that starts at 0:00 - 5 title options - 3 to 5 captioned 9:16 vertical clips (audiogram when the source is audio-only) - SRT caption files for the episode and for each clip It is made for solo and two-host shows that edit and publish themselves. It is not a full editor and not a credit-per-minute clip suite. ## Pricing Prices in US dollars. Checked for this product on 2026-10-16. - Free: $0. 1 episode per month, up to 60 minutes. Full notes, chapters, and titles. 3 clips with a small PodCrate watermark. - Indie: $9/month or $90/year. 4 episodes per month, up to 90 minutes each, 5 clips each, no watermark. - Pro: $19/month or $190/year. 10 episodes per month, up to 180 minutes each, custom caption style, and automatic processing of new RSS episodes. - Pay as you go: $4 per episode, up to 90 minutes, 5 clean clips. Credits stay on the account until used. Unused monthly plan episodes do not roll over. ## What it is not - Not a replacement for Descript or Riverside if you need a full editor or a recording studio. - Not a virality-score clip product. Opus Clip is the better comparison when you only want clips. - Castmagic and Podsqueeze cover more of a content studio. PodCrate covers the five things a host posts that week. ## Demo The public sample crate is The Practice Room, about recording a podcast next to a drum kit: https://podcrate.ai/sample On https://podcrate.ai, until Stripe is connected, paid buttons and sign-up are a waitlist at https://podcrate.ai/waitlist. That form does not charge a card and does not start an upload. Locally, with no API keys, demo mode still runs the sample episode and mock checkout updates the plan without a charge. ## Links - Home: https://podcrate.ai/ - Pricing: https://podcrate.ai/pricing - Sample crate: https://podcrate.ai/sample - Waitlist: https://podcrate.ai/waitlist - Free chapter tool: https://podcrate.ai/tools/chapters - Blog: https://podcrate.ai/blog - Gear notes: https://podcrate.ai/gear - Full description: https://podcrate.ai/llms-full.txt ## How a crate is made 1. Sign in with a magic link. 2. Upload a file, paste a media or RSS URL, paste a transcript, or run the sample episode. 3. The job is queued. Transcription uses AssemblyAI with speaker labels and word timestamps when ASSEMBLYAI_API_KEY is set. Otherwise the sample transcript is used and the crate is labeled as a demo. 4. A language model returns show notes, chapters, five titles, and clip windows as JSON. Without OPENAI_API_KEY, a local heuristic (or the art-directed sample crate) is used. 5. A worker cuts 9:16 clips with ffmpeg and burns captions from the word timestamps. The site runs on Cloudflare Workers, which cannot run ffmpeg. Point WORKER_PROCESS_URL at a Fly.io machine that has ffmpeg. Locally, ffmpeg runs in the Next.js process. 6. The results page has copy buttons, MP4 and SRT downloads, and a ZIP. Media files expire after 14 days. The text of the crate stays. ## FAQ ### What is in a crate? Show notes, YouTube-ready chapter timestamps, five title options, captioned 9:16 clips, and SRT files. Free includes three watermarked clips. Indie and Pro include five clean clips. Audio-only episodes render as an audiogram with the words burned in. ### How is this priced compared with Castmagic, Podsqueeze, or Opus Clip? You pay for episodes, not minutes or credits. Free is one episode a month. Indie is $9 a month for four. Pro is $19 a month for ten, and it can process new RSS episodes for you. A one-off episode is $4. Opus Clip is a clip tool. Castmagic and Podsqueeze are broader studios. PodCrate is the weekly publish checklist. ### Do free clips have a watermark? Yes. Free still includes the full notes, chapters, and titles. The three clips carry a small PodCrate mark. Indie, Pro, and $4 episodes are clean. ### What counts as an episode, and do unused ones roll over? One upload, link, or new RSS item is one episode, up to the plan runtime: 60 minutes on Free, 90 on Indie and pay-as-you-go, and 3 hours on Pro. Unused monthly episodes do not roll over. Pay-as-you-go credits stay on the account until you use them. ### How long does a crate take? The demo crate finishes in about a minute because it uses a bundled transcript. Live transcription depends on the length of the episode. You can leave the page. When email is configured, PodCrate sends a link when the crate is ready. ### Do you keep the audio? Media files are deleted after 14 days. The notes, chapters, titles, and caption text stay until you remove the job. In demo mode your file is not sent to a transcription vendor. The sample transcript is used so you can see a finished crate without API keys. ### Can I paste an RSS feed? Yes. Any plan can paste a feed or episode URL and process it as one episode. Pro can turn on automatic processing for new enclosures, still inside the ten-episode monthly cap. ### Can I cancel? Yes. There is no annual lock-in unless you choose the yearly price. Live subscriptions are managed in the Stripe customer portal. In demo mode, plan changes apply immediately because Stripe is not connected. ## Comparisons Prices below describe the other products as checked in October 2026. Confirm on each vendor site before you quote them. ### Castmagic Hobby is $29 a month, or $19 a month billed yearly, for 30 hours. Starter is $69 a month, or $48 a month billed yearly, for 100 hours. There is no free plan. Source: https://www.castmagic.io/pricing (October 2026) Castmagic is a content studio. Transcripts, show notes, social and blog copy, clips, and chat across a library of episodes. Teams and a big back catalog have somewhere to live. Hosts on Reddit and review sites say the price and the credit burn add up, and that the writing still needs an edit. Upload and import problems come up often enough to mention. PodCrate is narrower. One episode becomes notes, chapters, five titles, captioned clips, and SRT files. Indie is $9 a month for four episodes, and there is a free episode. It will not replace a team workspace. ### Podsqueeze Free includes 30 minutes a month and 10 watermarked clips. Starter is $8.99 a month for 120 minutes and 8 clips. Pro is $49 for 320 minutes and 20 clips. Source: https://podsqueeze.com/pricing/ (October 2026) Podsqueeze is built for podcasts: notes, chapters, clips, audiograms, and a site. The free tier is a real trial, and Starter is inexpensive if your show is short. The jump from $8.99 to $49 is steep, and Starter's 8 clips across 120 minutes is tight if you post more than a couple of shorts per episode. Indie is $9 for four full crates, five clean clips each, up to 90 minutes an episode. You are not splitting a minute pool across the month. Podsqueeze has a broader publishing surface if you want them to host the site too. ### Opus Clip Free is 60 credits a month with a watermark. Starter is $15 a month for 150 credits. Pro is $29 a month, or about $14.50 a month yearly, for 300 credits. One credit is one source minute. Source: https://www.opus.pro/pricing (October 2026) Opus Clip is focused on turning long video into vertical clips, with captions and a virality score. If clips are the only asset you need, it is built for that job. It does not write show notes or chapter timestamps. The credit-per-minute meter surprises people who thought a plan included a set number of videos. A 60-minute episode can spend a large part of a Starter month. PodCrate includes the clips and the written crate. A 60-minute episode is one episode, not 60 credits. You give up the virality score and the broader clip editor. You get notes, chapters, titles, and SRT files in the same pass. ## Writing - A podcast show notes generator that stops at the publish checklist: https://podcrate.ai/blog/podcast-show-notes-generator - AI chapter timestamps for podcasts and YouTube: https://podcrate.ai/blog/ai-chapter-timestamps - Podcast title ideas that are not all the same joke: https://podcrate.ai/blog/podcast-title-generator - Turn a podcast into shorts without a second job: https://podcrate.ai/blog/podcast-clip-maker - A podcast show notes template, with a filled-in example: https://podcrate.ai/blog/podcast-show-notes-template - How to promote a podcast on TikTok and Reels: https://podcrate.ai/blog/promote-a-podcast-on-tiktok-and-reels - Podcast gear for beginners, from a drum room: https://podcrate.ai/blog/best-podcast-gear-for-beginners ## Contact PodCrate is an indie product by Brian Elam in Phoenix, Arizona. The public site is https://podcrate.ai and https://www.podcrate.ai. getpodcrate.com and www.getpodcrate.com redirect to https://podcrate.ai.