Podcast LUFS Checker
Drop your episode in and measure it against every major platform's target.
Podcast LUFS Checker Tool
Podcast LUFS targets vary by platform — -16 for Apple Podcasts, -14 for Spotify and YouTube, -18 for AES's current spoken-word streaming recommendation — and blogs disagree because they're often quoting different, sometimes outdated, sources. Drop your episode below to measure your actual integrated loudness, true peak, and loudness range.
Checking the rest of the episode's specs?
Same tool, different focus: check bitrate or format, sample rate, and channels from the same drop.
Publishing the transcript too? Use the transcript formatter.
Why do Apple, Spotify, and YouTube disagree on LUFS targets?
They don't disagree so much as target different things: Apple Podcasts recommends -16 LUFS specifically for spoken-word podcasts, while Spotify's documented -14 LUFS target is for music and simply gets applied to podcasts by convention rather than stated podcast policy. Both are real numbers from real platforms — they're just not answering the exact same question.
What LUFS should a podcast be?
-16 LUFS (±1) is the most commonly cited target across the industry and matches Apple Podcasts' own recommendation. AES's current TD1008 recommendation (2021) — which superseded an older, less specific document many guides still quote — gives -18 LUFS specifically for spoken-word streaming content, which lines up closely.
What's the difference between LUFS and dBTP?
LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) measures perceived loudness averaged over time — how loud the episode sounds overall. dBTP (decibels True Peak) measures the highest instantaneous level, including peaks that occur between digital samples during playback. An episode can hit its LUFS target perfectly and still clip on true peak if it isn't limited correctly.
What is Loudness Range (LRA) and why does it matter for podcasts?
LRA measures how much your loudness varies over the whole episode — a wide LRA means quiet and loud moments differ a lot (common with unprocessed conversation), a narrow LRA means it's been compressed to a more consistent level. Neither is strictly "correct," but a very wide LRA on a podcast often means listeners will reach for the volume knob mid-episode.
Does this LUFS checker upload my audio anywhere?
No — the file is decoded and measured entirely in your browser using the Web Audio API; nothing is sent to a server. The measurement itself runs in a background thread (a Web Worker) so the page doesn't freeze while it works.