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Podcast loudness checker

Measure integrated loudness in LUFS, loudness range and true peak for any recording. It runs in your browser, so your file never leaves your device.

Drop a recording

WAV, FLAC, MP3, M4A, AAC or OGG, up to 10 minutes.

Measured in your browser. Your file stays on this device, and no account is needed.

Publishing on Apple Podcasts? Check against Apple’s level.

What LUFS means

LUFS (loudness units relative to full scale) measures how loud audio sounds to people, not just how high its peaks go. Integrated loudness is the average over the whole recording, with silence and very quiet passages gated out, as ITU-R BS.1770 defines it.

For podcasts we advise -16 LUFS integrated with true peaks at or below -1 dBTP. That comes from Apple Podcasts, the one podcast platform that publishes a level.

Spotify publishes a playback level of -14 LUFS for music, not for podcasts, and YouTube publishes no loudness target. Figures you see elsewhere for podcasts on them come from third parties.

Loudness range, in LU, is how much the loudness moves between the quieter and louder parts of a recording, as EBU Tech 3342 defines it.

Sources

Questions

What LUFS should a podcast be?
We advise -16 LUFS integrated, with true peaks at or below -1 dBTP. That is Apple Podcasts’ published level, the only one a podcast platform publishes.
Is -14 LUFS right for podcasts on Spotify?
Spotify publishes -14 LUFS as its playback level for music. It publishes no level for podcasts, so a podcast isn’t judged against it here.
What’s the difference between LUFS and dBFS?
dBFS measures a signal’s level against the digital maximum. LUFS uses the same scale but weights it the way ears hear loudness, and averages it over time.
Does my file get uploaded?
No. Your browser reads and measures the file on your device. Nothing is sent to us, and you don’t need an account.