EpisodeOps LogoEpisodeOps
    Operator tool · free

    Multi-platform release calculator

    Plug in show count, episodes per week, and the platforms in your distribution. Get the weekly release-ops hours your team currently spends — and what an ops automation layer would recover.

    Current release ops
    5.0 hrs/wk
    $300/week at $60/hr · 4 platforms × 5 episodes
    With ops automation
    3.5 hrs saved/wk
    $210/week
    Annual savings
    $10,920
    182 hours of team time recovered each year.

    Assumes 15 minutes of release ops per episode per platform, and a 70% reduction from automation. These are conservative working estimates, not measured per-team numbers. Your actual savings will vary by team composition, show maturity, and which tools you're consolidating.

    Illustrative estimate only. This calculator is an educational tool. Outputs are scenario math based on the inputs you provide, not financial or business advice. EpisodeOps makes no guarantee that any specific team will achieve the time or cost savings shown. Verify the per-platform time assumption against your own workflow before using these numbers for budgeting or staffing decisions.

    Recover the hours

    EpisodeOps is the operations layer this calculator models. Free Release Pack on signup; upgrade only when the workflow earns the spend.

    See plans What's podcast operations?

    Common questions

    What counts as 'release ops time per platform'?

    Per-platform release ops includes: writing/copy-editing the platform-specific description, pushing chapter markers or timestamps, uploading or scheduling, posting any platform-native content (a tweet, a LinkedIn post, a Shorts cut), and updating any internal trackers. It does NOT include audio editing — that's a separate craft. 15 minutes per episode per platform is a reasonable starting estimate for typical workflows; tighter teams come in lower, larger teams with more stakeholders run higher.

    Why 70% time savings rather than 90%?

    70% is a conservative working estimate for what an ops automation layer can take off the table when a team maintains a human-in-the-loop review step. Teams that ship unedited AI output land higher; teams that re-review heavily land lower. The savings come from removing typing-and-copying work, not from removing the editorial judgment.

    Does this scale linearly with show count?

    Not quite. The ops-automation benefit grows super-linearly past the 3-show inflection point because the coordination overhead scales worse than the work itself. A 5-show studio doesn't have 5x the work of a 1-show studio — it has 5x the work plus the coordination layer between them. The model below treats it linearly for clarity; the real curve is steeper.

    Where does the team rate input come from?

    Blended fully-loaded hourly cost of the people doing release ops on your team. US producers run $40–80/hr fully loaded; agency owners value their own time higher; outsourced VAs in the Philippines run $8–15/hr. Use what your blended cost actually is; the calculator just multiplies.