AI Podcast Generator · Built for learning and knowledge work
Free AI Podcast Generator for Anything You're Studying
Turn a PDF, notes, video, slide deck, or recording into a three-speaker episode. Every episode includes chapters, a navigable transcript, source citations, visual companion slides, and a synchronized video mode.
An AI podcast generator turns written or recorded material into a spoken episode. Scholarly takes a PDF, notes, images, a link, a video, or just a topic and scripts a three-speaker conversation: Alex hosts, Sam adds context as producer, and the Guest explains the material. Each episode ships with a transcript, chapters, citations back to the source pages, and interactive questions you answer while you listen.
What goes in: PDFs, typed or handwritten notes, images, website links, YouTube videos, slide decks, recordings, or a topic you describe. The script is written from the actual source, not a summary of it.
What comes out: A three-speaker episode in any of 70+ languages, plus a clickable transcript, chapter markers, page-level citations, and check-for-understanding questions that appear as you listen.
What each plan gets: Every plan, including the free plan, can generate, stream, and share an episode by link. MP3 and MP4 downloads require a paid plan. Free accounts get one lifetime AI creation and one upload.
Use it when you need to understand a long document and cannot sit in front of a screen: the episode is grounded in your source, and the transcript and citations let you verify anything before you rely on it.
Updated August 2026
How the AI podcast generator works
Three steps from a folder of course material to an episode in your headphones.
01
Upload your material
Drop in a PDF, slide deck, AI Meeting Notes, YouTube link, website, or your own typed notes — or just describe a topic. Scholarly reads the actual source, up to hundreds of pages per document.
02
Pick a style, AI writes & voices it
Choose Conversational, Exam Prep, or Deep Dive, add custom instructions if you want, and pick from 70+ languages. The AI scripts and voices a three-speaker conversation with Alex as host, Sam as producer, and a Guest. Generation time varies with the source, requested length, model, and service load.
03
Listen, jump, reuse
Switch between audio and synchronized chapter-slide video, use captions and the transcript, and share one link on every plan. Paid plans can download MP3 and MP4 files; then build flashcards and a quiz from the same source.
What you can feed it
One generator, every kind of study source
If it's part of your course, you can probably turn it into an episode.
PDFs & textbooks
Textbook chapters, journal articles, lab manuals, case studies — upload the file and the hosts work from the real text, not a summary of a summary.
Lecture & class notes
Typed notes, exported docs, even photos of handwritten pages. Messy structure is fine; the AI organizes the episode around the concepts, not your formatting.
YouTube videos
Paste a link to an AI Meeting Notes source or explainer video and get a tighter audio version you can replay on the bus without a screen.
Slides & presentations
PowerPoint and slide PDFs become a narrated discussion that fills in the words your professor said between the bullet points.
AI Meeting Notes & audio
Upload an AI Meeting Notes source and get back a shorter, structured episode — the 50-minute ramble distilled into the 10 minutes that will be on the exam.
Websites & articles
Paste a URL — course pages, documentation, news analysis — and the hosts discuss what it actually says, with the source kept alongside the episode.
What every episode includes
Every episode is built for understanding
A generic AI podcast maker gives you an audio file. Scholarly gives you a study object you can navigate, verify, and reuse.
Three-speaker conversation
Alex hosts and asks questions, Sam adds context as producer, and the Guest explains your material in a natural discussion.
Four episode styles
Conversational for a first pass, Exam Prep for drilling likely questions, Deep Dive for the hard chapters. Custom instructions let you steer further.
70+ languages
Generate the episode in your study language or your native one — natural AI voices in over 70 languages, useful when you study in English but think in something else.
Transcript & synced captions
A full transcript sits next to the player. Click any line to jump to that moment, or toggle captions to read along in a loud room or a quiet library.
Citations to your source
Claims in the episode are backed by references to your original document, with page pointers — so you can check anything that sounds off before it ends up in your exam answer.
Video mode, sharing & downloads
Watch synchronized chapter slides and share one episode link on every plan. Paid plans can download MP3 audio or a 16:9 MP4 for offline use and publishing.
Sample episode
What a generated episode sounds like
A real-shaped example: a 28-page cardiology lecture PDF turned into an 11-minute Exam Prep episode.
00:00 · Cold open & roadmap
The hosts frame why the cardiac cycle trips students up and name the three things the exam will lean on: the phases, the valve timings, and the pressure curves. A chapter marker drops here so you can return to the overview in one tap.
01:15 · Core walkthrough
The host walks through systole and diastole phase by phase while the guest interrupts with the questions a student would actually ask — wait, which valves are open during isovolumetric contraction? Each phase gets its own chapter marker.
06:40 · Exam traps
The hosts quiz each other on the classic confusions: when the AV valves close, what the dicrotic notch means, why the pressure-volume loop is drawn the way it is — citing the page in your PDF where each answer lives.
10:05 · Rapid recap
A sixty-second summary of the whole episode, then a pointer to the flashcards and practice quiz generated from the same chapter — because listening twice is worth less than testing yourself once.
The honest case
Does listening actually help you study?
The honest answer first: listening alone will not get you a grade. Audio is recognition-friendly — it makes material feel familiar without proving you can retrieve it. If your entire study plan is podcasts on 1.5x, you will walk into the exam recognizing every question and answering few of them. We build flashcards and practice quizzes into the same product precisely because a podcast is a complement to retrieval practice, never a substitute for it.
Audio gives you another explanation of the same material. Alex, Sam, and the Guest clarify ideas, ask questions, and weigh what matters. Pause to answer their questions and connect the discussion to the source.
Audio also wins on logistics. The 25 minutes on the bus, the walk between classes, the gym — none of that time is usable for a 40-page PDF, and all of it is usable for an 11-minute chaptered episode. Priming before a lecture (listen on the way in, and the lecture lands better) and refreshing before an exam (replay the Exam Prep episode the night before) are the two patterns students actually report using.
And because every Scholarly episode is grounded in your source, the podcast is a doorway rather than a dead end: the transcript links back to the document, the same upload becomes spaced-repetition flashcards and a scoped quiz, and the AI chat already knows what's in the chapter. Listen once, then test yourself — that's the loop that moves grades.
Honest comparison
Where other AI podcast tools win, and where Scholarly wins
An honest map of the category — because the famous tool is genuinely good, and the creator tools solve a different problem entirely.
NotebookLM Audio Overviews
Where it shines: Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) Audio Overviews popularized AI podcasts, and they remain free, polished, and impressively natural, with Deep Dive, Brief, Critique, and Debate formats in 80+ languages. If you want a one-off audio summary of a document and you live in the Google ecosystem, it's a genuinely fine choice.
Built as a general research notebook — broad sourcing, generous free tier, excellent voice quality.
Episode control is narrower than a dedicated tool: a format picker, a length toggle, and a steering prompt, with no voice choice, no three-speaker format, and no 60-minute episodes.
It's not a study system. Its flashcards and quizzes have no spaced-repetition schedule, no graded exam, and no export — the episode doesn't lead into retrieval practice.
Podcast creator tools (Wondercraft, Jellypod)
Where they shine: these are serious production suites for people publishing real shows — voice cloning, episode editing, intro music, RSS distribution to Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
If your goal is an audience, they're the right category and Scholarly is not.
For studying they're overkill in the wrong places: priced for creators, focused on production polish, with no grounding in your course material.
No citations, no transcript-to-source linking, no flashcards or quizzes — because none of that matters for a show, and all of it matters for an exam.
Built from your sources
Scholarly
Where it shines: an AI podcast generator that turns course material, reports, research, and team knowledge into audio you can learn and work from.
Source-grounded with citations: episodes are scripted from your actual document, and claims point back to the pages they came from.
Four styles, custom instructions, chapters, synced captions, a navigable transcript, 70+ languages, link sharing, and paid MP3 download.
The episode feeds a full study loop: the same upload becomes flashcards, a practice quiz, and an AI chat that knows the material.
The study loop
From an episode to your full study loop
A podcast is a great first pass, not a study plan. Every episode Scholarly generates is wired into the rest of the platform: the same source becomes spaced-repetition flashcards, a scoped practice quiz, and an AI chat tutor that has already read the document. Listen on the commute, drill the cards at your desk, sit the quiz before the exam — that's the loop.
Pick the tool that matches your source
These input-specific podcast tools all run on the same generator — start from whichever format is sitting on your laptop.
It writes and voices an audio episode from content you provide. Scholarly reads documents, notes, recordings, or videos and produces a three-speaker conversation with Alex as host, Sam as producer, and a Guest. Every episode includes chapters, a transcript, and source citations.
Is Scholarly's AI podcast generator free?
You can start free with no credit card. The Free plan includes one shared lifetime AI creation across Scholarly. It does not reset and can be used to try podcast generation. Premium includes 10 AI creations each week, support for longer source documents, and additional voices.
Can I make an AI podcast from a PDF?
Yes — this is the most common workflow. Upload a textbook chapter, journal article, or slide PDF and the hosts script the episode from the actual text. Long documents work; the generator handles hundreds of pages per source on higher plans.
Can I make a podcast from my class notes?
Yes. Paste typed notes, upload a document, or add photos of handwritten pages. The AI organizes the episode around the concepts in your notes, so messy formatting doesn't matter. There's a dedicated Notes to Podcast tool if that's your main use case.
How long are the episodes?
Most episodes land between 8 and 12 minutes — long enough to cover a chapter properly, short enough to finish on a commute. You can request a specific length in the custom instructions, from a 3-minute refresher up to a 12-minute deep pass.
What do the voices sound like? Can I change them?
Episodes use three speaker roles: Alex hosts, Sam produces, and the Guest brings expertise using the voice selected during creation. The voices use a conversational tone and pace. Voices are matched to the language you choose, and paid plans include additional options.
What languages does it support?
Over 70 languages. You can study a source written in English and generate the episode in Spanish, Japanese, Hindi, Portuguese, or your own language — the transcript and captions follow the episode language.
Can I download episodes as audio or video?
Every plan can stream and share the audio or synchronized chapter-slide video. On a paid plan, download an MP3 for podcast apps or a 16:9 MP4 for offline use and publishing.
How is this different from NotebookLM's Audio Overviews?
Gemini Notebook's Audio Overviews are excellent for a one-off audio summary — four formats, 80+ languages — and if that's all you need, they're a fine free option. Scholarly's differences are study-specific: a three-speaker format with guest voices, episodes up to 60 minutes, four episode styles including Exam Prep, 70+ languages, citations with page references, and a study loop — spaced-repetition flashcards, graded quizzes, and AI chat generated from the same source as the episode.
Can it make a podcast from a YouTube video or AI Meeting Notes?
Yes to both. Paste a YouTube link or upload an AI Meeting Notes source, and the generator produces a shorter, structured episode from it — useful for compressing a 50-minute recording into the 10 minutes you actually need to review.
Will the podcast make things up?
The episode is scripted from your uploaded source rather than from the model's general knowledge, and claims carry citations back to the document so you can verify them. No AI system is perfect, so for high-stakes facts — drug dosages, legal rules, exam-critical numbers — click the citation and check the page. That one-click check is exactly why the citations exist.
Do I need to upload a file, or can I just give it a topic?
You can start from just a topic description and get a solid episode. That said, source-grounded episodes are consistently better for studying because they cover what your course covers — your professor's emphasis, your textbook's notation — instead of a generic overview of the subject.
Is there a free AI study podcast I can make?
Yes. Free includes one shared lifetime AI creation that can make a three-speaker episode from a PDF, notes, or a lecture. The credit does not reset. Premium adds 10 AI creations each week, longer sources, and more voices. No credit card is required.
What is the best AI podcast generator for studying?
The best AI podcast generator for studying is the one that works from your real course material and connects audio to self-testing, not a generic topic show. Scholarly scripts episodes from your uploaded PDFs, slides, notes, and lectures with page citations, offers an Exam Prep style, and turns the same source into flashcards on a review schedule and graded quizzes. Gemini Notebook's Audio Overviews are excellent for one-off summaries; Scholarly is built around the full study loop, so listening leads into retrieval practice.
Does the episode include notes or extra research?
Yes. While the audio is generated, a research agent studies the same chapters, searches the web, and writes timestamped Producer Notes — researched context with cited, validated links pinned to the moments they refer to. You can jump the player to a note, open its sources, or send it into the episode chat. Each episode also includes a curated Related Resources list for going beyond your source.
Free includes one shared lifetime AI creation across Scholarly, and it does not reset. Premium includes 10 AI creations each week, support for longer source documents, and additional voices. No credit card required.
Use it to generate flashcards, improve a deck, or create a podcast, video lecture, slides, infographic, mind map, study guide, worksheet, spreadsheet, story book, timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline — or run Deep Research or turn a recording into AI Meeting Notes.
Premium
Most Popular
Steady weekly output from the material you already have.
$12
/month
Billed yearly at $144 · save $216
Everything in Free, plus:
10 AI creations per week
Unlimited AI chat & autocomplete
Podcasts up to 60 minutes, videos up to 45 minutes
Unlimited file uploads (up to 300MB)
Unlimited study sessions
Unlimited exams & quizzes
1000-page PDF to flashcards
Export to Anki
Priority support
Laureate
For work where being right matters more than the price.
$99
/month
billed monthly · cancel anytime
For frontier models & 8x more AI Creations
Our most advanced and most expensive tier.
Everything in Premium, plus:
80 weighted AI creation credits every week
80 AI creations per week
Podcasts up to 60 minutes, videos up to 45 minutes
Unlimited uploads up to 1 GB, plus 3,000-page PDFs
12 hours of voice mode per day
Priority support and early access to new Frontier models
Premium for Teams
Most Popular
One shared library, with admin control.
$28
/seat/month
$336 per seat billed yearly · save $84
Premium for every member:
Premium limits for every member — 10 creations a week
Shared workspace with Owner, Admin, and Member roles
Pricing shown in USD. Local currency may be available for Premium in app.
Compare plans
AI chat
Premium and Laureate include unlimited AI chat. GPT 5.6 Sol and Claude Opus 5 are reserved for credit-metered AI creations.
Free
3 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited
AI creations
AI creations share one credit balance across every creation tool. Standard models use 1 credit; Frontier models Sol and Opus use 3.
Free
1 total
Premium
10/week
Laureate
80/week
Podcast length
Free episodes are fixed at 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target length up to 60 minutes.
Free
2 minutes
Premium
Up to 60 minutes
Laureate
Up to 60 minutes
Video lecture length
Free lectures with a length control are fixed at 2 minutes. Paid plans can set a target up to 45 minutes. Short uses its own short video format.
Free
2 minutes
Premium
Up to 45 minutes
Laureate
Up to 45 minutes
File uploads
Free
1 total (8MB)
Premium
Unlimited (300MB)
Laureate
Unlimited (1 GB each)
PDF to flashcards
Free
32 pages
Premium
1000 pages
Laureate
3000 pages
Practice questions
Free
5 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited
Practice exams
Free
1 total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited
Voice mode
Free
15 min total
Premium
2 hr/day
Laureate
12 hr/day
Autocomplete
Free
500 words total
Premium
Unlimited
Laureate
Unlimited
Export to Anki
Free
—
Premium
Included
Laureate
Included
Support
Free
Standard
Premium
Priority
Laureate
Priority
Feature
Free
Premium
Laureate
AI chat
3 total
Unlimited
Unlimited
AI creations
1 total
10/week
80/week
Podcast length
2 minutes
Up to 60 minutes
Up to 60 minutes
Video lecture length
2 minutes
Up to 45 minutes
Up to 45 minutes
File uploads
1 total (8MB)
Unlimited (300MB)
Unlimited (1 GB each)
PDF to flashcards
32 pages
1000 pages
3000 pages
Practice questions
5 total
Unlimited
Unlimited
Practice exams
1 total
Unlimited
Unlimited
Voice mode
15 min total
2 hr/day
12 hr/day
Autocomplete
500 words total
Unlimited
Unlimited
Export to Anki
—
Included
Included
Support
Standard
Priority
Priority
What customers say
Scholarly has enhanced the quality of notes and questions I administer to my tutees. Insightful, to the point.
TD Georgas
Tutor
I have very good experience with Scholarly it summarize me scientific text in hovel academic level with citation. I use this for any therapeutic area . It is great and useful tool.
Diana
Scholarly user
Scholarly has been a valuable tool for my studies. The AI-generated flashcards and intuitive features make organizing and retaining information much easier.
Briana
Scholarly user
This app is great for studying for big test. Drop your PDF's in the system and it'll do the trick. You can organize it specifically for your needs.
Kelvin
Scholarly user
Your questions, answered
Is Scholarly free to use?
Yes! The free plan includes core study tools with lifetime allowances: 3 AI Chat messages, 500 autocomplete words, 5 quiz questions, 15 voice minutes, 1 practice exam, one free AI creation total, and 1 file upload. These allowances do not reset. Upgrade to Premium for 10 AI creations per week and unlimited uploads.
What uses my free AI creations?
Generating flashcards, improving a flashcard deck, making a podcast, creating a video lecture or infographic, building slides, a spreadsheet, or a story book, making a mind map, study guide, or worksheet, having an AI Agent create a timeline, SOP, flowchart, lesson plan, or outline, running Deep Research, or processing a recording uses your free AI creation. It is a lifetime free credit and does not reset. AI Chat, autocomplete, quiz practice, voice, exams, and file uploads have separate lifetime allowances.
Can I cancel anytime?
Absolutely. There are no contracts or commitments. You can cancel your subscription at any time from your account settings, and you'll keep access until the end of your billing period.
What payment methods do you accept?
We accept all major credit and debit cards through Stripe. Pricing is displayed in USD by default, but local currency is available in the app.
Can I use Scholarly with a class or school?
Yes. For a school or organization-wide rollout, contact us at hello@scholarly.so and we'll help you find the right setup.
What happens when I hit a free plan limit?
You'll see a prompt to upgrade. Your existing work is never lost — limits only apply to new actions. Free-plan allowances are lifetime credits and do not reset. Premium includes 10 AI creations per week, podcasts up to 60 minutes, video lectures up to 45 minutes, unlimited uploads, chat, autocomplete, quizzes, and exams, plus more daily voice time.