RSS & Podcast Feed Generator and Validator

RSS is how podcasts reach Apple Podcasts and Spotify, how blogs reach feed readers, and how many sites syndicate news. A feed is a single XML file listing your latest items. Most platforms generate one automatically, but if you host your own site, publish a podcast without a hosting service, or need to know why a directory rejected your feed, you need to understand what goes in it. This tool builds feeds and checks them.

What a feed contains

An RSS 2.0 feed has one channel with a title, a link to your site and a description, followed by items. Each item has a title or description, usually a link, a publication date and a unique identifier called a GUID. The builder adds the recommended extras: a language code, the time the feed was built, and an atom:link pointing at the feed’s own address, which validators expect.

Podcast feeds

Switch on podcast mode and the Apple Podcasts tags are added. Directories need square artwork between 1400 and 3000 pixels in itunes:image, at least one category from Apple’s list, an explicit flag of true or false, and an author. An owner name and email help directories verify that the show is yours. Each episode needs an enclosure — the audio file’s URL, its size in bytes and its MIME type, which is guessed from the extension (audio/mpeg for .mp3, audio/x-m4a for .m4a). Duration, season, episode number and episode type are optional but shown by most apps.

GUIDs, dates and descriptions

The GUID must never change once an item is published; apps use it to decide what is new. If you leave it blank, the file URL or link is used. Dates are written in the RFC 822 format RSS requires, such as Thu, 29 Oct 2026 14:00:00 GMT, converted from the date picker. Descriptions are wrapped in CDATA so HTML show notes with links and line breaks survive intact.

Hosting the feed

Download the XML and upload it to your site, for example as /feed.xml or /podcast.xml, next to the audio files. The audio must be served over https for Apple Podcasts. Then submit the feed’s address once to Apple Podcasts Connect and Spotify for Creators; after that, they check the file for new episodes automatically. Update the file each time you publish.

Reading validator results

Paste any feed to check it. Errors are problems that stop directories or readers from accepting the feed; warnings are recommendations; info notes are things to know. Each one says where it is, such as “item 2 (‘The nurse’)”. The sample feed shows the common mistakes: two items share a guid, a pubDate is written 2026-10-01 instead of RFC 822, an enclosure has no length, the artwork uses http, and the category and explicit tags are missing — 7 errors and 5 warnings in all.

Atom feeds

If the pasted feed is Atom rather than RSS, it is recognised, its entries are listed and its required id and updated elements are checked. Feed readers handle both formats.

Related tools

Convert a reader’s subscriptions with OPML to CSV, turn feed data into a table with XML to CSV, tidy JSON feeds with the JSON Formatter, or write show notes in Markdown to HTML.