Pocket FM now makes 99% of its new audio content with AI, and revenue has hit $500 million
The Indian audio storytelling app has slashed production costs by 80 times and grown its library to 770,000 series. Humans still write the ideas. AI does almost everything else.
Key points
- Pocket FM's annualised revenue run rate reached $500 million in mid-2025, up from $250 million a year earlier.
- AI now powers 93% of the platform's total audio catalogue and produces 99% of all new content.
- The company's 550,000-plus creators now put out roughly 2.5 million hours of AI-assisted content per year, up from a 100,000-hour total catalogue just two years ago.
- Production costs have fallen by about 80 times; 100 hours of audio that once took a year to make can now be finished in a single day.
- Pocket FM's three-month-old short-drama app, Pocket Saga, is already running at a $15 million annualised revenue rate.
If you have never heard of Pocket FM, here is the short version: it is a Netflix-style app for serialised audio stories, the kind you binge in episodes. It started in India in 2018 and has since grown to more than 250 million listeners across 20 countries. The United States is now its biggest market, bringing in roughly 70% of its revenue.
This week, as first reported by TechCrunch, co-founder and CEO Rohan Nayak confirmed the company's annualised revenue run rate (a figure calculated by multiplying one month's revenue by 12 to project a yearly total) has hit $500 million. That is double what it was twelve months ago.
How is AI actually involved?
AI generates almost all the finished audio you hear on Pocket FM, but humans still come up with the stories. Creators pitch ideas and build narratives; AI tools then turn those concepts into written scripts and spoken audio at scale.
Pocket FM's AI head, Vasu Sharma, a former scientist at Meta and Tesla, told TechCrunch the company has trained its own AI models specifically for creative writing and text-to-speech, teaching them on years of production data and listener behaviour. Text-to-speech is exactly what it sounds like: software that reads written text aloud in a natural-sounding voice.
The economics are striking. One hundred hours of finished audio that used to take a full year to produce now takes one day. CEO Rohan Nayak says the cost per hour of content has dropped roughly 80 times. That cost saving feeds directly into the library size: Pocket FM now holds more than 770,000 audio series.
What does this mean for listeners?
More choice, mostly. Pocket FM's 12-month revenue retention rate, the share of paying listeners still subscribing a year later, rose to 76% from 44% two years ago. Nayak credits that jump partly to having enough stories to suit different tastes.
The business runs on two income streams: about $85 million a year from advertising, and around $415 million from listeners paying to unlock individual episodes. Ninety-six titles have each earned more than $1 million, and 13 have passed $10 million.
| Metric | Figure | When |
|---|---|---|
| Annualised revenue run rate | $500 million | Mid-2025 |
| Annualised revenue run rate | $250 million | Mid-2024 |
| AI share of new content | 99% | 2025 |
| Content produced per year | 2.5 million hours | 2025 |
| 12-month listener retention | 76% | 2025 |
| Pocket Saga revenue run rate | $15 million | 2025 |
What comes next?
Pocket FM's parent company, Pocket Entertainment, is already testing a short-drama video app called Pocket Saga, available in the US. It is three months old and fully AI-produced, no actors, no film crews. Pocket Entertainment also plans to move into at least two more entertainment formats over the next five years and is exploring licensing its best stories for books, TV, and film.
On the money side, the company is in talks to raise between $100 million and $120 million at a valuation of around $2 billion, though Nayak says there is no rush. A public listing is at least two years away.
Common questions
Are real people losing writing jobs here?
Pocket FM says human creators still drive every story concept and narrative direction; AI handles the production work of turning those ideas into finished audio. The company frames it as giving creators tools to work faster, not replacing them.
Does using AI audio affect the listening experience?
Pocket FM has trained its text-to-speech models on listener engagement data, aiming to make the audio sound natural. Whether that matches a human narrator is a matter of personal taste, and the app's rising retention numbers suggest many listeners are comfortable with it.
Is Pocket FM free to use?
The app is free to download. Much of the content sits behind a pay-per-episode model, meaning you pay small amounts to unlock individual story instalments. Advertising-supported content is also available.
