OP3

OP3 (The Open Podcast Prefix Project) is a free, open-source podcast prefix analytics service focused on open data and listener privacy. Podcasters and podcast hosting companies prepend an OP3 redirect URL to episode URLs in their RSS feed to begin measuring downloads, without requiring any signup or login. The project is built and maintained by Skymethod and operates as publicly auditable infrastructure, with its full codebase and deployment configuration available on GitHub.

The platform computes industry-standard podcast download and listener metrics, including geographic distribution, device types, client applications, and episode-level performance, while never storing raw IP addresses (only hashed values using rotated private keys). Every show measured by OP3 receives a free public stats page and access to historical data exports, and all request-log and show-level data is accessible through a public API for third parties to build on. OP3 runs on a global CDN spanning over 335 cities in more than 125 countries.

OP3 serves podcasters, podcast hosting platforms, app developers, and researchers who want transparent, verifiable audience measurement without surveillance-based tracking. It serves as an alternative to conventional analytics prefixes by combining standard download metrics with an open, auditable data model. As of its published figures, OP3 measures over 19 million downloads monthly across more than 5,400 shows and has operated continuously since September 2022.