Best Radio Apps for iPhone and iPad in 2026

Published 25 September 2026

The iPhone already has a radio built in, which surprises a lot of people — and the App Store has the big directories on top. You may not need to install anything at all. Here is what each option costs you, in adverts, accounts and storage.

Start with what is already there

Apple's Music app — the Radio tab

You do not need an Apple Music subscription to play broadcast radio on an iPhone. The Radio tab lists local and international broadcasters, and Apple's own live-hosted stations, such as Apple Music 1, are free to listen to as well. You can also ask Siri to play a station by name. The catch: broadcast radio is not available in every country, and not every station is available everywhere.

Pick it if you only want a few well-known stations and would rather not install anything.

The big directories

TuneIn

The largest catalogue and the best for live sport and talk. The free tier has adverts around the player and pre-roll on some streams; the paid tier is a subscription. Works with CarPlay. See TuneIn alternatives if it is not quite right.

Radio Garden

A globe of green dots you spin to hear the world's stations — the most delightful way to discover radio, less suited to everyday listening. Radio Garden alternatives covers the rest.

myTuner Radio and Radio.net

Large, tidy, ad-supported directories with good iPhone apps; Radio.net is strongest in Europe. myTuner and Radio.net alternatives compares them.

iHeartRadio

The pick for American live radio and podcasts. iHeartRadio alternatives goes further.

Nothing to install: Safari

Safari plays live radio in a web page and keeps playing when you lock the phone, with the station and controls on the lock screen. Add the page to your home screen — tap Share, then Add to Home Screen — and it opens full screen like an app, without taking the storage of one. How to listen without an app walks through it step by step.

72FM, described plainly

This is our site, so here is the honest version. 72FM is a player over the open Radio Browser directory — around 30,000 stations from 200+ countries — organised by genre, country, language and mood, with themed collections and a view of what is on air right now around the world.

• No adverts and no tracking in the player, on every tier. Stations still broadcast their own commercials; nobody can remove those.
• No account to start. Open it and press play.
• One hour a day free, resetting at your local midnight. Premium lifts the limit — a single payment, not a subscription.
• Each station shows its bitrate, so you can see what a stream costs in data before you press play.

In the car

CarPlay shows only apps built for it, so a web page will not appear on the car's screen; Apple's Music app and TuneIn do. Radio on Android Auto and CarPlay has the details.

The short answer

• Already on your phone: the Radio tab in Apple's Music app, free, no subscription.
• For everything, with ads: TuneIn.
• For discovery: Radio Garden.
• For no ads and nothing installed: a web player such as 72FM, added to your home screen.

For the same comparison across every platform, see the best radio apps.