Spotify recently played tracks, with day-by-day times

What Spotify's recently played list shows

Spotify exposes recently played through one API endpoint, GET /v1/me/player/recently-played. Its rules are simple, and they explain almost everything about what you see:

• 50 tracks maximum. One call returns at most the last 50 tracks. There is no offset to page further back, and no older endpoint to fall back on.
• 30 seconds minimum. A track only counts as a play after it has run for more than 30 seconds. Quick skips never appear.
• Newest first, with timestamps. Each item carries a played_at time, so you can tell exactly when a track was played.
• Times are UTC. Spotify reports play times in UTC, not in your local timezone.

The Spotify app shows a shorter, time-free version of the same data. The API's 50 tracks are the same 50 the app knows about, whether you look on a phone, the desktop app or the web player.

What the 50-track limit means for you

Fifty tracks is roughly three hours of music. If you listen every day, the list fills up quickly: play more than 50 tracks in a day and everything from the morning is gone by the evening. That is why the same page can look almost empty one day and full of a single album the next.

Spotify does not offer a longer recent view anywhere in the API. The only complete record Spotify can give you is an exported data file, and that arrives by email, usually within a few days. Spotify Stats does something different: it records the plays Spotify reports while your account is connected, so your history keeps growing even after a track drops out of Spotify's last 50.

See your play history day by day

The Recently Played page shows both views side by side:

1. Connect your Spotify account. It is free and there is nothing to install. Spotify Stats starts recording your plays from that moment.
2. Open the Recently Played page. The top section is your stored history: plays today, plays in the last 7 days, and a different-tracks count.
3. Read the timeline. Plays are grouped under Today, Yesterday and each earlier day, newest first, with a time beside every track.
4. Add older plays if you want them. Ask Spotify for your Extended streaming history on its privacy page, then import the file from your profile to backfill years of plays at once.

The live last 50 stays on the page too, fetched straight from Spotify when it loads, so you can compare the two views. A track missing from the stored timeline is usually a play from before you connected, or one shorter than 30 seconds.

Example data with placeholder names, not real listening data. Your page uses your own plays and times.

The counts above the timeline come from the same stored plays. Because they are day-based, they show how much you listened, not just the order of the last 50 tracks.

Frequently asked questions

How many recently played tracks does Spotify keep?

Spotify's recently played API returns at most the last 50 tracks. There is no official way to page further back, and a track only enters the list after it has played for more than 30 seconds.

How do I see my recently played songs beyond 50?

Connect your Spotify account to Spotify Stats and open the Recently Played page. It shows a day-by-day timeline built from the plays Spotify Stats has stored since you connected, next to the live last 50. To go further back, import Spotify's extended streaming history from your profile page.

What is the 30-second rule?

Spotify counts a play only once the track has played for more than 30 seconds. Skip a song sooner than that and it never appears in recently played, in the app or in the API.

Does Spotify keep a full listening history?

Not through its API. The API shares the last 50 plays. Spotify can send your full extended streaming history by email as a data export, and Spotify Stats can import that file to backfill older plays.

Why do timestamps matter?

Every play comes with a timestamp, so a history can show when you listened, not only what you listened to. Spotify's own recently played view gives you a rough order but not times. Spotify Stats shows the time for each stored play.

Are the times shown in my timezone?

No. Spotify reports play times in UTC, and Spotify Stats displays them that way. A play shortly after midnight UTC belongs to the previous local day for listeners west of UTC.