In the first season, the Indosiar and AFI jury selected prospective students (academia) from 4 big cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya, and Medan). The audition, which was attended by thousands of participants, resulted in 12 finalists who were selected to receive various trainings from the mentors for approximately 90 days in Jakarta. In early December 2003, the 12 finalists were introduced through two non-elimination concerts. The first Elimination Concert was held at the end of December with an SMS and preliminary call scoring system, all the way through 9 Elimination Concerts until the Grand Final in March 2004.

After the success of the first season, AFI 2 was held only one week after the Grand Final of AFI 1. Auditions were held in 6 cities (Jakarta, Medan, Bandung, Semarang, Jogja, & Surabaya) with 18 people as semi-finalists. The selection was then carried out to screen 12 people from the existing semi-finalists, via SMS & Premium Call polling by the audience at two Pre-Elimination concerts. This season was celebrated with 9 Elimination Concerts. The AFI 2 Grand Final is also the most popular program with the highest rating in Indonesian television history to this date.

The audition cities for AFI 3 were expanded to include 9 major cities in Indonesia, including Jakarta, Medan, Bandung, Semarang, Jogja, Surabaya, Denpasar, Makassar, and Palembang. In the finalist selection process this time there were 3 representatives in each city who would later be screened again through 3 pre-elimination concerts. Under the assessment of Trie Utami, Tamam Hosein, and the late Harry Roesli, 12 Academia were selected to continue to the next round.

In the fourth season, AFI no longer uses numbers to signify the season and started to choose the year instead. This is one of the means of change to overcome the decline in ratings last season. The auditions were held in 11 major cities in Indonesia, with the participants taking part in a selection concert where they will be grouped into the Hip group and Hop group. The preliminary selection system still uses SMS and Premium Call from the audience, to have the 12 best finalists enroll into the AFI dormitory. The finalists in this season are considered to be the youngest and freshest AFI generation compared to other seasons.

The fifth season of AFI took 6 major cities to participate in the audition process. The 12 selected finalists then went through Duel Concerts to become the winner and take home the prize of a Las Vegas vacation and a Celine Dion concert.

Auditions for the sixth season of AFI began on 27 August 2013 in 7 major cities in Indonesia, namely Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Yogya, Surabaya, and Makassar. This time the online audition system on the official website was implemented to attract prospective participants from cities that were not included in the list of audition cities or from outside Indonesia. The number of finalists this season increased to 14 people, who then underwent 13 weeks of training in vocal, dance, and acting. The elimination round starts with the Choose Me Concert to showcase the top 12 auditions for each city, the 5+ Concert, the Hip & Hop Concert, and eventually the weekly Elimination Concert for the Grand Final.