Text to Speech guide
Paste anything and press Play. The text is read aloud by the voices already on your device, the current word is highlighted as it goes, and you control voice, speed, pitch and volume. No account, no character limit, no upload.
How this text to speech reader works
There is no AI server behind this page. It uses the Web Speech API, a speech engine built into Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, and the voices that ship with your operating system. Paste text, pick a voice, press Play. The word being spoken is highlighted as it goes, so you can follow along or spot where a sentence trips the voice up.
Long text is split into sentence-sized chunks before it is handed to the engine. That is not cosmetic. Chrome's online voices quietly stop after roughly 15 seconds of a single utterance, which is why so many free readers die halfway through a page. Chunking avoids it, and pause, resume and stop still work across the whole text.
Why the voices differ on every device
The voice list comes from your device, not from this site. A Windows laptop with Edge shows dozens of Microsoft voices, including the very natural “Online (Natural)” ones. A Mac shows Apple's voices plus anything you downloaded under System Settings, Accessibility, Spoken Content. Chrome adds a handful of Google voices. An Android phone uses the Google speech engine; an iPhone uses Siri-grade voices you can download in Settings.
Want better voices for free? Download them at the OS level. On a Mac or iPhone, the “Enhanced” and “Premium” voices are a big jump over the defaults. On Windows, add a language pack under Time and Language, Speech. Reload this page afterwards and they appear in the picker.
If the picker shows no voices at all, the browser has no speech engine. This is common on Linux, where Chromium needs the speech-dispatcher package. Firefox on Linux behaves the same way. Install it, restart the browser, and voices appear.
Privacy: local vs online voices
Here is the honest part most TTS sites skip. This page never uploads your text. But voices marked “(online)” in the picker are streamed by your browser vendor, which means Chrome sends the text to Google, and Edge's natural voices send it to Microsoft, to generate the audio. Voices without that label run entirely on your device.
For contracts, medical notes or anything confidential, choose a voice without the online tag. For a blog post or an email draft, the online voices sound better and the trade-off is usually fine.
Speed, pitch and what they're good for
Speed runs from 0.5× to 2×. Normal conversation sits around 150 words per minute, and many people comfortably listen at 1.3× to 1.5× once they're used to a voice. Language learners should go the other way: 0.7× to 0.8× with a native voice for the target language, and read along with the highlight.
Pitch shifts the voice up or down without changing speed. It is mostly useful for making two voices distinguishable when you proofread dialogue. Some voices ignore pitch entirely, which is an engine limitation, not a bug here.
Proofreading by ear
Listening to your own writing is the fastest way to catch missing words, doubled words and sentences that run too long. Your eyes autocorrect what you meant to write. Your ears don't. Paste the draft, play it at 1.1×, and keep a finger on Pause. Every time you wince, fix that sentence.
Punctuation matters to the engine. A comma produces a short pause, a period a longer one, and a missing period turns two sentences into one breathless run. If a phrase sounds wrong, it often reads wrong too.
What it can't do (yet)
It can't save an MP3. Browsers don't expose the audio produced by the speech engine, so no client-side page can download it without a server generating the audio instead. Sites that offer MP3 download are sending your text to their servers. If you need a file, use the screen or audio recorder built into your OS while the page plays.
Word highlighting depends on the engine firing word boundary events. Most local voices do. Some online voices only report sentence starts, so the highlight jumps per sentence instead of per word. Pick a different voice if you need word-level tracking.
The highlight is also a gentle accessibility aid for readers with dyslexia or ADHD, but it doesn't replace a full screen reader. If you rely on one daily, VoiceOver, NVDA and TalkBack read every app and page, not just pasted text.
How we calculate: sources
Frequently asked questions
Is this text to speech really free?
Yes, with no character limit and no signup. It uses the speech engine built into your browser and operating system, so there is no server cost to pass on to you.
Can I download the audio as an MP3?
No. Browsers don't give web pages access to the audio the speech engine produces. Sites that offer MP3 downloads generate the audio on their servers, which means uploading your text. To keep a copy, use your system's screen or audio recorder while it plays.
Why are the voices different on my phone and my laptop?
The voices come from your operating system and browser. Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and ChromeOS each ship their own, and you can add better ones for free in your system's speech or accessibility settings.
Why is the voice list empty?
Your browser has no speech engine installed. This happens mostly on Linux: install speech-dispatcher and restart the browser. On other systems, add a voice in your OS language or accessibility settings.
Does it work in other languages?
Yes. Every installed voice is listed by language code, such as es-ES or fr-FR. Pick a voice that matches the language of your text, otherwise the pronunciation will be wrong.
Why does the highlight jump by sentence instead of by word?
Some voices, mainly online ones, don't report word positions to the browser. Local voices usually do. Switch voices if you need word-by-word tracking.
Is my text uploaded?
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded to a server or stored by us. One caveat: voices marked (online) are streamed by your browser vendor, such as Google in Chrome or Microsoft in Edge, so pick a voice without that tag for private text.
Why does the voice stop in the middle of long text?
Chrome's online voices cut off after about 15 seconds of a single utterance. This reader splits text into sentences to avoid that. If it still stops, choose a local voice without the (online) tag.