How to use text to speech
- Paste or type your text in the box. There is no length limit; long texts are read sentence by sentence.
- Pick a voice. Voices are grouped by language. The list shows what your device and browser offer.
- Set the speed and pitch. 1.0× is normal speed. Between 1.2× and 1.5× is comfortable for proofreading once you're used to it.
- Press Play. The text is shown with the current word highlighted, where your browser supports it. Pause, Resume and Stop work at any time.
Where do the voices come from?
This tool uses the speech synthesis feature built into web browsers. It doesn't have voices of its own: it asks your browser, and the browser offers the voices installed on your device, plus online voices on some browsers. That's why the list is different on every device.
| Device or browser | What to expect | Adding more voices |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome on a computer | Your system voices plus some Google online voices (marked "online"). | Install voices in your operating system's settings. |
| Edge | System voices plus many natural-sounding online voices, including Indian English and Hindi. | Usually available without setup. |
| Windows | A few voices for your display language. | Settings › Time & language › Speech › Manage voices. |
| Mac, iPhone and iPad | Many languages; enhanced voices sound better. | Mac: System Settings › Accessibility › Spoken Content. iPhone and iPad: Settings › Accessibility › Spoken Content › Voices. |
| Android | Voices from the phone's speech engine. | Settings › Accessibility › Text-to-speech output, then install voice data for your language. |
Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati and other Indian languages are available on many devices, but not all. If your language isn't in the list, install it as shown above, then reload this page. Text in one language read by a voice for another usually sounds wrong, so pick a voice that matches the text.
Can I download the audio as MP3?
No, and we'd rather say so than pretend. Browsers play speech synthesis voices directly through your speakers. They don't give web pages access to the audio, so a page like this one can't save it as an MP3 or WAV file. Tools that offer downloads send your text to a server that generates the audio. This one keeps your text on your device instead.
If you need a recording, your device's own screen or audio recorder can capture the sound while it plays.
Good uses for text to speech
- Proofreading. Hearing your writing read back catches missing words, repeated words and clumsy sentences that your eyes skip over.
- Reading support. Following highlighted words while listening helps many people with dyslexia or tired eyes.
- Language learning. Slow the speed to 0.7× to hear the pronunciation of a sentence in another language.
- Listening instead of reading. Paste an article and listen while you do something else.
Check the length of your script with the word counter, which also estimates speaking time.
Why does it pause between sentences?
Some browsers, including Chrome, stop speaking partway through very long passages. To avoid this, the tool splits the text into pieces of about 200 characters, ending at sentences where possible, and reads them one after another. You may hear a short gap between pieces.
Privacy
Your text stays in the page. With offline voices, nothing leaves your device at all. Voices marked "online" are provided by the browser maker, and the browser may send the text to its own speech service to generate them. Pick a voice without "online" if that matters for your text.
Frequently asked questions
Is this text to speech tool free?
Why are there so few voices, or none in my language?
Can I download the speech as an MP3 file?
Why doesn't the word highlighting work?
Is my text sent to a server?
Last updated . How we check our tools.