Text to Speech Tool

Paste any text and hear it read aloud using the voices built into your device and browser. Choose a voice and language, adjust the speed and pitch, and pause, resume or stop at any time. The tool shows how long the text will take to read and highlights the part being spoken. It works offline once the page has loaded, and the text is not sent to any server: speech is generated by your operating system.

Available voices depend on your device. Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and ChromeOS all include several, and many systems let you download more in their accessibility or speech settings.

Estimated time ≈ words ÷ (150 words per minute × speed)

The page uses the Web Speech API, a browser standard that passes text to the speech engine on your device. Long text is divided into sentence-sized parts and spoken one after another, because some browsers stop long passages partway through. At normal speed, speech engines read at roughly 150 words a minute, close to conversational speech.

A 1,200-word article takes about 8 minutes at normal speed and about 5 minutes at 1.5 times speed. Many people who listen regularly find 1.25 to 1.5 times comfortable once they are used to a voice.

• Proofreading: hearing your writing read back catches missing words, repetition and awkward sentences that the eye skips.
• Accessibility: people with dyslexia, low vision or reading fatigue can listen instead of read.
• Language learning: hear the pronunciation of words and phrases in another language by choosing a native voice for that language.
• Multitasking: listen to long emails, meeting notes, reports or articles while cooking, walking or doing something else.

Voice quality varies a lot between systems. On Windows, natural voices can be added under Settings, Time and language, Speech. On macOS and iOS, enhanced and premium voices are available in the Accessibility settings under Spoken Content. Android voices are managed in the text-to-speech settings. Chrome and Edge on desktop may also offer online voices supplied by the browser vendor; those send text to the vendor's service to generate speech, so choose an on-device voice if privacy matters.

Reading your own writing silently, your brain tends to see what you meant to write rather than what is on the page. Listening breaks that habit. As the voice reads, follow along with the text and note anywhere it stumbles: a missing word, a repeated phrase, a sentence so long the voice runs out of breath, or a homophone such as their and there in the wrong place. Slowing the speed to around 0.8 makes errors easier to catch, while a normal or faster speed is better for judging how the piece flows as a whole. Many professional editors use this technique as a final check before publishing.

Punctuation shapes how text sounds: commas and periods create pauses, so adding them can make lists and headings clearer. Spell out unusual abbreviations, since speech engines may read them letter by letter or guess a pronunciation that sounds wrong. If speech stops unexpectedly on a phone, keep the screen on and the page in front, because mobile browsers pause background audio from web pages.