How to use text to speech
- Type or paste your text into Text to read aloud, or press Sample text to try it out. The character counter below the box shows how long the text is.
- Choose a Language, then a Voice. The list shows the voices your device and browser offer; the page picks one that matches your language to start with. Voices marked (online) are network voices (see privacy below); switch on Show on-device voices only to hide them.
- Set the Speed (0.5× to 2×), Pitch and Volume. Reset speed, pitch and volume puts them back to normal.
- Press Play (or Ctrl+Enter). The text is shown with the current sentence shaded and the word being spoken highlighted. Press Pause and Resume to carry on from the same word, or Stop (Esc) to end and edit the text again.
- To read only part of the text, choose Start reading from: The cursor or selection. Click where you want to start, or select a passage, and press Play. After Stop, the cursor is left on the last word read, so Play continues from there.
Your voice, speed, pitch and volume are remembered for next time. Changing any of them while the text is being read takes effect from the current word.
How browser text to speech works
This tool uses the speech synthesis part of the Web Speech API, which is built into modern browsers. The page hands your text to the browser together with the chosen voice, speed and pitch, and the browser's speech engine turns it into sound. There is no server of ours involved: the page itself does not send your text anywhere.
The voices are not part of this website. They come from your operating system (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux) or from the browser itself, which is why the list looks different on a phone, a laptop and a work computer, and why some languages may be missing. Some browsers add online voices that are generated by the browser or system vendor's speech service; the browser reports these as not local, and they are marked (online) here. When the browser does not say, the tool tells you so.
Long texts are read in short parts, sentence by sentence, with very long sentences split at commas or spaces. Some engines stop speaking after about 15 seconds of a single long utterance or cut the end off, and reading in parts avoids that. While a voice speaks, it can report the position of each word; the tool uses this to highlight the word. Not every voice does this (many online voices don't), so with those voices the current sentence is highlighted instead and a note says so.
Tips for natural-sounding speech
- Punctuation sets the pauses. Full stops, commas and line breaks make the voice pause, so add them where a listener needs a breath.
- Try several voices. Quality varies a lot between voices on the same device. Newer, larger voices often sound more natural, and on some systems you can download better ones in the speech or accessibility settings.
- Match the voice to the language of the text. An English voice reading French will mispronounce almost everything.
- Adjust the speed to the task. Around 0.8× to 0.9× helps when following a foreign language or proofreading carefully; 1.2× to 1.5× suits skimming a familiar text.
What people use it for
Proofreading: hearing your own writing read back is one of the easiest ways to catch missing words, repeated words and sentences that are too long, because your eyes tend to skip what your ears do not. Check the length with the word counter first if you are working to a limit. Language learning: listen to a sentence in the target language at a slower speed while following the highlighted words. Reading support: listening while reading along can make long or dense texts easier to get through, which many people with dyslexia or tired eyes find helpful; it is a convenience, not a treatment. Accessibility and rest: have an article read to you while you look away from the screen. Text inside a photo or scan can be pulled out first with the image to text converter and then read aloud here, and the typing test is a good companion for writing practice.
Limits
There is no audio file to download: browsers play speech synthesis directly to the speakers and do not give web pages the audio, so this tool cannot save an MP3 or WAV. Voices, languages and word highlighting depend on your device and browser. Pronunciation of names, abbreviations and numbers is up to the voice, and some engines read symbols, emoji or URLs character by character. To check that sound is coming out of both speakers, use the speaker test.
Privacy
Your text is processed by your browser's speech engine and is never sent to toolsforanyone.com. With on-device voices the speech is generated on your device. With online voices (marked (online)), the browser may send the text to its vendor's speech service to generate the audio, under that vendor's privacy terms; use on-device voices for anything confidential. This browser's local storage keeps your settings (voice, language filter, speed, pitch, volume and the start position). Your text is stored only if you switch on Remember my text in this browser, and switching it off deletes it.
Frequently asked questions
Is this text to speech free?
Yes. It is free with no sign-up and no character limit, because the speech is generated by your own browser and device rather than a paid service.
Can I download the audio as an MP3?
Not with browser voices. The browser plays the speech directly and does not let web pages capture it, so no file can be created here. If you need a recording, some operating systems include their own tools for saving spoken text or recording the computer's sound output; check your system's accessibility or audio settings.
Why are there no voices for my language?
The voices belong to your device and browser, not to this page. If your language is missing, look for a speech or text-to-speech section in your operating system's language or accessibility settings and add a voice there, then reload this page. A different browser on the same device may also offer other voices.
Does it work offline?
Once the page has loaded, on-device voices keep working without an internet connection. Voices marked (online) need a connection and stop working offline.
Which browsers support text to speech?
Speech synthesis works in current versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on computers, and in the main browsers on Android and iPhone. The number of voices, the quality and whether words are highlighted differ between them. On Linux, Firefox and Chromium may need speech packages installed before any voice appears.
Why does the reading stop or skip on my phone?
Phones often pause speech when the screen locks or you switch to another app. Keep the page open with the screen on. If a voice still stops, try an on-device voice or a shorter text.
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