Read anything aloud
Heart · US · Warm & natural — the portrait in the player opens the voice list.
Made for
Studying
Turn textbooks, lecture notes and research papers into audio you can follow while you walk or commute. Hearing a difficult passage read at 1× while the words light up is a different kind of attention than skimming it a fourth time.
Productivity
The report that landed at five, the contract, the notes from a meeting you missed. Upload the document or paste the part that matters and hear it in the downtime you already have: commuting, walking, waiting.
Proofreading your own writing
The oldest use for this and still the best. A missing word is invisible on the twentieth read and obvious the first time you hear it, because your ear does not autocorrect the way your eye does.
Audiobooks that were never made
Most EPUBs will never be recorded — out-of-print, self-published, or simply not commercial enough. Upload the file and it reads aloud like one that was.
Accessibility
Dyslexia, ADHD and low vision all make sustained reading expensive in a way that has nothing to do with comprehension. Listening removes the decoding cost and leaves the understanding.
Leisure reading
Articles, newsletters, essays — the reading you do because you want to rather than because you have to. Paste a link and it carries on while you cook, walk, or lie down with your eyes shut, which is more time than that reading usually gets.
Questions
What is text to speech?
Software that reads written words aloud. Modern systems use AI voices trained on recorded speech, so the result carries sentence rhythm and emphasis rather than sounding like the flat, syllable-by-syllable readers of twenty years ago.
Is this free?
Yes. There is no account, no card and no API key on this page — paste something and press play. Up to 8,000 characters a day, which is roughly a long article or a book chapter.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs in your browser. There is an optional Chrome extension for pressing play on any page you happen to be reading, but nothing here needs it.
Can I download the audio?
Not from this page. It plays the text back to you rather than producing a file to keep — this is a demo of the voices, not an export tool. If downloadable audio is what you need, it is worth saying so before you spend time here.
How much text can I convert?
Up to 1,000 characters per go and 8,000 a day. The daily figure resets each day and exists to keep the voices free for everyone rather than to push you toward a plan.
What voices can I choose from?
13 voices are included and play here with no key — a range of American and British, male and female. If you already pay OpenAI or xAI for an API key, a subscription lets you use their voices through your own key at their prices, with no markup from us.
Can I change the reading speed?
Yes, anywhere from 0.5× to 3×. Most people settle between 1.2× and 1.6× once the voice stops being novel.
Can it read PDFs and documents aloud?
Yes — PDF · EPUB · DOCX files up to 4MB here. A PDF opens in a reader with the words highlighted on the page as they are spoken, so you can follow the layout rather than a stripped-out transcript.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. It is a web page, so it works in a phone browser with no install. Playback continues while you scroll.
Do the voices sound natural or robotic?
Judge that yourself rather than taking the claim — that is what this page is for. Paste a paragraph of your own writing, not a sample chosen to flatter the voice, and listen to how it handles a comma and the end of a sentence.
Want this over your whole reading pile, with your place kept between sessions? See what AllReads does.