Text to Speech

Hear text read aloud using voices provided by your browser and operating system — handy for proofreading and accessibility checks.

Who this is for

Anyone who would rather hear text than read it: proofreading a piece of writing by ear, where clumsy sentences give themselves away far faster than they do on the page; checking how a name or a phrase will sound when read aloud; or listening to an article while doing something else. It also serves as a rough accessibility check — text that is painful to listen to is usually text that is hard to read.

How to use Text to Speech

1. Paste or type the text you want spoken.
2. Choose a voice and adjust speed if the browser lists options.
3. Press play and listen.
4. Pause or stop using the controls when finished.

Worked examples

Example 1. Paste a paragraph you wrote and listen for awkward phrasing.

Example 2. Slow the rate for careful proofreading.

Example 3. Switch voices if multiple languages are installed on the device.

Where voices come from

Speech synthesis voices are supplied by the browser/OS, not hosted as a custom ToolsAre.Us voice library. Quality and languages vary by device.

Where the voices come from

This page uses the speech synthesis engine built into your browser, which in turn draws on the voices installed in your operating system. Nothing is generated on a server and no audio is produced by this site, which is why the text you enter never leaves your device — and also why the available voices differ from one computer to the next. Windows, macOS, Android and iOS all ship different sets, and some browsers expose additional network-backed voices from their own vendor.

The practical consequence is that this tool cannot promise a particular voice. If you need output that sounds identical for everyone who hears it, record the audio once rather than expecting each listener's device to reproduce it. If you want more or better voices, they are installed through your operating system's language or accessibility settings, and they appear here automatically once added.

Common mistakes

Expecting the same voices on every device. The voices come from your browser and operating system, not from this site, so a colleague on a different machine will hear a different set — and some devices ship with only one. Pasting an entire document at once is the second: long passages are better broken into sections, since pausing and resuming mid-way through a very long block is unreliable across browsers. The third is expecting correct pronunciation of unusual names and technical terms, which system voices routinely get wrong.

Tips

Use Insert sample first to hear what a voice sounds like before committing a long passage to it — the voices vary far more in quality than their names suggest. For proofreading, listen with your eyes off the screen; the whole benefit comes from the ear catching what the eye has learned to skip over. If a word is mispronounced and it matters, spelling it phonetically in the input will usually fix it without changing your actual document.

Accessibility notes

All controls are standard buttons and reachable by keyboard. Playback state is conveyed in text rather than by icon alone, so it is clear whether speech is running, paused or stopped. Note that this tool uses the same speech engine as your operating system, so anyone already using a screen reader has a more capable version of this available system-wide — this page is aimed at occasional listening rather than at replacing assistive software.

Limitations (honest)

• Voice quality depends on what is installed locally.
• Long text may be split by the speech engine.
• Some browsers limit simultaneous speech or background playback.
• Requires JavaScript in a modern browser.

Privacy

The text you enter is passed to the speech engine built into your browser and operating system, and is not sent to this site. No audio is produced or stored on our servers. Whether your device's own voices work locally or call out to their vendor depends on the browser and voice you pick, which is outside this page's control. Advertising cookies and the choices available to you are covered in the Privacy Policy and in the consent notice shown on your first visit.

Related tools on ToolsAre.Us

The Speech to Text tool does the reverse, turning dictation into a transcript. For measuring a passage before you read it aloud, the Word Counter estimates speaking time as well as reading time, and the Notepad is a better place to draft the text first. The full tool list is on the home page.

FAQ

More help: Text to Speech FAQ · All tools · Contact · About