What a text-to-speech tool does
Text to speech (TTS) turns written words into spoken audio using a synthetic voice. It is handy for listening to an article while you do chores, proofreading an email out loud before you hit send (your ear catches mistakes your eye skips), practising pronunciation in a new language, or making content accessible to people with low vision or dyslexia.
This tool relies on the speech engine already built into your browser, so nothing is installed and your text never leaves your device. Paste your text, pick a language and a voice, tweak the speed and pitch, and press Play.
Step by step
- Type or paste your text into the large box.
- Choose a language in the first dropdown. Only languages your system has voices for will appear.
- Choose the specific voice. Depending on your device you may see one or several per language (for example, male and female).
- Set the speed (0.5× to 2×) and the pitch with the sliders.
- Press Play. You can Pause and Resume at any time, or Stop to start over.
How it works under the hood
Your browser exposes the speechSynthesis interface from the Web Speech API. When you press Play, the tool builds a speech request with your text, attaches the chosen voice, speed and pitch, and hands it to the operating system’s voice engine. That is why the available voices are not decided by this page but by your browser and platform (Windows, macOS, Android or iOS), and why they can take a moment to load the first time.
| Setting | Range | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Speed (rate) | 0.5× – 2× | Words per minute: 1× is the natural pace |
| Pitch | 0 – 2 | Low to high; 1 is the neutral voice |
| Voice | System-provided | Language, accent and timbre |
Example
Say you paste the opening paragraph of a class assignment. You pick the English language, a female voice, lower the speed to 0.9× so you catch every word, and leave the pitch at 1. Pressing Play reads the whole passage aloud; you notice one sentence sounds clumsy when heard, fix it in the box, and replay just to confirm. In seconds you have done a review that silent reading would have missed.
Frequently asked questions
Why are no voices showing up?
Voices are supplied by your operating system and sometimes take a moment to load; wait a second or reload the page. If none ever appear, your browser may not ship default voices: Chrome and Edge on Windows usually include several, while some mobile browsers depend on the phone’s own voice packs.
Is my text sent over the internet?
No. Synthesis runs on your own device’s voice engine through local JavaScript. Your text is not sent to our servers or anyone else’s. You can prove it by switching to airplane mode: playback keeps working with the voices installed locally.
Can I download the audio as an MP3?
The Web Speech API plays sound but does not offer a standard downloadable file, so this tool does not produce an MP3. To save audio you would need a system recorder or a cloud TTS service, which would process your text on its servers.
Does it work on mobile?
Yes, on most modern phones running up-to-date Chrome or Safari. The voices and their quality differ between Android and iOS, and some phones ask you to install extra voice packs from the system’s accessibility settings.
Why does very long text stop partway?
Some browsers cap the length of a single utterance. If a long passage stops on its own, split it into paragraphs and play them in chunks; keeping the tab visible and active while it speaks also helps.