Text to Speech Reader
Hear text read aloud using the voices your device and browser provide, with adjustable speed, pitch and volume. Audio plays in the browser and cannot be downloaded.
Voices come from your operating system and browser, so the list differs between devices. Voices marked "online" send the text to the browser vendor's speech service. Audio plays in the browser only; it cannot be downloaded.
About the Text to Speech Reader
Paste or type some text, pick a voice and press Speak to hear it read aloud. You can pause, resume or stop at any time, and set the speed (0.5× to 2×), pitch and volume with the sliders or with quick presets such as Slow & Clear. Changes to the voice and sliders take effect the next time you press Speak.
The tool uses the speech synthesis feature built into your browser (part of the Web Speech API), so the voices come from your operating system and browser, not from FlexyPdf. A Windows laptop, a Mac, an Android phone and an iPhone each offer a different list, and some devices include voices for Hindi and other Indian languages while others don't. Voices marked "online" in the menu are generated by a cloud service, which means the text is sent to the browser vendor (for example, Google in Chrome) to produce the audio. Other voices run on your device.
Listening is a good way to proofread: your ear catches missing words and clumsy sentences that your eye skips over. It also helps when you would rather listen to a long email or article than read it. Long text is queued in sentence-sized pieces, because some browsers stop partway through a single very long passage. The audio plays only in the page; there is no option to download it as an MP3 or any other file. To go the other way and turn your voice into text, use Speech to Text.
How to use the Text to Speech Reader
- 1
Enter your text
Type or paste into the Enter Text box. The word count and an estimated listening time appear underneath.
- 2
Choose a voice
The Voice menu lists the voices your browser reports, grouped by language. Pick one that matches the language of your text.
- 3
Adjust speed, pitch and volume
Drag the sliders, or click a preset: Normal, Slow & Clear, Fast, Deep Voice or High Voice.
- 4
Press Speak
Use Pause, Resume and Stop while it reads. To hear new settings, press Stop and then Speak again.
What it can do
Your device's voices
Every voice the browser offers is listed by language, and cloud voices are marked "online".
Speed, pitch and volume
Speed from 0.5× to 2×, pitch from low to high, and volume from mute to full.
Pause, resume and stop
Pause and resume where you left off, or stop completely and start again from the beginning.
Long text support
Text is split at sentence boundaries into pieces of about 200 characters and queued, so long passages keep playing.
Listening time estimate
Based on roughly 150 words per minute at 1× speed, adjusted for the speed you choose.
Limitations
- There is no audio download: speech plays through your speakers only.
- The voices available, and how natural they sound, depend entirely on your operating system and browser. Some languages may have no voice at all on your device.
- Not every voice responds to every slider in the same way; how much the pitch and speed change depends on the voice.
- Pronunciation of names, abbreviations and numbers is decided by the voice, and you cannot add pronunciation hints.
- Pause and resume behave differently between browsers. If Resume doesn't continue, press Stop and then Speak.
Privacy
Your text is never sent to FlexyPdf. Voices that run on your device keep the text on it; voices marked "online" send the text to the browser vendor's speech service (for example, Google's in Chrome) to generate the audio.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download the speech as an MP3?
No. The browser's speech synthesis plays directly to your speakers and does not give web pages access to the audio, so there is nothing to save.
Why are the voices different on my phone and my laptop?
The voices belong to the operating system and browser, not to this website. Each platform ships its own set, and some browsers add their own cloud voices. The menu simply lists whatever your browser reports.
Is there a Hindi voice?
Only if your device or browser provides one. Look for a Hindi group in the Voice menu. If there isn't one, you can usually add a voice in your operating system's language or speech settings, then reload the page.
What does "online" next to a voice mean?
The browser reports that the voice is not a local one, so the speech is generated by the vendor's cloud service. Your text is sent to that service. Choose a voice without the label if you want the text to stay on your device.
Why does it read numbers or abbreviations oddly?
Each voice applies its own rules to numbers, dates and abbreviations. Writing them out in words, for example "Doctor" instead of "Dr.", usually gives a more natural result.
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