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What is text-to-speech technology (TTS)?

By The Understood Team

Expert reviewed by Jamie Martin

At a glance

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology reads aloud digital text — the words on computers, smartphones, and tablets.

TTS can help people who struggle with reading.

There are TTS tools available for nearly every digital device.

Text-to-speech (TTS) is a type of assistive technology that reads digital text aloud. It’s sometimes called “read aloud” technology.

With a click of a button or the touch of a finger, TTS can take words on a computer or other digital device and convert them into audio. TTS is very helpful for kids and adults who struggle with reading. But it can also help with writing and editing, and even with focusing.

TTS works with nearly every personal digital device, including computers, smartphones, and tablets. All kinds of text files can be read aloud, including Word and Pages documents. Even online web pages can be read aloud.

Dive deeper

How does text-to-speech work.

The voice in TTS is computer-generated, and reading speed can usually be sped up or slowed down. 

Many TTS tools highlight words as they are read aloud. This allows the user to see text and hear it at the same time.

Some TTS tools can also read text aloud from images. For example, a user could take a photo of a street sign on their phone and have the words on the sign turned into audio.

Learn about the different types of TTS built into mobile devices.

The connection to audiobooks

You might be wondering what the connection is between TTS and audiobooks.

TTS is a tool that reads text aloud. An audiobook is a recording of a book read by a human voice (or created by TTS). Sometimes, people say TTS or audiobooks to mean the same thing.

Learn about how your child may be eligible for free audiobooks .

Types of text-to-speech tools

There are many different TTS tools:

Built-in text-to-speech: Many devices have built-in TTS tools . This includes desktop and laptop computers, smartphones, digital tablets, and Chromebooks. 

Web-based tools: Some websites have TTS tools on-site. 

Text-to-speech apps: Users can download TTS apps on smartphones and digital tablets. There are also TTS tools that can be added to web browsers, like Chrome .

Text-to-speech software programs: Many literacy software programs for desktop and laptop computers have TTS.

Find a list of free online assistive technology tools .

How text-to-speech can help kids

Print materials in school — like books and handouts — can create barriers for kids with reading challenges. That’s because some kids struggle with decoding and understanding words on the page. Using digital text with TTS can help.

Since TTS lets kids both see and hear text when reading, it creates a multisensory reading experience. And like audiobooks, TTS won’t slow down the development of kids’ reading skills.

Learn more about how TTS and audiobooks can help with learning to read .

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The 7 Best Text-to-Speech Apps for Android

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Every Android user should keep a text-to-speech app handy. You don't need to have a vision impairment to enjoy the benefits. For example, they'll let you listen to the news on your morning commute, catch up with new text messages in bed, or even enjoy your favorite eBooks without looking at the screen.

But which Android text-to-speech apps are the best? Keep reading to find out.

1. Android's Native Text-to-Speech Feature

Android has lots of accessibility tools that make a phone easier to use. One of the tools is a native text-to-speech function. The feature has fewer customizable settings than some of its competitors, but you can adjust the speech rate and pitch and install additional languages.

To change the text-to-speech settings, head to Settings > Accessibility > Text-to-speech output .

Android's text-to-speech feature automatically works with other Google apps that offer a read-aloud feature. For all other apps, you'll need to enable Select to Speak in Android's settings menu, which you'll find at Settings > Accessibility > Select to Speak . To use it, select text in any app and choose Speak from the popup menu.

If you only want basic text-to-speech functionality, you can stop here. The other options are only worth exploring if you need more features.

2. Voice Aloud Reader

Voice Aloud Reader is easy to use and supports a few different ways of reading text. If the app from which you want to read text has a share feature, just send the content to Voice Aloud Reader using the native Android Share menu . This also works for on-screen items that have their own share buttons, like tweets and Facebook posts.

Similarly, if the text you want to read is selectable, you can use the Share button in the popup context menu.

The app also works with URLs. Just paste the site's (or article's) address into Voice Aloud Reader, and it will automatically parse and read the relevant text for you. It's intelligent enough to strip out the menus and other junk. You can even add text files (like DOC and PDF) directly into the app; it can open the files and read their contents.

Download: Voice Aloud Reader (Free)

3. Narrator's Voice

Narrator's Voice offers something a bit different. The usual features are here: it is an app that reads text from apps, the web, messages, and other sources.

However, the app also has a fun side. You can add various sound effects to the speech synthesis, such as echo, reverb, gargle, and choir. It features a wide selection of voices to choose from. Some tech favorites like Cortana and Siri are present, as are some of the developer's own creations like "Steven" and "Pink Sheep" (don't ask).

Additionally, Narrator's Voice lets you add your own text, which it will then run through its synthesizer. It makes the app a great way to add a voiceover to video narrations, slideshow presentations, and more. You can even save your audio output file as an MP3, store it offline, and share it with friends.

An in-app purchase removes the ads.

Download: Narrator's Voice (Free, in-app purchases available)

Talk takes a more minimal approach than Voice Aloud Reader and Narrator's Voice, but it is still one of the best free text-to-speech apps for Android. The app can import web pages directly from your phone's browser or read the text from other third-party apps. You can export all the audio files and save them offline in the WAV format.

It's important to note that Talk Free relies on your phone's pre-existing text-to-speech (TTS) engine to work. Most Android devices will already have Google's engine installed. If you have deleted your phone's TTS engine, you can re-download Speech Recognition & Synthesis free from the Play Store.

The benefit of using Google's TTS engine is its support for lots of languages. If Google offers the language, Talk can generally work with it.

Download: Talk (Free)

T2S is a text-to-speech app that offers one of the most modern interfaces out of the apps we've discussed so far.

The app's standout feature is the presence of a simple built-in web browser. It's not going to win any awards for the number of features it offers, but it lets you easily listen to web pages without worrying about copying and pasting URLs or using the Share menu.

T2S's copy-to-speak feature is also worth mentioning. It shows an on-screen popup button whenever you copy text into other apps. Pressing the button will make the app start reading the copied text instantly. As with the other apps on this list, T2S lets you save your audio readouts and share them with other people. The pro version removes ads.

Download: T2S (Free, in-app purchases available)

6. NaturalReader

With AI being all the buzz, we ought to include an AI-powered solution to this list. NaturalReader offers almost 150 AI voices in different languages and over 25 dialects so that you can customize your text-to-speech experience to your liking.

The app can run in the background, so you can use other apps while listening to content. Moreover, it supports over 20 document formats, including PDF, DOCX, and eBook formats.

Other than the usual text-to-speech features, you can also use NaturalReader to detect and read text from images. This feature can come in super handy if you deal with a lot of scanned documents.

This feature is not perfect yet, but it works. If you're not satisfied with the built-in image-to-text functionality, you can convert images to text using OCR apps and then use NaturalReader for text-to-speech.

Download: NaturalReader (Free, in-app purchases available)

We'll leave you with a slightly left-field choice: Pocket. You probably already know it as one of the best apps to save articles to read later when you're offline.

You may not know, however, that Pocket also has a text-to-speech reader. The feature supports multiple voices and languages and includes adjustable pitch and speed. It even supports background playback, meaning you can keep listening while you use other apps.

Because the text-to-speech reader is one of Pocket's native features, it's great when you want to listen to some long-form content on a journey when you are without the internet. Obviously, if you want to listen to text from all your apps, this isn't the right choice for you.

Download: Pocket (Free, premium version available)

The Top Text-to-Voice Apps

Hopefully, you now appreciate the benefits of keeping a text-to-speech app installed on your Android device. Once you become more familiar with their use, you'll start to rely on the apps a lot more. Don't believe us? Try a couple, stick with them for a week or two, and thank us later!

There's also an opposite way of communicating with your Android device, that is, speech-to-text. Such apps are particularly great for note-taking.

• Android Apps
• Android Tips

A guide to text-to-speech, the popular accessibility feature that lets your computer, phone, or tablet read to you

• Text-to-speech (TTS) is a popular feature that lets your computer or phone read text aloud to you.
• Text-to-speech is commonly used as an accessibility feature to help people who have trouble reading on-screen text, but it's also convenient for those who want to be read to.
• You can find text-to-speech features in many places today, including ebook readers, word processors, internet browsers, and more. 
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories .

Text-to-speech , sometimes abbreviated as TTS, is a feature on your computer or phone that reads on-screen text aloud to you. 

Depending on how it's used, text-to-speech can be a convenience feature, or an accessibility feature that helps people who need additional assistance to hear text that's printed on-screen. 

Though TTS systems rely on a computerized voice speaking to you, in recent years these voices have become much more natural sounding. Many modern TTS voices are almost indistinguishable from humans, and some even incorporate natural human inflections to make them sound more lifelike. 

The most common uses of text-to-speech

Text-to-speech has become so ubiquitous that many people encounter it every day, often without even realizing it. Here are some of the most common examples of TTS in use today.

Smart speakers and virtual assistants

The place we see text-to-speech most often is with smart assistants, like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri.

When you ask these assistants a question, they read to you from a predetermined library of words and phrases. These systems couldn't function without TTS technology.

Ebook Readers

Most popular ebook readers, including all new Kindle Fire devices, have a text-to-speech option. This also includes online readers, like the Internet Archive.

When buying an ebook for your Kindle Fire, you can check whether or not it can be read aloud by looking for the "Text-to-Speech: Enabled" label on its details page before you buy it.

Mapping software

Mapping and navigation apps like Google Maps and Apple Maps are designed to automatically read turn-by-turn directions aloud using text-to-speech technology. 

Word processors

Some word processors have the ability to read contents aloud. Microsoft Word, for example, has a "Read Aloud" feature in the "Review" menu. When you select it, Word will read the current document aloud.

Google Docs has its own text-to-speech functions, but you'll need an add-on to use them .

Computer and phone operating systems

No matter what type of computer or smartphone you have, it has accessibility features that can read on-screen elements to you.

In Windows, you can turn on Narrator in the "Ease of Access" settings menu, while Mac users can enable VoiceOver using the "Accessibility" panel. 

iPhone users can find VoiceOver in the Accessibility section of Settings. Android users can download a host of TTS apps, or enable the built-in Google Text-to-Speech app through the "Language & Input" menu.

Related coverage from  Tech Reference :

How to use text-to-speech on discord, and have the desktop app read your messages aloud, how to use google text-to-speech on your android phone to hear text instead of reading it, how to activate voice controls on your android device, and make google searches or open apps with your voice, how to turn narrator on or off on a windows 10 computer, for an accessibility feature that reads text aloud, how to enable led flash notifications on your iphone, for visual notifications using accessibility features.

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Create Your Course

The best text to speech tools in 2024 (free & paid), share this article.

Thanks to incredible advancements in AI technology, text to speech software in 2023 is now sounding less and less like a robot – and more like a human reader.

This is great news for any Creator Educators looking to make their content creation process more efficient, without compromising on quality.

Text to speech apps can take your content from dull to dynamic in just one step, helping to transform boring text into natural-sounding audio that improves accessibility, productivity and engagement for learners.

Use text to speech software to open up new revenue streams for your business by transforming your existing content into videos and audio, as well as helping to make your content accessible for everyone. With these tools, you can create professional-sounding audio content in a fraction of the time you’d spend recording yourself. It’s a win-win!

Here’s our top list of the best text to speech software to help grow your business in 2023.

Click the links below to skip ahead:

• Standard TTS vs Neural TTS

The best text to speech software in 2023

Amazon polly, google cloud text-to-speech, microsoft azure speech, natural reader, voiceovermaker, why use text to speech software.

If you’re a Creator Educator looking to convert your text content into audio for videos, audiobooks, social media and more, it’s time to find text to speech software for your business.

Here are some of the top use cases for businesses:

• Enhance accessibility: Use text to speech software across all your content to boost accessibility for all learners and customers
• Convert education content to audio: Make your educational content accessible for learners who are visually impaired, dyslexic, or who learn better with audio
• Add voiceovers to presentations: Bring your content alive by adding professional voiceovers to slides and animations
• Create audiobooks: Open up a new revenue stream by capturing sales from learners who prefer to listen rather than read
• Make content more engaging: Enhance your existing content with more video elements to improve the learner experience
• Repurpose blogs: Turn blog content into narration for engaging videos on YouTube, social media, and more

Turn text into speech to instantly repurpose your existing content into new formats and make sure your content is accessible to all.

Standard TTS vs. Neural TTS

Before diving into the world of text to speech, here’s a quick look at the difference between standard and neural text to speech tools.

• Standard TTS is the older approach to text to speech software. If you think of artificial, stiff-sounding text to speech audio, you’re thinking of standard TTS.
• Neural TTS draws on neural network technology or AI to generate more natural-sounding, humalike speech. Don’t let that creep you out, though – neural TTS can create truly lifelike and listenable audio that cuts out a major chunk of time for businesses and creators, helping you reach more people with your content.

Check out these best text to speech apps in 2023 to create stunning audio content – while saving you essential time and energy.

Best paid text to speech software

The best all-round cloud-based text to speech software for Creator Educators

Pricing Options

• Standard TTS: Up to 5 million characters per month for 12 months
• Neural TTS: Up to 1 million characters per month for 12 months
• Standard TTS: $4 per 5 million characters
• Neural TTS: $16 per 1 million characters

Reasons to buy

• Choose from 100+ voices across 36 languages
• Stream converted speech audio on the go, without downloading files
• Use Speech Marks to sync text and audio

Consistently ranked by users as the best option for text to speech software, Amazon Polly is one of the best TTS tools for generating natural-sounding audio content. Thanks to advanced AI and deep learning technology, Amazon Polly helps creators get high-quality, human-like audio that can be rolled out to a global audience. Choose from both standard and neural services to create your audio – and since it’s pay-as-you-go, there’s no need to worry about subscription fees draining your bank account when it’s not being used. 

Amazon Polly also includes the handy Speech Marks feature, a tool that allows you to match your AI-generated audio with text so learners can follow along with your voiceover. 

Try Amazon Polly

The best alternative with wide range of voices and languages to choose from

• 60 minutes per month
• Standard TTS: $4 per 4 million characters
• 380+ voices in 50+ languages and variants
• Personalize pitch with 20 semitones
• Option to create a one-of-a-kind voice

As a close competitor to Amazon Polly, Google Cloud Text-to-Speech offers a comprehensive range of features as part of its text to speech software that lets you customize and control every aspect of your audio. Use voice tuning to personalize the pitch of your selected voice and use SSML tags to add pauses, numbers, and other pronunciation notes to create content that flows.

Google’s text to speech software makes use of their DeepMind speech synthesis expertise to deliver over 380 human-quality voices across a wide range of languages – ideal for tapping into a global audience with your content. Google’s TTS tool also has a custom voice generator that lets you create a unique voice for your brand – that no one else can use.

Try Google Text-to-Speech

The best choice for better data security and compliance

• Neural TTS: Up to 0.5 million characters per month
• Standard TTS: 5 audio hours per month
• Custom TTS: $24 per 1 million characters
• Better data security and privacy than other TTS apps
• Zero code options available
• Create and adapt custom voices for your brand

Take advantage of Microsoft’s AI-driven text to speech software and use their wide range of in-built features to help your content stand out from the crowd. Build your own custom voice and choose between different emotions and speaking styles to craft the perfect personality for your brand. This tool is also ideal for adapting your speech content to different use cases like customer support chatbots and educational content. Their no code tools also mean you don’t need to be a tech expert to take advantage of their top features.  

There’s good news if you’re concerned about data security too – Microsoft’s text to speech tool comes in top for security and compliance. You don’t need to worry about speech inputs being logged during processing and you can breathe easier knowing Microsoft invests heavily in cybersecurity and privacy.

Try Azure Speech Services

The best choice for AI-powered video voiceovers

• Up to 10 mins of voice generation per month
• Starting at $39/month for 4 hours of voice generation per user/month
• Create AI video voiceovers in minutes
• 120+ voices in 20+ languages
• Convert home recordings to professional voiceovers

Specially tailored to video voiceovers, Murf offers text to speech software that lets users create studio-quality audio in minutes. Murf has a wide range of AI-voices to suit every context, with categories ranging from Educator to Corporate Coach to Educator to Marketer and more. Use Murf to convert any text to speech or to turn your home-recorded audio into professional, studio-quality content that’s ideal for videos, podcasts, presentations, and more.

Murf’s in-built video editor lets you add images, music and videos to your audio so you don’t need to switch between multiple platforms and apps to create your content. You can also tweak your AI voiceover to add different pitches, emphasis, and interjections. If you want to add more users and collaborate with multiple members of your team or across different organizations, opt for Murf’s Enterprise plan.

The best stripped-down text to speech software for creators who want simplicity

• 20 minutes of voice per day
• Starting at $9.99/month for personal use
• Starting at $49/month for commercial use

Reasons to Buy

• Over 100 voices on paid plans
• Works on mobile devices for editing on-the-go
• Supports multiple text formats and includes OCR scanning

Designed for small businesses and Fortune 500 companies alike, Natural Reader is known for being extra user-friendly. With a simple user interface and pricing packages free of API frills, Natural Reader is a top choice for generating audio for YouTube videos, social media and education purposes. Simply paste your text into the text to speech tool and export the audio file – it’s instant and code-free.

If you want to make your voiceovers more engaging, experiment with adding extra emotions and effects in the app and use the studio editor to easily alter your audio without switching platforms. There’s one key drawback to note though – thanks to its usability, Natural Voice is popular with YouTube creators so you run the risk of choosing a voice option that’s been heard many times before.

Try Natural Reader

The best for creating multilingual voiceover content fast

• Up to 800 characters per month
• Starting from 9€/month (approx $9 USD/month) for 60,000 characters
• Built-in easy-to-use video editor
• Automatic translation into 30 languages
• Uses Google’s WaveNet technology

If you’re just getting started with video, VoiceOverMaker is a quick and easy text to speech tool to help you get realistic-sounding audio content for your videos. The service uses Google’s neural WaveNet technology to create humanlike voices – and gives you a single, cloud-based app to edit your voice track and videos together. The software includes useful features like automatic translation, background music, and a built-in screen recorder tool. Plus, take advantage of VoiceOverMaker’s pay-as-you-go pricing to keep costs to a minimum.

Try VoiceOverMaker

Best free text to speech software

The best option for free text to speech software for commercial use

• 10,000 characters per month
• Starting from $19/month for 1,000,000 characters

Reasons to use

• Higher character limit than competitors
• Download audio as mp3 in seconds
• Powered by Google machine learning

With no registration or sign-up required, you can start using FreeTTS immediately to convert up to 10,000 characters each month – and it’s completely free! FreeTTS prides itself on being super fast, helping Creator Educators easily convert scripts into mp3 audio files in seconds, so it’s ideal for producing video voiceovers quickly and efficiently. FreeTTS uses Google’s machine learning technology to deliver decent quality results across 50+ languages and the free version is suitable even for commercial use – but it’s important to note that you can only convert 500 characters of text at a time, so it’s best for short videos.

Try FreeTTS

Straightforward, free text to speech software with mobile app

• Unlimited text reading for personal use
• $2/month for commercial use
• Straightforward, no frills tool
• Upload files, PDFs, ebooks,and more
• Use online or download the iOS and Android app

On the surface, the TTSReader free text to speech software may look dated, but their free tool includes an impressive range of features. The TTSReader tool is about as utilitarian as it gets – it’s pared back but powerful, accepting a wide variety of file types that can be converted into simple audio files to listen to in your browser or save for later. The free version supports multiple languages and includes basic editing tools too. To unlock more features, you’ll need to purchase the premium plan – but at just $2 per month it won’t break the bank.

Try TTSReader

Use these top text to speech tools to engage your audience

Once you’ve started using text to speech software, there’s no going back. It’s so easy, efficient, and delivers impressive results – especially thanks to the range of new AI-driven tools on offer. To help you find the best text to speech apps for your needs, take advantage of the free plans and tools in this list and take some time to experiment with different options. Don’t forget, you can even create a unique voice for your brand!

If you’re a Creator Educator looking to earn more from your content, try Thinkific for free .

This post was originally created in 2022, it’s since been updated in June 2023.

Colin is a Content Marketer at Thinkific, writing about everything from online entrepreneurship & course creation to digital marketing strategy.

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What Is Text-to-Speech (TTS)?

Time to read: 4 minutes

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A thought is only as useful as how you express it. One way people express their ideas is through text: ideas made readable. Whether with feather pens and parchment or through today’s instant SMS messages, text has always been a powerful documentation and communication tool.

Another way to give life to ideas is through speech: ideas made listenable. For a time, the human voice was the only way to facilitate speech. But today, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) enable devices and applications to replicate a human voice’s unique tones.

Text-to-speech (TTS) and the meaning of TTS technology is as simple as it sounds: technology that reads text aloud with an automated voice. Many devices and applications today offer TTS. It’s useful for listeners with visual impairment or language-based learning disabilities and can increase efficiency by allowing employees to multitask. In other words, TTS is a powerful productivity tool for organizations everywhere.

Here, we’ll cover how text-to-speech works, TTS tool types, and 3 ways TTS can benefit your business.

How does text-to-speech work?

Reading and inputting text are the most common ways users interact with applications and services on text-to-speech devices, such as desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets. If a Word doc, SMS message box, or web browser offers TTS capabilities, users can press a button or vocalize a command to convert text into computer-generated speech.

Some TTS technology tools allow the user to customize aspects of the program’s voice like:

• Reading speed

Other TTS technology offers multiple premade voices or reads in a distinctive voice—like Apple’s Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and the TikTok caption reader. Some photo applications also use a technology called optical character recognition to read aloud text found in images or video.

Types of TTS tools

Programs and services have myriad uses for TTS technology. As such, there are many different TTS tool types available on the market. In this section, we’ll explore some of the most commonly used types of TTS tools:

• TTS tools for operating systems (our friend, Siri, for instance) convert written text into spoken words across many types of digital content.
• TTS tools for applications add functionality to improve the user experience and expand accessibility. For instance, e-reader apps, like Amazon Kindle or Google Play Books, offer TTS that reads many digital books aloud.
• TTS applications like NaturalReader and Narrator’s Voice convert inputted text into automated speech with added features like pitch shifting, language translation, gender swapping, and audio file conversions to download and share.
• TTS tools for the web can read aloud text found throughout a website—serving as a virtual assistant for a person with visual impairment or translating a video’s speech into a different language, for instance. Companies can pay for this service to enhance website accessibility or individual users may opt for a similar service provided by companies like Google.

As you can see, there’s no one size fits all with TTS. You can choose one or more TTS tools depending on what makes the most sense for your organization. Next, we’ll get into specific use cases to help you narrow down the best solution.

Business use cases for TTS

Text-to-speech helps businesses create more engaging and accessible content that meets the needs of customers and employees alike. Here are 3 of the most common business use cases for TTS:

1. Multitasking

Say a colleague sends an SMS message containing the information you need for today’s big meeting, but you’re on the go. Messages are difficult to read while walking—especially through crowded spaces—and unsafe to read while driving. But stopping to read the message is cumbersome and time-consuming. What do you do?

Text-to-speech lets you pay attention to your primary task—like commuting, writing, or sketching—while listening to text converted into speech from your device. This empowers you to be safer and more aware of your surroundings without sacrificing productivity.

2. Visual impairments

People with visual impairments may struggle or be unable to read a device’s text. Others with eyestrain or computer vision discomfort may find exposure to screens uncomfortable. With text-to-speech, they can listen to text rather than burden themselves to read it.

Of course, screen visibility issues can impact everyone. For instance, when glares hinder a reader’s ability to read from their mobile device outside, TTS can vocalize on-screen text so they don’t have to find shade or increase the screen brightness. TTS, therefore, helps people make the most of their devices.

3. Translations

Language barriers can slow or halt business meetings, presentations, and day-to-day operations. For instance, when an organization’s international branch sends a document written in its native language, it can be costly and time-consuming to translate that business-crucial content.

Today, text-to-speech enables fast translation of foreign text into live speech that single receivers and groups alike can hear and understand. This streamlines your workflows by allowing your organization to focus less on logistical challenges from language barriers and more on initiatives that drive business growth. TTS can also help you deliver digital presentations to diverse stakeholders all around the world.

Connect to wider audiences with text-to-speech from Twilio

With insights into the value of text-to-speech powered by AI and deep learning, you can deploy text-to-speech technology across your voice services to customize and improve customers’ interactions with your team. But first, you need the capability to make high-quality, private connections through global carriers—all while securing customer and company data to improve your caller reputation.

Twilio’s Programmable Voice API helps you build a compelling and scalable voice experience for customers. You can also customize your text-to-speech solutions with add-on features like interactive voice response and speech recognition to make short work of everyday tasks. Try it for free now.

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Best free text-to-speech software of 2024

Find the best free text-to-speech software for free text to voice conversion

• Best overall
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• Best for beginners
• Best Microsoft extension
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• How we test

The best free text-to-speech software makes it simple and easy to improve accessibility and productivity in your workflows.

1. Best overall 2. Best custom voice 3. Best for beginners 4. Best Microsoft extension 5. Best website reader 6. FAQs 7. How we test

In the digital era, the need for effective communication tools has led to a surge in the popularity of text-to-speech (TTS) software, and finding the best free text-to-speech software is essential for a variety of users, regardless of budget constraints. 

Text-to-speech software skillfully converts written text into spoken words using advanced technology, though often without grasping the context of the content. The best text-to-speech software not only accomplishes this task but also offers a selection of natural-sounding voices, catering to different preferences and project needs.

This technology is invaluable for creating accessible content, enhancing workplace productivity, adding voice-overs to videos, or simply assisting in proofreading by vocalizing written work. While many of today’s best free word processors , such as Google Docs, include basic TTS features that are accurate and continually improving, they may not meet all needs.

Stand-alone, app-based TTS tools, which should not be confused with the best speech-to-text apps , often have limitations compared to more comprehensive, free text-to-speech software. For instance, some might not allow the downloading of audio files, a feature crucial for creating content for platforms like YouTube and social media.

In our quest to identify the best free text-to-speech software, we have meticulously tested various options, assessing them based on user experience, performance, and output quality. Our guide aims to help you find the right text-to-speech tool, whatever your specific needs might be.

The best free text-to-speech software of 2024 in full:

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The best free text-to-speech software overall

1. Natural Reader

Our expert review:

Reasons to buy

Reasons to avoid.

Natural Reader offers one of the best free text-to-speech software experiences, thanks to an easy-going interface and stellar results. It even features online and desktop versions. 

You'll find plenty of user options and customizations. The first is to load documents into its library and have them read aloud from there. This is a neat way to manage multiple files, and the number of supported file types is impressive, including eBook formats. There's also OCR, which enables you to load up a photo or scan of text, and have it spoken to you.

The second option takes the form of a floating toolbar. In this mode, you can highlight text in any application and use the toolbar controls to start and customize text-to-speech. This means you can very easily use the feature in your web browser, word processor and a range of other programs. There's also a browser extension to convert web content to speech more easily.

The TTS tool is available free, with three additional upgrades with more advanced features for power-users and professionals.

Read our full Natural Reader review .

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The best free custom-voice text-to-speech software

2. Balabolka

There are a couple of ways to use Balabolka's top free text-to-speech software. You can either copy and paste text into the program, or you can open a number of supported file formats (including DOC, PDF, and HTML) in the program directly. 

In terms of output, you can use SAPI 4 complete with eight different voices to choose from, SAPI 5 with two, or the Microsoft Speech Platform. Whichever route you choose, you can adjust the speech, pitch and volume of playback to create a custom voice.

In addition to reading words aloud, this free text-to-speech software can also save narrations as audio files in a range of formats including MP3 and WAV. For lengthy documents, you can create bookmarks to make it easy to jump back to a specific location and there are excellent tools on hand to help you to customize the pronunciation of words to your liking.

With all these features to make life easier when reading text on a screen isn't an option, Balabolka is the best free text-to-speech software around.

For more help using Balabolka, see out guide on how to convert text to speech using this free software.

The best free text-to-speech software for beginners

3. Panopreter Basic

Panopreter Basic is the best free text-to-speech software if you’re looking for something simple, streamlined, no-frills, and hassle-free. 

It accepts plain and rich text files, web pages and Microsoft Word documents as input, and exports the resulting sound in both WAV and MP3 format (the two files are saved in the same location, with the same name).

The default settings work well for quick tasks, but spend a little time exploring Panopreter Basic's Settings menu and you'll find options to change the language, destination of saved audio files, and set custom interface colors. The software can even play a piece of music once it's finished reading – a nice touch you won't find in other free text-to-speech software.

If you need something more advanced, a premium version of Panopreter is available. This edition offers several additional features including toolbars for Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer , the ability to highlight the section of text currently being read, and extra voices.

The best free text-to-speech extension of Microsoft Word

4. WordTalk

Developed by the University of Edinburgh, WordTalk is a toolbar add-on for Word that brings customizable text-to-speech to Microsoft Word. It works with all editions of Word and is accessible via the toolbar or ribbon, depending on which version you're using.

The toolbar itself is certainly not the most attractive you'll ever see, appearing to have been designed by a child. Nor are all of the buttons' functions very clear, but thankfully there's a help file on hand to help.

There's no getting away from the fact that WordTalk is fairly basic, but it does support SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 voices, and these can be tweaked to your liking. The ability to just read aloud individual words, sentences or paragraphs is a particularly nice touch. You also have the option of saving narrations, and there are a number of keyboard shortcuts that allow for quick and easy access to frequently used options.

The best free text-to-speech software for websites

5. Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader

Despite its basic looks, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader has more to offer than you might first think. You can open numerous file formats directly in the program, or just copy and paste text.

Alternatively, as long as you have the program running and the relevant option enables, Zabaware Text-to-Speech Reader can read aloud any text you copy to the clipboard – great if you want to convert words from websites to speech – as well as dialog boxes that pop up. One of the best free text-to-speech software right now, this can also convert text files to WAV format.

Unfortunately the selection of voices is limited, and the only settings you can customize are volume and speed unless you burrow deep into settings to fiddle with pronunciations. Additional voices are available for an additional fee which seems rather steep, holding it back from a higher place in our list.

The best free text-to-speech software: FAQs

What are the limitations of free tts software.

As you might expect, some free versions of TTS software do come with certain limitations. These include the amount of choices you get for the different amount of voices in some case. For instance, Zabaware gives you two for free, but you have to pay if you want more. 

However, the best free software on this list come with all the bells and whistles that will be more than enough for the average user.

What is SAPI?

SAPI stands for Speech Application Programming Interface. It was developed by Microsoft to generate synthetic speech to allow computer programs to read aloud text. First used in its own applications such as Office, it is also employed by third party TTS software such as those featured in this list. 

In the context of TTS software, there are more SAPI 4 voices to choose from, whereas SAPI 5 voices are generally of a higher quality. 

Should I output files to MP3 or WAV?

Many free TTS programs give you the option to download an audio file of the speech to save and transfer to different devices.

MP3 is the most common audio format, and compatible with pretty much any modern device capable of playing back audio. The WAV format is also highly compatible too.

The main difference between the two is quality. WAV files are uncompressed, meaning fidelity is preserved as best as possible, at the cost of being considerably larger in size than MP3 files, which do compress.

Ultimately, however, MP3 files with a bit rate of 256 kbps and above should more than suffice, and you'll struggle to tell the difference when it comes to speech audio between them and WAV files.

How to choose the best free text-to-speech software

When selecting the best free text-to-speech software is best for you depends on a range of factors (not to mention personal preference).

Despite how simple the concept of text-to-speech is, there are many different features and aspects to such apps to take into consideration. These include how many voice options and customizations are present, how and where they operate in your setup, what formats they are able to read aloud from and what formats the audio can be saved as.

With free versions, naturally you'll want to take into account how many advanced features you get without paying, and whether any sacrifices are made to performance or usability. 

Always try to keep in mind what is fair and reasonable for free services - and as we've shown with our number one choice, you can get plenty of features for free, so if other options seem bare in comparison, then you'll know you can do better.

How we test the best free text-to-speech software

Our testing process for the best free text-to-speech software is thorough, examining all of their respective features and trying to throw every conceivable syllable at them to see how they perform.

We also want to test the accessibility features of these tools to see how they work for every kind of user out there. We have highlighted, for instance, whether certain software offer dyslexic-friendly fonts, such as the number two on our list, Natural Reader.

We also bear in mind that these are free versions, so where possible we compare and contrast their feature sets with paid-for rivals.

Finally, we look at how well TTS tools meet the needs of their intended users - whether it's designed for personal use or professional deployment. 

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Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he's written a book, ' The Making of Tomb Raider '. His second book, ' 50 Years of Boss Fights ', came out in June 2024, and has a newsletter called ' Springboard '. He's usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that's about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.

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11 Best Text to Speech Tools in 2024 (Expert Picks)

Pricing: $23 per month Standout Features: AI-Driven Text-To-Speech, Varied Voice Options, Collaborative Editing Environment

Pricing: $12 per month Standout Features: Editing In Text Format, Overdub Voice Cloning, Comprehensive Media Editor

Pricing: $29 per month Standout Features: Assistive TTS Application, Adjustable Reading Speed, Optical Character Recognition

Text to Speech tools are becoming commonplace on our computers and the applications we use daily. They’ve made their way into Operating Systems, AI production environments, and as a general utility for visually impaired users of computers. More and more text-to-speech (TTS) applications are hitting the market every month, making it hard to know which one to trust and commit to. Most TTS software can be used in a variety of ways. In this post, we’ll review and compare the best text-to-speech tools out there so you can find the right one for your needs.

• 1 What is Text to Speech?
• 2 Top Considerations When Choosing a Text-to-Speech Tool
• 3.1 1. Murf
• 3.2 2. Descript
• 3.3 3. Speechify
• 3.4 4. Listnr
• 3.5 5. Synthesia
• 3.6 6. Speechelo
• 3.7 7. Notevibes
• 3.8 8. Fliki
• 3.9 9. FreeTTS
• 3.10 10. Synthesys
• 3.11 11. Lovo
• 4.1 Features of the Top Three Best Text to Speech Tools
• 4.2 Comparing Pricing For the Best Text to Speech Tools
• 5 What is the Best Text to Speech Tool?
• 6 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is Text to Speech?

Text to speech is a technology that converts document text into audio. It is an assistive technology for speech synthesis, making text discernable through audio. For this reason, TTS is sometimes referred to as read-aloud technology. Artificial intelligence has made text-to-speech technology even better in recent years with the rise of AI voice generators . With some software, this audio output quality generated from ASCII text sounds remarkably close to human voices. Some software can even mimic (or clone) a particular voice.

This change (from robotic-sounding TTS to natural-sounding speech) has massive implications for audio/video production, audiobooks, and accessibility. Below, we’ll show you the best TTS technology and how each can be used for your business. You can also see our article on the best text to speech plugins for WordPress if you need that technology directly on your WordPress website.

Top Considerations When Choosing a Text-to-Speech Tool

Consider a few things when you’re in the market for a text to speech tool. The first is to choose a platform that excels in voice quality. Look for tools that provide natural-sounding voices with different accents or genders. It’s also a good idea to pick one that offers various voices. Another important factor is ease of use. The best text-to-speech tools will be intuitive and allow you to accomplish your goals in a few clicks. After all, most people need time and energy to learn a complicated interface, a luxury for most professionals.

The biggest consideration should be features. Find a tool that provides what you need now and can grow with you. Look for a tool that offers voice customization options, including the ability to adjust the speed, pitch, emphasis, and tone. Last but not least, consider the cost of your chosen tool. It’s important to find one that aligns with your budget but also allows you to select a higher-tiered plan should you need more features in the future.

The Best Text to Speech Tools

The Best Text To Speech Tools Listed In Order

🥇best text to speech tool for realistic voices.

Murf Offers A Quick Way to Clone Voices With AI

Murf can also clone voices, enabling users to customize the AI voice’s tone, pitch, emotions, and personality. Simply record a short clip with your voice or upload one, and Murf will work its magic. With Murf Studio, you can adjust the timing or add pauses to make the generated voice flow more smoothly.

What We Like About Murf

• Realistic Voices: Over 120 natural-sounding voices (ranging from basic voices to premium)
• Supports Multiple Languages: Supports 20+ languages for text-to-audio conversion
• It Transcribes Spoken Voice: Can transcribe spoken voices from audio or video formats
• Export Audio in High Definition: Full HD audio export quality
• Supports Teams: Collaborative editing environment, perfect for teams

What Could Be Improved

• It Occasionally Mispronounces Words: Although rare, Murf may mispronounce complex or slang words

🥇 Why We Picked It

We like Murf for several reasons. First, it has the most natural-sounding voices of any text to speech tool on our list. The voices are realistic and don’t sound robotic. It also provides a diverse voice library with different accents, genders, and styles. It’s also easy to use, includes support for over 20 languages, and the ability to fine-tune speech.

Who Is Murf Best For?

Murf is one of the best TTS platforms for content creators, e-learning professionals, and businesses looking for a versatile, easy-to-use text-to-speech solution. Collaborative editing environments mean multiple users can edit and perfect your markdown text to generate the best possible speech.

Community Reviews and Ratings

Murf users praise how easy it is to create professional voiceovers but say the AI-generated voices occasionally struggle with punctuation.

Murf offers a free plan (up to 10 minutes of generated speech) with paid plans starting at $23 per month per account user.

2. Descript

🥈 best text to speech tool for converting audio.

Edit Audio With Text

The power of Descript’s platform is that it allows users to edit the text (in a Google Doc-like environment), which also then edits the original audio file. This means you can edit your audio like a document draft. Remove filler words, fix misspoken text, and fix other audio mishaps—all without re-recording.

What We Like About Descript

• Eliminate Ums and Ahs : Remove filler words from audio files and videos like magic
• Clone Voices: Overdub voice cloning technology to create true TTS audio files
• AI-Powered Transcription: Automatic transcription of your videos and audio
• Edit Audio and Video: Full-featured audio and video editor (more than TTS, it also helps creators create in every format)
• Transcription limitations: Descript’s automatic transcription, while generally good, can struggle with accents and names. You’ll likely need to do some proofreading and editing of the transcript

🥈 Why We Picked It

Descript has a good combination of high-quality text to speech, audio and video editing capabilities, and collaborative features, making it a great option for creators. You can also fine-tune speech by adjusting pacing, pitch, and emphasis and adding pauses for a more natural flow.

Who Is Descript Best For?

Descript is perfect for podcasters, video creators, and professionals who require transcription and editing capabilities alongside text-to-speech features. Its Overdub voice cloning technology allows you to create realistic and customizable voiceovers using your own voice. You can also select pre-made voices to get started even more quickly. And it all works in a browser or desktop application.

Users say Descript does an excellent job with transcription, but that filler word removal can sometimes make voices choppy.

Descript offers a free plan with 1 hour of transcription and recording hours. Paid plans start at $12 per month .

Get Descript

3. Speechify

🥉 best assistive text-to-speech tool.

Speechify is an intelligent text-to-speech tool designed to help users read faster and retain more information, making it ideal for multitaskers and those with reading difficulties. Unlike the previous two products, Speechify is an assistive TTS application meant to read text to personal users—not create marketing collateral for businesses (though they have a voiceover solution for making audio/video voiceovers). Users love Speecify’s human and natural-sounding voices. It transforms how they interact with text on the web and their computer.

Speechify Can Read Text Content On Web Pages

One of the most interesting features of Speechify is that it can read text on nearly any web page. To use it, you can download the Chrome or Edge desktop extension or the Speechify app for iOS or Android. Using the browser extension is as simple as clicking the Speechify icon in the toolbar to activate the floating audio player. On the other hand, using the mobile app, just grab the URL of the webpage you’d like to have read aloud and paste it into the app.

What We Like About Speechify

• Multiple Ways to Use It: Works via Chrome extension, iOS/Android apps, desktop
• Choose From Various Voices and Reading Speeds: Set a reading voice and speed for any text for optimal comprehension
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR): Take pictures of text and have it read to you using OCR
• Document Storage: Library for saving documents for cross-device listening
• It Reads Webpages: Have web pages read aloud to you while you sit back and soak it in
• Multi-Language Capable: Support for 20+ languages
• Word Limits: Speechify limits the number of words you can convert to speech with their premium voices. For those using Speechify for visual impairments, this can be an issue.

🥉 Why We Picked It

Speechify is worthy of being in our top three for several reasons. First, it has a strong focus on readability. Originally designed with accessibility in mind, Speechify is a valuable tool for people with reading difficulties, visual impairments, and other conditions. Users can also adjust the reading speed, making it perfect for users with any comprehension level. Plus, it can read webpages, emails, and PDFs and comes with a handy mobile app.

Who Is Speechify Best For?

Speechify is great for students, professionals, and individuals. Whether you prefer audio over written text or struggle with dyslexia or other reading difficulties, Speechify can help you improve your reading comprehension. Its integrations with popular apps and browsers ensure you can listen to any text anytime and anywhere with Speechify.

Users love Speechify’s scan and read feature, the ability to read webpages aloud, and the ability to adjust the speed. However, some say the monthly word limit is restricting.

Speechify is available for $29 per month or $139 per year .

Get Speechify

Listnr is an AI voice generator with a hearty text-to-speech platform that helps you turn your written content into engaging podcasts and audio files using high-quality AI-generated voices. Its text editor allows users to turn the text into audio and adjust things like voice, accent, speed, and pause.

Listnr’s podcast hosting capability sets it apart, making creating, distributing, and managing your audio content easy.

What We Like About Listnr

• Over 600 AI Voices: Wide range of realistic AI-generated voices
• Support for over 100 Languages: Supports multiple languages and accents
• Host Podcasts: Audio file export and podcast hosting (with embeddable audio widget)
• Limited Free Plan: Although Listnr offers a free plan, it is limited to 1,000 words per month, which may not be enough for most

Who Is Listnr Best For?

Listnr is ideal for bloggers, marketers, and content creators looking to expand their audience reach through audio and podcasting. It’s one of the better-priced TTS software, allowing 1,000 words with a free trial plan.

Listnr users praise how quickly the platform evolves but say the service can sometimes be slow.

Listnr offers a free plan with plans starting at $5 per month .

5. Synthesia

Synthesia is an innovative AI video generation platform that allows you to create video content using text-to-video and virtual avatars. This goes beyond just outputting audio. It can turn text into a virtual talking head for more engaging videos.

What We Like About Synthesia

• Create Virtual Avatars : Customizable virtual avatars to create realistic-looking “people” for your videos
• Text-to-Video: Turns your text transcripts into videos with your avatar speaking your written words
• It’s Web Based : Packaged as a Web app so that everything is computed in the cloud (saving you system resources)
• It’s Costly: To get the most out of Synthesia, the Enterprise plan may be necessary. The Starter Plan ($22 per month) only provides 120 minutes of video a year , which may not be enough for those looking to create a lot of videos

Who Is Synthesia Best For?

Synthesia is perfect for businesses and content creators who want to create engaging videos without needing professional actors or complex video production. This can dramatically increase efficiency since you do not need to rely on humans for every stage of development.

Users love that they can create videos without editing experience, but some say the AI voices sometimes sound robotic.

Synthesia offers paid plans starting at $22 per month .

Get Synthesia

6. Speechelo

What We Like About Speechelo

• 30 Realistic AI-Generated Voices:  Voices include different tones, add pauses and punctuation
• Support for Multiple Languages and Accents: Generate natural-sounding speech in English, Spanish, French, German, and more
• Pro Version Is Robust: create voiceovers up to 2800 words, access over 170 voices, and manage campaigns with ease
• Background Audio: Choose from over 40 background music tracks (pro version only)
• Low Bitrate: Speechelo produces audio at 48kbps, which is considered subpar quality for professional audio production

Who Is Speechelo Best For?

This tool is excellent for those looking for entry-level TTS software. It’s a low-cost solution that outputs better-than-expected speech.

Speechelo is available for a one-time $97 fee. However, they offer steep discounts regularly.

Get Speechelo

7. Notevibes

What We Like About Notevibes

• Large Voice Library: Over 225+ natural-sounding voices
• Support for Multiple Languages: Supports 25 languages, dialects, and accents
• Edit Audio: Add pauses, change speech speed and pitch, add emphasis, and more
• No Free Trial: To truly see what Notevibes has to offer, you must purchase a license

Who Is Notevibes Best For?

Notevibes is ideal for those who need high-quality audio for web courses, video narration, or audiobook production. But, for all of that, you will need the commercial plan. The individual plan lets you create text-based audio content for personal use only.

Notevibes offers a subscription service starting at $19 per month or pay-as-you-go packs starting at $49 for 400,000 characters.

Get Notevibes

What We Like About Fliki

• Realistic AI Voices: Choose from over 2000 ultra realistic voices
• Multiple Languages and Accents: 75 languages and 900 accents to choose from
• Stock Media Library: Create visuals for overdubbed video content
• Choose From Different Emotions: Fliki’s AI voices come with various emotions, including excitement, anger, sadness, friendliness, and more
• Limited Free Plan: Fliki’s free plan should be viewed as a preview rather than a plan due to its 5 minutes limit every month

Who Is Fliki Best For?

Fliki is excellent for content creators who need realistic text-to-speech audio for simple video creation. They have some of the lowest prices around, making it a perfect first tool to try. Anyone needing commercial rights to audio and video material partially created with AI should check Fliki out.

Fliki users appreciate the platform’s ease and say they like swapping between voices easily. However, some say the costs can add up quickly, considering Fliki deducts credits for previewing audio.

Fliki offers a free plan with paid plans starting at $28 per month .

FreeTTS is a free text-to-speech converter that is great for generating natural-sounding voices in multiple languages and accents, perfect for those on a budget. It’s a simple website with a text box and a submit button (but you’ll have to put up with endless banner ads). When text is submitted, a simple audio file will be created.

What We Like About FreeTTS

• Free to Use: FreeTTS offers up to 10,000 characters per month and the ability to preview audio before downloading
• Supports Multiple Languages: Choose from English, UK English, French, Italian, Japanese, and more
• Based On Google Machine Learning: FreeTTS is built on Google machine learning and TTS capabilities to produce high-quality audio conversions
• Character Limit On Free Version: The free version of FreeTTS has a character limit of 1000 characters per conversion and 10,000 per week, which may not be ideal for those who require more output

Who Is FreeTTS Best For?

FreeTTS is ideal for students, educators, and individuals seeking a cost-effective text-to-speech solution. It won’t be profoundly useful, but it is something to try if you are interested and see what is possible.

FreeTTS offers a   free plan with paid plans starting at $19 per month .

Get FreeTTS

10. Synthesys

What We Like About Synthesys

• Deep Learning AI-Generated Voices: Produces high-quality, ultra-life-like AI voices
• A Variety of AI Tools: Features include an AI video builder, AI text-to-image generation, and face swapping
• API Capabilities: Create workflows that use TTS and TTV at scale
• Multiple Voices and Supported Languages: 140 languages and 374 voices, or upload your own voice
• Learning Curve: Getting started with Synthesys may be difficult for some due to its complicated interface

Who Is Synthesys Best For?

Synthesys is perfect for anyone creating content (video or audio) and who wants to rely less on human narrators or actors. It is one of the more trusted platforms on the list and has a solid reputation (and a money-back guarantee).

Fans of Synthesys say it generates high-quality content and is easy to use. However, some say the user interface could be clearer.

Synthesys is available for free with paid plans starting at $29 per month .

Get Synthesys

Lovo is an AI-powered voice generator that offers realistic voices and customization options. Aside from languages and accents, it also provides users with tones that affect how the voice sounds (serious vs. amazed).

What We Like About Lovo

• Large Selection of AI Voices: Over 500+ AI-generated voices
• Supports Multiple Languages: Support for 100+ languages and accents
• Customize Voices: Easily control phoneme level, word emphasis, and pauses in natural places
• 25+ Emotions: Customize the emotional expressions in voiceovers
• Occasional Glitches: There are occasional issues with punctuation and inflection that will require a human touch

Who Is Lovo Best For?

Lovo is excellent for content creators who need a streamlined way of making high-quality spoken audio. Especially if you need different voices, languages, and emotional ranges. The text editor also makes it easy to build more authentic-sounding voiceovers with simple commands.

Fans of Lovo call it “shockingly good,” while detractors say the interface is plain and boring.

Lovo offers a free plan with paid plans starting at $29 per month .

Comparing the Best Text to Speech Tools

The text to speech tools in this post have their strengths and weaknesses. Whether you want a versatile text-to-speech tool or one that has more of a niche, the tools on our list are great options for anyone.

Features of the Top Three Best Text to Speech Tools

As previously mentioned, the text to speech tool you choose should have all the features you’re looking for. Whether you want to convert documents to audio, have webpages read aloud to you, or clone your voice, our top three text-to-speech tools have a little something for everyone.

Comparing Pricing For the Best Text to Speech Tools

Pricing is equally important as features, especially for those with a tight budget. Use the table below to compare pricing and user ratings to make your decision easier.

What is the Best Text to Speech Tool?

Overall, Murf is the best text-to-speech tool on our list. It has a large user base and is suitable for all types of speech creation. Descript is an unbelievable platform for teams that want to be able to edit their audio and video files by removing and adding words in a text document. It, by far, has the most innovative approach to TTS.

Speechify is a top text-to-speech software for personal productivity. It can turn text-based content into enjoyable audio by simply highlighting text and pressing play. It’ll change how you interact with written content online and dramatically increase your reading comprehension (especially if you read along with the generated voice).

Looking for more AI content? Check out our complete list of the best AI tools to boost your productivity.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Before we wrap up, let’s answer some of your most common questions regarding text to speech tools. Did we miss one? Leave a question below, and we will respond!

What is the best text to speech tool?

What is the best free text to speech tool, what is text to speech software, how does text to speech work, what is the best text to speech software for youtube, which text to speech tool sounds the most realistic, how do i enable the speech to text in microsoft word, what is the best text to speech tool for my laptop, what are the most beneficial ways to use text to speech tools, what is html, and why is it relevant to text to speech tools, which text to speech tools can export audio files, what is the best text to speech tool for websites, can text to speech tools be used in different languages, what is the purpose of text to speech tools for readers.

Feature image via mix_vector / shutterstock.com

Explore Our Top Picks

Here are our favorites! 👇

Get Murf Today!

With so many great options available, it can be hard to pick one. find out why murf is our favorite. 👇.

By Christopher Morris

Christopher Morris writes about the intersection of Marketing and Websites. He loves to help people gain the confidence to move their passions online. He can be found strolling around LinkedIn as well as the Rocky Mountains in Colorado when he is recharging.

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This is by no means a one-time-purchase. You get 5 very basic voices for the basic program. It’s a good thing I didn’t upgrade it any further; so many problems, and a few times their server timed out and deleted the entire text after I spent forever trying to make an intro. I’m not aware of how others use it. I am using it to transfer an entire book into speech. 2 or 3 sentences per export, to make it sound human is kind of ridiculous when other programs don’t require that. And in my case 5000 characters at a time is nothing compared to 95,000 words. Ye s I could upgrade it but won’t. The AI voice sounds human and the “Natural” version sounds robotic. Why not sell the program with all extraneous things included, for one price ? Prior to buying it, I downloaded a free TTS program that came with over 25 voices and half sound very human- like. I’ll probably go back to it and skip the monthly fee for what Speechelo is worth.

It sounds like you’ve had quite a challenging experience with a text-to-speech (TTS) program offering basic voices and limited functionality, leading to frustration over server timeouts and text deletion. When considering an alternative, you might want to look into Wavel AI from as an option. Wavel AI offers a more extensive range of natural-sounding voices and languages, often praised for its human-like quality and fluidity. Unlike the basic program you mentioned, it typically allows for more extensive text inputs, making it suitable for larger projects like converting an entire book into speech. It also avoids the piecemeal approach of exporting a few sentences at a time. However, be mindful that while it may offer more voices and better quality, pricing models vary, and depending on your usage, costs can add up. It’s always wise to compare the total value, considering both the range of features and the total cost, before making a switch or commitment.

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Turns your articles, PDFs, emails, etc. into podcasts, so you can listen to it on your own podcast player when convenient, with all the advantages that come with your podcast app.

SpeechNinja says what you type in real time. It enables people with speech difficulties to speak out loud using synthesized voice (AAC) and more.

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TTSReader reads out loud texts, webpages, pdfs & ebooks with natural sounding voices. Works out of the box. No need to download or install. No sign in required. Simply click 'play' and enjoy listening right in your browser. TTSReader remembers your text and position between sessions, so you can continue listening right where you left. Recording the generated speech is supported as well. Works offline, so you can use it at home, in the office, on the go, driving or taking a walk. Listening to textual content using TTSReader enables multitasking, reading on the go, improved comprehension and more. With support for multiple languages, it can be used for unlimited use cases .

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Main Use Cases

Listen to great content.

Most of the world's content is in textual form. Being able to listen to it - is huge! In that sense, TTSReader has a huge advantage over podcasts. You choose your content - out of an infinite variety - that includes humanity's entire knowledge and art richness. Listen to lectures, to PDF files. Paste or upload any text from anywhere, edit it if needed, and listen to it anywhere and anytime.

Proofreading

One of the best ways to catch errors in your writing is to listen to it being read aloud. By using TTSReader for proofreading, you can catch errors that you might have missed while reading silently, allowing you to improve the quality and accuracy of your written content. Errors can be in sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, but also in your essay's structure, order and content.

Listen to web pages

TTSReader can be used to read out loud webpages in two different ways. 1. Using the regular player - paste the URL and click play. The website's content will be imported into the player. (2) Using our Chrome extension to listen to pages without leaving the page . Listening to web pages with TTSReader can provide a more accessible, convenient, and efficient way of consuming online content.

Turn ebooks into audiobooks

Upload any ebook file of epub format - and TTSReader will read it out loud for you, effectively turning it into an audiobook alternative. You can find thousands of epub books for free, available for download on Project Gutenberg's site, which is an open library for free ebooks.

Read along for speed & comprehension

TTSReader enables read along by highlighting the sentence being read and automatically scrolling to keep it in view. This way you can follow with your own eyes - in parallel to listening to it. This can boost reading speed and improve comprehension.

Generate audio files from text

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech with a single click. This is available currently only on Windows and requires TTSReader’s premium . Adhering to the commercial terms some of the voices may be used commercially for publishing, such as narrating videos.

Accessibility, dyslexia, etc.

For individuals with visual impairments or reading difficulties, listening to textual content, lectures, articles & web pages can be an essential tool for accessing & comprehending information.

Language learning

TTSReader can read out text in multiple languages, providing learners with listening as well as speaking practice. By listening to the text being read aloud, learners can improve their comprehension skills and pronunciation.

Kids - stories & learning

Kids love stories! And if you can read them stories - it's definitely the best! But, if you can't, let TTSReader read them stories for you. Set the right voice and speed, that is appropriate for their comprehension level. For kids who are at the age of learning to read - this can also be an effective tool to strengthen that skill, as it highlights every sentence being read.

Main Features

Ttsreader is a free text to speech reader that supports all modern browsers, including chrome, firefox and safari..

Includes multiple languages and accents. If on Chrome - you will get access to Google's voices as well. Super easy to use - no download, no login required. Here are some more features

Fun, Online, Free. Listen to great content

Drag, drop & play (or directly copy text & play). That’s it. No downloads. No logins. No passwords. No fuss. Simply fun to use and listen to great content. Great for listening in the background. Great for proof-reading. Great for kids and more. Learn more, including a YouTube we made, here .

Multilingual, Natural Voices

We facilitate high-quality natural-sounding voices from different sources. There are male & female voices, in different accents and different languages. Choose the voice you like, insert text, click play to generate the synthesized speech and enjoy listening.

Exit, Come Back & Play from Where You Stopped

TTSReader remembers the article and last position when paused, even if you close the browser. This way, you can come back to listening right where you previously left. Works on Chrome & Safari on mobile too. Ideal for listening to articles.

Vs. Recorded Podcasts

In many aspects, synthesized speech has advantages over recorded podcasts. Here are some: First of all - you have unlimited - free - content. That includes high-quality articles and books, that are not available on podcasts. Second - it’s free. Third - it uses almost no data - so it’s available offline too, and you save money. If you like listening on the go, as while driving or walking - get our free Android Text Reader App .

Read PDF Files, Texts & Websites

TTSReader extracts the text from pdf files, and reads it out loud. Also useful for simply copying text from pdf to anywhere. In addition, it highlights the text currently being read - so you can follow with your eyes. If you specifically want to listen to websites - such as blogs, news, wiki - you should get our free extension for Chrome

Export Speech to Audio Files

TTSReader enables exporting the synthesized speech to mp3 audio files. This is available currently only on Windows, and requires ttsreader’s premium .

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Benefits of Text to Speech

Text to speech enables brands, companies, and organizations to deliver enhanced end-user experience, while minimizing costs. Whether you’re developing services for website visitors, mobile app users, online learners, subscribers or consumers, text to speech allows you to respond to the different needs and desires of each user in terms of how they interact with your services, applications, devices, and content.

See All Benefits of Text to Speech

TTS gives access to your content to a greater population, such as those with literacy difficulties, learning disabilities, reduced vision and those learning a language. It also opens doors to anyone else looking for easier ways to access digital content.

If flawless customer experience is at the heart of your business DNA, high-quality TTS voices or exclusive custom voices are both highly effective approaches to increasing your visibility in the voice user interface. TTS helps to enhance the customer journey across different touchpoints, fostering loyalty and setting your company apart from competitors.

Integrators and developers building services, apps, and devices across markets and verticals (e.g. telecoms, utilities, manufacturing, OEM, finance, etc.), benefit from adding speech output to services and applications. Text to speech enables a wider-reaching, more consumer-oriented end-user experience, helping reduce costs and increasing automation while providing personalized customer interactions.

ReadSpeaker is leading the way in text to speech.

ReadSpeaker offers a range of powerful text-to-speech solutions for instantly deploying lifelike, tailored voice interaction in any environment.

With more than 20 years’ experience, ReadSpeaker is “Pioneering Voice Technology” .

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ReadSpeaker’s blog covers a wide variety of topics related to online and offline text to speech, mobile, and web accessibility.

ReadSpeaker’s industry-leading voice expertise leveraged by leading Italian newspaper to enhance the reader experience Milan, Italy. – 19 October, 2023 – ReadSpeaker, the most trusted,…

Accessibility overlays have gotten a lot of bad press, much of it deserved. So what can you do to improve web accessibility? Find out here.

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Learn how ReadSpeaker’s text-to-speech tools can help to bridge digital divides, as described in the latest National Edtech Plan.

Text to speech is essential for accessibility, and helpful for just about anyone. But how do you get it to read math? Find out here.

As an educator, you want the best for your students. Here’s what you need to know about MathJax and STEM accessibility.

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What is text to speech?

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In this overview, you learn about the benefits and capabilities of the text to speech feature of the Speech service, which is part of Azure AI services.

Text to speech enables your applications, tools, or devices to convert text into human like synthesized speech. The text to speech capability is also known as speech synthesis. Use human like prebuilt neural voices out of the box, or create a custom neural voice that's unique to your product or brand. For a full list of supported voices, languages, and locales, see Language and voice support for the Speech service .

Core features

Text to speech includes the following features:

More about neural text to speech features

Text to speech uses deep neural networks to make the voices of computers nearly indistinguishable from the recordings of people. With the clear articulation of words, neural text to speech significantly reduces listening fatigue when users interact with AI systems.

The patterns of stress and intonation in spoken language are called prosody . Traditional text to speech systems break down prosody into separate linguistic analysis and acoustic prediction steps governed by independent models. That can result in muffled, buzzy voice synthesis.

Here's more information about neural text to speech features in the Speech service, and how they overcome the limits of traditional text to speech systems:

Real-time speech synthesis : Use the Speech SDK or REST API to convert text to speech by using prebuilt neural voices or custom neural voices .

Asynchronous synthesis of long audio : Use the batch synthesis API (Preview) to asynchronously synthesize text to speech files longer than 10 minutes (for example, audio books or lectures). Unlike synthesis performed via the Speech SDK or Speech to text REST API, responses aren't returned in real-time. The expectation is that requests are sent asynchronously, responses are polled for, and synthesized audio is downloaded when the service makes it available.

Prebuilt neural voices : Microsoft neural text to speech capability uses deep neural networks to overcome the limits of traditional speech synthesis regarding stress and intonation in spoken language. Prosody prediction and voice synthesis happen simultaneously, which results in more fluid and natural-sounding outputs. Each prebuilt neural voice model is available at 24 kHz and high-fidelity 48 kHz. You can use neural voices to:

• Make interactions with chatbots and voice assistants more natural and engaging.
• Convert digital texts such as e-books into audiobooks.
• Enhance in-car navigation systems.

For a full list of platform neural voices, see Language and voice support for the Speech service .

Fine-tuning text to speech output with SSML : Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) is an XML-based markup language used to customize text to speech outputs. With SSML, you can adjust pitch, add pauses, improve pronunciation, change speaking rate, adjust volume, and attribute multiple voices to a single document.

You can use SSML to define your own lexicons or switch to different speaking styles. With the multilingual voices , you can also adjust the speaking languages via SSML. To fine-tune the voice output for your scenario, see Improve synthesis with Speech Synthesis Markup Language and Speech synthesis with the Audio Content Creation tool .

Visemes : Visemes are the key poses in observed speech, including the position of the lips, jaw, and tongue in producing a particular phoneme. Visemes have a strong correlation with voices and phonemes.

By using viseme events in Speech SDK, you can generate facial animation data. This data can be used to animate faces in lip-reading communication, education, entertainment, and customer service. Viseme is currently supported only for the en-US (US English) neural voices .

We plan to retire the traditional/standard voices and non-neural custom voice in 2024. After that, we'll no longer support them.

If your applications, tools, or products are using any of the standard voices and custom voices, you must migrate to the neural version. For more information, see Migrate to neural voices .

Get started

To get started with text to speech, see the quickstart . Text to speech is available via the Speech SDK , the REST API , and the Speech CLI .

To convert text to speech with a no-code approach, try the Audio Content Creation tool in Speech Studio .

Sample code

Sample code for text to speech is available on GitHub. These samples cover text to speech conversion in most popular programming languages:

• Text to speech samples (SDK)
• Text to speech samples (REST)

Custom neural voice

In addition to prebuilt neural voices, you can create and fine-tune custom neural voices that are unique to your product or brand. All it takes to get started is a handful of audio files and the associated transcriptions. For more information, see Get started with custom neural voice .

Pricing note

Billable characters.

When you use the text to speech feature, you're billed for each character that's converted to speech, including punctuation. Although the SSML document itself isn't billable, optional elements that are used to adjust how the text is converted to speech, like phonemes and pitch, are counted as billable characters. Here's a list of what's billable:

• Text passed to the text to speech feature in the SSML body of the request
• All markup within the text field of the request body in the SSML format, except for <speak> and <voice> tags
• Letters, punctuation, spaces, tabs, markup, and all white-space characters
• Every code point defined in Unicode

For detailed information, see Speech service pricing .

Each Chinese character is counted as two characters for billing, including kanji used in Japanese, hanja used in Korean, or hanzi used in other languages.

Model training and hosting time for custom neural voice

Custom neural voice training and hosting are both calculated by hour and billed per second. For the billing unit price, see Speech service pricing .

Custom neural voice (CNV) training time is measured by ‘compute hour’ (a unit to measure machine running time). Typically, when training a voice model, two computing tasks are running in parallel. So, the calculated compute hours are longer than the actual training time. On average, it takes less than one compute hour to train a CNV Lite voice; while for CNV Pro, it usually takes 20 to 40 compute hours to train a single-style voice, and around 90 compute hours to train a multi-style voice. The CNV training time is billed with a cap of 96 compute hours. So in the case that a voice model is trained in 98 compute hours, you'll only be charged with 96 compute hours.

Custom neural voice (CNV) endpoint hosting is measured by the actual time (hour). The hosting time (hours) for each endpoint is calculated at 00:00 UTC every day for the previous 24 hours. For example, if the endpoint has been active for 24 hours on day one, it's billed for 24 hours at 00:00 UTC the second day. If the endpoint is newly created or suspended during the day, it's billed for its accumulated running time until 00:00 UTC the second day. If the endpoint isn't currently hosted, it isn't billed. In addition to the daily calculation at 00:00 UTC each day, the billing is also triggered immediately when an endpoint is deleted or suspended. For example, for an endpoint created at 08:00 UTC on December 1, the hosting hour will be calculated to 16 hours at 00:00 UTC on December 2 and 24 hours at 00:00 UTC on December 3. If the user suspends hosting the endpoint at 16:30 UTC on December 3, the duration (16.5 hours) from 00:00 to 16:30 UTC on December 3 will be calculated for billing.

Reference docs

• REST API: Text to speech

Responsible AI

An AI system includes not only the technology, but also the people who use it, the people who are affected by it, and the environment in which it's deployed. Read the transparency notes to learn about responsible AI use and deployment in your systems.

• Transparency note and use cases for custom neural voice
• Characteristics and limitations for using custom neural voice
• Limited access to custom neural voice
• Guidelines for responsible deployment of synthetic voice technology
• Disclosure for voice talent
• Disclosure design guidelines
• Disclosure design patterns
• Code of Conduct for Text to speech integrations
• Data, privacy, and security for custom neural voice
• Text to speech quickstart
• Get the Speech SDK

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Free Text to Speech

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TTSMaker is a free text-to-speech tool that provides speech synthesis services and supports multiple languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, etc., as well as various voice styles. You can use it to read text and e-books aloud, or download the audio files for commercial use (it's completely free). As an excellent free TTS tool, TTSMaker can easily convert text to speech online.

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Quick Tutorial

Enter the text that needs to be converted into speech, the free limit is 20000 characters per week, some voices support unlimited free use.

Select language and voice

Choose the language for the text and your preferred voice style, each language has multiple voice styles.

Convert text to speech

Click the "Convert to Speech" button to start converting the text to speech, which may take a few minutes, longer texts will take longer. To adjust the speaking rate and volume, you can click the "More Settings" button.

Listen and download

After the text is converted to speech, you can listen to it online or download the audio file.

Usage Scenarios

TTSMaker's text to speech can be used for the following main purposes.

Video dubbing

Youtube and TikTok voice generator

As an AI voice generator, TTSMaker can generate the voices of various characters, which are often used in video dubbing of Youtube and TikTok. For your convenience, TTSMaker provides a variety of TikTok style voices for free use.

Audiobook reading

Create and listen to audiobook content

TTSMaker can convert text into natural speech, and you can easily create and enjoy audiobooks, bringing stories to life through immersive narration.

Education & Training

Teaching and Learning Languages

TTSMaker can convert text to sound and read it aloud, can help you learn the pronunciation of words, and supports multiple languages, it has now become a useful tool for language learners.

Marketing & Advertising

Create voiceovers for video ads

TTSMaker generates persuasive voice-overs to help marketers and advertisers explain a product's features to others, with high-quality audio.

Fast speech synthesis

We use a powerful neural network inference model that enables text-to-speech conversion in a short time.

Free for commercial use

You will own 100% copyright of the synthesized audio file and may use it for any legal purpose, including commercial use.

More voices and features

We are constantly updating this text-to-speech tool to support more languages and voices, as well as some new features.

Email and API supports

We offer email support and text-to-speech API services. If you encounter any issues while using our services, please feel free to contact our support team via email or through our support page.

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Voice   Generator

This web app allows you to generate voice audio from text - no login needed, and it's completely free! It uses your browser's built-in voice synthesis technology, and so the voices will differ depending on the browser that you're using. You can download the audio as a file, but note that the downloaded voices may be different to your browser's voices because they are downloaded from an external text-to-speech server. If you don't like the externally-downloaded voice, you can use a recording app on your device to record the "system" or "internal" sound while you're playing the generated voice audio.

Want more voices? You can download the generated audio and then use voicechanger.io to add effects to the voice. For example, you can make the voice sound more robotic, or like a giant ogre, or an evil demon. You can even use it to reverse the generated audio, randomly distort the speed of the voice throughout the audio, add a scary ghost effect, or add an "anonymous hacker" effect to it.

Note: If the list of available text-to-speech voices is small, or all the voices sound the same, then you may need to install text-to-speech voices on your device. Many operating systems (including some versions of Android, for example) only come with one voice by default, and the others need to be downloaded in your device's settings. If you don't know how to install more voices, and you can't find a tutorial online, you can try downloading the audio with the download button instead. As mentioned above, the downloaded audio uses external voices which may be different to your device's local ones.

You're free to use the generated voices for any purpose - no attribution needed. You could use this website as a free voice over generator for narrating your videos in cases where don't want to use your real voice. You can also adjust the pitch of the voice to make it sound younger/older, and you can even adjust the rate/speed of the generated speech, so you can create a fast-talking high-pitched chipmunk voice if you want to.

Note: If you have offline-compatible voices installed on your device (check your system Text-To-Speech settings), then this web app works offline! Find the "add to homescreen" or "install" button in your browser to add a shortcut to this app in your home screen. And note that if you don't have an internet connection, or if for some reason the voice audio download isn't working for you, you can also use a recording app that records your devices "internal" or "system" sound.

Got some feedback? You can share it with me here .

If you like this project check out these: AI Chat , AI Anime Generator , AI Image Generator , and AI Story Generator .

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LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader With Keypad

$ 2,330.00

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Product Manual

The LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader is an AUTOMATIC SCAN text-to-speech reader, which means the user does not have to press any buttons for simple and immediate text-to-speech conversion.

The LyriQ also has an incredible fifteen (15) hour rechargeable battery, weighs only 3lbs, and folds flat for easy portability.

The LyriQ is designed to assist people living with blindness or vision impairments by scanning printed documents and read them out loud.

It is spectacularly fast, extremely accurate, and very easy to use. With the LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader, you can read a book, an envelope, the letter that came in it, a prescription label, and anything else.

Place the document on the device’s base surface: the LyriQ will immediately scan it and start reading the contents out loud: no waiting, pressing buttons or any other ways of getting frustrated. The interactive and responsive LyriQ takes a couple of seconds to start the text to speech.

The LyriQ Text-to-Speech Reader Advantages

• Simple: place the printed page on the LyriQ Reader’s reading surface and start listening to the contents
• Responsive: immediate result and feedback. No getting lost, no confusing waiting
• Compact: fold flat, store like a laptop
• Intuitive: minimal actions are necessary to make use of other (basic, few, and important) device features – convenient large tactile buttons support and assist every step of the way
• Bluetooth-enabled: connect to external speakers or hearing aids
• Battery / AC powered: all-day lasting battery allows taking the device from the living room couch to the kitchen island and outside to the patio for relaxed and pleasant reading, or plug into an outlet if sitting close by.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q . What kind of documents can I read with LyriQ?

A . LyriQ can read any printed textbooks, magazines, mail.

Q . How difficult is it to learn to use LyriQ?

A . It is really simple. There is no need to remember where the buttons are or how to control the device. All it takes is to place reading material on the LyriQ’s base.

Q . Can LyriQ run on a battery?

A . Yes. LyriQ can run on a built-in battery, or plugged into an outlet. The fully charged battery lasts 12 hours.

Q . I am bi-lingual. Can LyriQ read foreign languages?

A . LyriQ can read in 20 different languages. In the US, it comes pre-installed with English and Spanish. Please contact us before ordering additional languages.

Q . How fast is LyriQ? How long does it take to read a page?

A . Once the page is placed on LyriQ’s base, it will take 1-2 seconds before you hear the page start being read.

Q . Can I adjust the reading speed?

A . Yes. Reading speed can be adjusted by two buttons on the side of the LyriQ’s base.

Q . Can I scan a book and listen to it later on DAISY or MP3 player?

A . Yes. You can scan a book and save it to a USB drive. LyriQ will save it both as text and in the MP3 format.

Q . Is LyriQ portable?

A . Yes. LyriQ weighs 3 lbs only, and folds down flat to measure 12″ x 12″ x 2″.

Q . Does LyriQ have any advanced text navigation functions?

A . Yes. Using an optional keypad, you can navigate text by character, word, sentence, or paragraph.

< Click here for the Software Update Procedure >

Recent Testimonial:

“I purchased a LyriQ a few weeks ago. And I’m just calling to say how pleased I am with it. It’s so good.  I have just have to say how wonderful it is. It never fails to read what I need it to read. So it’s very good. I can read my own mail and do my own things.” – Olivia

LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader – No Keypad

The LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader is also available without the keypad. Go to this product page to learn more – https://nelowvision.com/product/lyriq-assistive-text-to-speech-reader-with-keypad/

November 2022 Upgrade

Read more at https://nelowvision.com/lyriq-assistive-text-to-speech-reader-change-notification/

Videos to help you learn more

In this video, Scott Krug, President and Co-Founder of New England Low Vision and Blindness, describes the many features of the LyriQ Assistive Text-to-Speech Reader

Sam from the Blind Life demonstrates LyriQ:

About New England Low Vision and Blindness

New England Low Vision and Blindness uniquely brings hope through technology, training, and care. We are a full-service assistive technology rehabilitation training provider. We offer nearly 100% of all major electronic  low vision ,  blindness , and  software  products, multiple assistive technology showrooms and a team of  Vision Technology Rehabilitation Trainers  to help anyone who is visually impaired.

We provide ‘patient choice’ showcasing numerous technology options from the world’s most respected suppliers, all in line with one’s individualized budgetary limits and personal, educational, or professional goals. We also provide custom training solutions and troubleshooting support.

Widely known, tested, and trusted throughout New England, our team brings 75+ years of low and blindness vision experience. Our talent, technology, and training offerings are unmatched and highly respected. We are an extremely unique and extraordinary resource for anyone suffering from vision loss in New England. We are here to help.

Through our no-obligation demonstrations - either at one of our conveniently located assistive technology showrooms or in their home, office, or school - clients experience a relaxed 2-hour no-obligation personal demonstration of almost 100% of all low vision and blindness technologies available on the market.

To learn more about how we Bring Hope to people who are blind or with low vision, contact a Technology Specialist at New England Low Vision and Blindness please call our toll-free number  888-211-6933  or email us at  [email protected] . You can also use the form above to request information about our services or a no-obligation demonstration on this or any of our products.

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What’s new in Voice Access

Learn about the latest changes and improvements for people who use Windows voice access to control their PC and author text using their voice.

This article is for people who want to control their PC and author text using their voice with Windows. This article is part of the  Accessibility support for Windows  content set where you can find more information on Windows accessibility features. For general help, visit  Microsoft Support home .

Voice access is a feature in Windows 11 that enables everyone to control their PC and author text using only their voice and without an internet connection. For example, you can open and switch between apps, browse the web, and read and author email using your voice. For more information, go to  Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice .

Voice access is available in Windows 11, version 22H2 and later. For more information on Windows 11 22H2 new features, and how to get the update, see What's new in recent Windows updates . Not sure which version of Windows you have? See: Find Windows version .

What’s new 

Auto restart for voice access.

In Windows 11, we have introduced auto restart for voice access. For people with limited mobility, this feature makes sure that voice access will restart automatically in the event of an issue, allowing them to resume using voice access as soon as possible. To reactivate voice access, users won't need to depend on other assistive technology or help from third parties. We are making it simpler to report crashes that cause voice access to restart automatically so that the team may investigate into them and work on fixes.

New Voice Access Command for Windows Search

We are introducing a new command for searching directly with Windows search. Users can now say the following commands to search for their desired application or file in Windows (“Entity” is replaced with whatever application or file you want to search.)

Search "Entity",

Search Windows for "Entity",

Search for "Entity"

Voice shortcuts

You can now create your own commands using the voice shortcuts feature in voice access. These commands can be customized for single actions, such as opening a link, or multiple actions performed in sequence.

To start, activate voice access and say the command "Open voice shortcuts."

On the Create new shortcut page, dictate the name for the command, choose one or multiple actions, and enter the necessary information. For details, go to  Use voice to create voice access shortcuts .

Note:  This feature is only available in English–US, English–UK, English–India, English–New Zealand, English–Canada, and English–Australia.

Voice access support on multiple displays

You can now use all voice access features across multiple displays. Previously, some features like number and grid overlays were limited to the primary display. The grid overlay feature has been improved to allow you to interact with the display you’re using and smoothly switch to another display when required. You can also use the drag & drop feature to move the files, apps, and documents between multiple displays.

Voice access in global languages

Voice access is now available in additional languages, including German, Spanish–Spain, Spanish–Mexico, French–France and French–Canada. 

When voice access is turned on for the first time, you will encounter a prompt to download a speech model to enable on-device recognition of voice data. If voice access doesn’t find a speech model matching your display language, you can still choose to proceed ahead to use voice access in English–US. 

You can always switch to a different language by navigating to Settings > Language on the voice access bar. 

Dictate text with voice access for Narrator users

Narrator, the built-in screen-reading application in Windows, now integrates with voice access. Use voice access to dictate text and listen to what you’ve dictated. You can also give commands to the Narrator using your voice, like “Turn on Narrator” or “Read selection.”

To access the full list of Narrator commands supported with voice access, click the  Help icon  on the voice access bar and select “View all commands,” then choose “Narrator commands.”

Note:  To learn more about Narrator, refer to the Complete guide to Narrator .

What works:

Starting and setting up voice access, including downloading a speech model.

Reading a list of voice access and Narrator commands from the voice access Help  menu.

Changing the voice access microphone state.

Dictating text with voice and hearing back what was dictated.

What doesn't work: 

Using voice access guide with a screen reader.

Core voice access features:

Using different voice access commands to get different tasks done.

Using “Click” commands or number overlays to interact with specific items on the screen.

Using grid overlays to control the mouse pointer.

Using text editing features such as corrections and spellings in voice access.

Press Alt+Tab to cycle through open applications and focus on the voice access UI.

If you're not using headphones with the screen reader, the voice access microphone might pick up the audio output from the screen reader, causing unwanted behavior.

Use voice access to control your PC & author text with your voice

Voice access Frequently Asked Questions

Technical support for customers with disabilities

Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.

If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk .

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Text-to-speech assistance technology: Best tools

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• Text-to-speech (TTS) assistive technology: Best tools

Recent research shows TTS apps are effective in learning

Choosing the right assistive technology tools: what to look for, how to get started: speechify.

Technology is improving our quality of life every day. Here’s how to choose the best text-to-speech assistive technology tools for your needs!

Text-to-speech ( TTS ) assistive technology: Best tools

Text-to-speech apps are software that turn text into speech. Most of them use OCR-based technology (optical character recognition). This means that they can recognize characters in text documents as well as pictures and turn them into  speech.

At their core, these are assistive apps. They can help people with learning disabilities like dyslexia to enjoy the content that would previously be almost impossible for them. On the other hand, they also allow us to listen to articles and text documents while multitasking with other activities like driving or doing chores.

To get the most out of your text-to-speech experience, it’s necessary to try different tools before you can choose the perfect one. Luckily, they’re a dime a dozen. Many of them are also free, which is a great way to familiarize yourself with the tech before spending your hard-earned money. But don’t worry—you don’t have to try all of them. Follow along as we explain how to pick a TTS tool that will suit your needs the best.

Getting the most out of text-to-speech

There are many reasons people use text-to-speech software. Yet, only a few do it just for fun. As such, to get the most out of them, it’s essential to have a purpose. One common reason to use a TTS app would be if you had a learning disability like dyslexia or a visual impairment that restricts you from reading and writing. Luckily, with the use of a TTS app, one can easily overcome such obstacles.

Another common purpose for the use of TTS software would be to enjoy your favorite book while doing something else that requires your full attention. For example, if you’re driving, you can paste your book into the app, and it will read the text aloud to you . The same goes for any other activity that restricts you from reading. Multitaskers delight in turning everything they can think of into audiobooks!

Aside from overcoming reading difficulties and entertainment, these software programs are useful to get in touch with the latest technology. After all, in a day and age of constant tech development, it’s easy to find yourself behind. So, we’d recommend getting on the text-to-speech tool bandwagon sooner rather than later. TTS apps are now commonplace in video production, improving website accessibility, creating memes, and more.

In the last couple of years, several studies explored how text-to-speech technology affects students. All of them were conducted in a similar pattern. Two groups of students were formed, with one group given TTS software to assist them in overcoming educational material—and a control group without. The results were unanimous. Students without text-to-speech tools would provide far worse results than those with software like Speechify and its alternatives.

But these studies didn’t just focus on the improvement of students’ reading skills. Instead, they would also suggest that TTS apps help learners better understand words, and concepts, as well as motivate them to keep learning. This was especially evident for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, visual impairments, brain injuries, and emotional instabilities. As such, it’s safe to assume that text-to-speech apps are the future of special education.

Before you can start to enjoy turning the written word into speech, you need to consider two main things. First, not all TTS tools are compatible with your device, operating system, and web browser. You should, therefore, research if the software you’re looking to use has a version for your smartphone or computer, as well as the web browsers you use (Chrome, Safari, Microsoft, etc.).

On the other hand, what are you looking for in a text-to-speech application? Is it for educational or entertainment purposes? The thing is, not all TTS software programs will suit both needs. This is why it’s essential to choose the right one. Luckily for you, a screen reader like Speechify checks all the boxes—from versatility to user-friendliness to performance.

Best new assistive technology tools

• Speechify: Speechify is the answer to all your text-to-speech-related needs. It’s a high-end piece of software that uses OCR, machine learning, and advanced AI to turn what you read into speech on all platforms. The versatility of Speechify is above all other TTS tools, as well as its easy-to-use interface. It can help with learning difficulties, dictation, and making school literature way more engaging and fun. The lifelike voices, customization options, and accessibility across platforms and devices simply can’t be beat!
• Voice Dream : Voice Dream reader is a popular piece of TTS software. It gets the job done for both students with learning disabilities and people who generally enjoy listening more than reading. Still, Voice Dream does have its downsides. It isn’t free, and it’s also only available for iOS platforms and Android. There isn’t a version for Windows-based computers.
• Wideo : Although primarily a video-creating platform, Wideo offers text-to-speech services, too. This is one of the features that sets it apart from other software of its kind out there. It’s an easy-to-use tool that pretty much gets the job done for TikTok users. But since it’s not a TTS tool at its core, the audio might sound a bit lifeless compared to other options.
• Nextup: TextAloud from Nextup is another popular TTS tool on the market. It’s a solid companion for everyone using Windows-based computers, as it works particularly well with Microsoft Word as well as web pages. It also comes along with productivity and proofreading tools. The only issue with it is that it isn’t available for iPhones, iPads, and other Apple products, as well as Android mobile devices.
• Azure Text to Speech : Azure is Microsoft’s very own answer to TTS technology, and it offers a range of features for its users. It advertises itself as having lifelike speech as well as fully customizable voices. Additionally, you can fiddle with audio controls such as speed, pitch, and pauses. Still, as it’s a Microsoft product, Azure isn’t available for Mac and Apple smartphones.
• Google Cloud Text-to-Speech: Next up, we need to mention Google’s text-to-speech application. It’s a great match for anyone using the Google Chrome browser on an Android device or a PC. This app includes support for numerous languages and is a reliable pick for anyone on a tight budget. Still, there’s a certain limit of monthly characters that it can read for free. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay to use it in an unlimited fashion.
• Amazon Polly : Similarly to the above-mentioned TTS programs, Amazon Polly is a proper tool to turn text into speech. It’s uses OCR technology, as well as machine learning, that can make your reading easier. There’s a free version of Amazon Polly, but it doesn’t provide many options. Hence, if you’re looking for high-quality features to overcome dyslexia, it might not be a perfect choice for you.

OCR, AI, and machine learning are what makes Speechify accomplish numerous tasks. Nevertheless, there are several ways that you can use this TTS application. It’s versatile, and that’s what makes it stand out from the rest.

To get started, you’ll need to download the appropriate version for your device. It works on iOS operating systems, as well as on Android smartphones. On the other hand, if you’re looking to use it on a computer, you can also install the macOS or Windows version.

Once you install it on your device, you can run any text through it by simply pasting it into the application. Then again, if you want Speechify to read aloud another format (e.g., a photo) you can do that as well, thanks to some OCR magic.

Speechify is among the best read&write programs out there, and you’ll see that immediately once you download it. It will increase your reading skills, and concentration levels, as well as make you fall in love with old books that you simply don’t have the time to read. So what are you waiting for? Check out Speechify and all the things you can do with it now!

Kurzweil vs. Read&Write: A Breakdown

Celebrity Voice Generators: A How to

Cliff Weitzman

Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.

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More From Forbes

Apple intelligence to bring personal ai to mac, iphone and ipad.

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Apple Intelligence summary slide from WWDC 2024

Apple has incorporated its Neural Engine Neural Processing Unit into all Apple processors for several generations, using it for local machine learning such as intelligent photo processing. During its recent Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, Apple announced that it is now going use those Neural Engines to bring generative and large language models that can run on-device on its main Apple products. This is classic Apple approach, laying the groundwork well in advance but then releasing a new product feature when it feels it can bring the right “Apple” level user experience and solve customer pain points.

After the first hour of the keynote describing updates to the various Apple operating systems (hey, iPad got an amazing calculator), Apple’s CEO Tim Cook introduced the company’s answer to generative AI—Apple Intelligence. It will be able to run on local devices, but there will also be an Apple Cloud element for more complex queries and even the option to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other third-party generative AI products. This allows Apple users to chose privacy or get additional functionality from third-party solutions, allowing Apple to remain competitive with Microsoft and Google.

Cook indicated that they wanted to build an AI that was powerful enough to be effective, intuitive enough to be easy to use, personal enough to be a true assistant, and be deeply integrated into the Apple experience with privacy incorporated from the ground up. He called Apple Intelligence personal intelligence. Apple Intelligence will be released in the fall on iOS 18, iPad OS 18 and MacOS “Sequoia.”

Not all Apple products will be able to support Apple Intelligence—only Mac and iPad products with M-series processors (all the way back to M1) and last year’s iPhone 15 Pro with the A17Pro processor. In addition to a certain level of TOPs (tera operations per second) performance required for the Neural Engine in the Apple silicon, it also appears that Apple needs at least 8GB of DRAM to hold the genAI models (The A16 Bionic processor from the iPhone 14 Pro only has 6GB of DRAM, but a 17 TOPS neural engine, more than the M1 and M2 processors).

Apple Silicon Support for Apple Intelligence

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Because Apple has been incorporating the Neural Engine NPU for several generations of Apple silicon, it allows Apple to run Apple Intelligence on older systems, unlike Microsoft which is requiring new AI PC silicon in order to run Copilot+ features on PCs. This could be a significant advantage for Apple as it rolls out Apple Intelligence to a wider ecosystem already in place without having to build a brand-new ecosystem and installed base as Microsoft is attempting to do. In fact, Apple will support Apple Intelligence as far back as the 2020 edition of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, which used the M1 processor.

The initial applications of Apple Intelligence were rather modest in scope. Initially, it will be used to enhance Apple existing services. But, in conjunction with Siri, it will also be able to take certain actions on your behalf across Apple Apps.

Because Apple Intelligence will be deeply integrated into the operating system and will be able to use your personal context, Apple hopes it will become a tightly integrated part of Apple product interfaces. The company will also be using Apple Intelligence to supercharge the Siri personal assistant, with better natural language processing and onscreen context awareness. Apple Intelligence is also multimodal, including speech, written language and images.

Apple will have an improved Siri using AI for richer language processing and adding better understanding of relevant on-device context. Apple will also add typing as an input to Siri. The enhanced Siri can be used for feature descriptions for control functions or to find information, even across apps. It will also have on-screen awareness of the information on the display screen when in use.

For example, while Apple didn't focus on genAI doing the creative writing for you, the company talked about how Apple Intelligence will be able to rewrite, proofread and summarize existing work. This may be Apple’s way to avoid the issue of genAI replacing creative professionals.

Another example is in Apple Mail, where you can use the genAI function to summarize an e-mail instead of just seeing the first few lines. It can also prioritize important messages and notifications and reduce notifications of less important messages.

One of the more fun uses of this new Apple Intelligence will be the creation of custom AI generated emoji characters, which Apple is calling “Genmoji.” The Image Playground will use a description (text or spoken) describing the image and the style to generate these customized emoji. The image generator can use your own picture library for the image generation. Apple Intelligence will allow natural language image search on photos and videos and allow you to create your own memory movie based on your inputs.

While Apple Intelligence has some distinct boundaries on functionality and privacy, Apple is providing support in Siri for third-party genAI solutions such as ChatGPT. However, the user will have to explicitly grant permissions to ChatGPT. Apple’s writing and images tools, such as Compose, will support ChatGPT for free and allows access to premium ChatGPT subscriptions directly through the Apple interfaces.

With a collection of new API's and AppIntents frameworks it will also be possible for third-party applications to utilize the Apple Intelligence genAI services on device.

The goal of Apple Intelligence is to make your interface with the PC, phone or tablet grounded with personal information and real-time screen information capture. This gives the local AI context using real time and personalized information. Privacy can be maintained by keeping the data on-device.

Apple Intelligence is based on compact large language and diffusion foundation models that can access an in-device sematic index of the personal data. More details can be found on this Apple blog post . The Apple Intelligence on-device foundation model is about 8 billion parameters. Apple uses a Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) adapter for a mix of 2-bit and 4-bit integer quantization to reduce the model size and memory requirements, without losing accuracy.

If the local model cannot handle the complexity of the request. Apple has created a specialized server for larger models it calls Private Cloud Compute. Apple uses its own silicon for these servers. More details are provided in this detailed blog post from Apple. The process is that if Apple evaluates that the on-device AI is insufficient; it sends relevant data to PCC to process.

Apple has taken a very conservative approach to AI by adding easy to integrate enhancements to existing functions for its Mac, iPad and iPhone products. Support for older products also builds in a larger installed base which will entice developers. What was missing from the supported products was the Apple Vision Pro XR headset. Here’s a place where adding AI support for hands-free task directives would be greatly appreciated. Also, generative images would be even more profound in mixed reality. We will have to wait until the fall release of the Apple Intelligence functions to see the impact on battery life and how it performs compared with Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs.

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Multimodal Large Language Models with Fusion Low Rank Adaptation for Device Directed Speech Detection

Authors Shruti Palaskar, Oggi Rudovic, Sameer Dharur, Florian Pesce, Gautam Krishna, Aswin Sivaraman, Jack Berkowitz, Ahmed Hussen Abdelaziz, Saurabh Adya, Ahmed Tewfik

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Although Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise for human-like conversations, they are primarily pre-trained on text data. Incorporating audio or video improves performance, but collecting large-scale multimodal data and pre-training multimodal LLMs is challenging. To this end, we propose a Fusion Low Rank Adaptation (FLoRA) technique that efficiently adapts a pre-trained unimodal LLM to consume new, previously unseen modalities via low rank adaptation. For device-directed speech detection, using FLoRA, the multimodal LLM achieves 22% relative reduction in equal error rate (EER) over the text-only approach and attains performance parity with its full fine-tuning (FFT) counterpart while needing to tune only a fraction of its parameters. Furthermore, with the newly introduced adapter dropout, FLoRA is robust to missing data, improving over FFT by 20% lower EER and 56% lower false accept rate. The proposed approach scales well for model sizes from 16M to 3B parameters.

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A multi-signal large language model for device-directed speech detection, multimodal data and resource efficient device-directed speech detection with large foundation models.

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