Read text aloud with your browser's built-in voices: free, no API key, and nothing ever leaves your device.
This tool is free and needs no API key. Voices come from your operating system and browser (the same ones your screen reader uses), so what you hear depends on what is installed on your device. Your text is never uploaded anywhere; playback happens entirely on your device.
Your browser does not support speech synthesis (the Web Speech API). Try a current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari, all of which include it by default.
The list is filled by your browser. Fewer options than expected? Install additional language packs in your operating system settings, then reload this page.
0.5x is half speed, 2.0x is double speed.
Lower values sound deeper, higher values brighter.
Listening to text uses a different part of your brain than reading it, which is exactly why reading aloud works: clunky sentences, repeated words, and missing logic pop out instantly when you hear them. This tool turns any pasted text into spoken audio using the Web Speech API built into every modern browser. Pick a voice installed on your device, set the speed and pitch, and play. Common uses include proofreading drafts by ear, resting tired eyes during long reading sessions, reviewing study notes, and hearing how an email sounds before you send it.
Unlike AI voice services, this tool is completely free and completely local. There is no API key, no account, and no upload: your text is synthesized into audio by your own operating system's speech engine, and it never leaves your device. The trade-off is that browser voices are more utilitarian than commercial AI narration, fine for proofreading and personal listening, less suited to publishing polished audio. Voice quality and language coverage depend on what your OS ships; desktop operating systems generally offer more voices than mobile ones.
Playback controls are standard: Play starts from the top of the text, Pause suspends and resumes mid-sentence, and Stop cancels playback entirely. The reverse direction is handled by the Speech to Text tool, which transcribes audio and video files. To clean up a draft before listening, try the AI Grammar Fixer, or count reading time first with Word Counter.
Yes. It runs on the Web Speech API that ships with your browser, using voices installed on your operating system. There is nothing to sign up for, no key to paste, and no usage limit beyond your own patience. Kit Utility also never sees the text you enter.
Browsers expose the voices provided by the operating system. Desktop Windows, macOS, and Linux distributions each bundle a different set, and mobile systems expose fewer. To get more voices, install additional language or speech packs in your operating system settings, then reload this page.
No. The Web Speech API plays audio directly to your speakers and provides no way to capture the stream in the browser. If you need a downloadable audio file of spoken text, you need a dedicated TTS service; this tool focuses on free, private live playback.
The box accepts 100,000 characters. Very long texts can hit engine-specific limits on some browsers, and Chrome in particular may pause during lengthy passages; pressing Pause then Play resumes from where it stalled. For book-length text, play it chapter by chapter.
Each browser negotiates with the operating system differently: some prefer local voices, some offer network voices from the OS vendor, and priority order varies. The same voice name can also map to different engines. If one browser sounds robotic, try another; quality differences are often dramatic.