Text to Speech — 30+ Voices, Free, In Browser
Type any text and hear it spoken in dozens of voices and languages. Adjustable speed and pitch, optional audio download. Runs locally.
Why does “Record while playing” ask to share my screen?
Speech synthesis output isn't exposed as a normal audio stream you can record directly. The only cross-browser way to capture it is via tab/screen audio capture (getDisplayMedia). When the dialog opens, pick “Chrome Tab” or “This tab” and tick “Share tab audio” / “Share audio”. Safari doesn't support this, so download is unavailable there.
About this tool
WRRK's text-to-speech tool is a thin wrapper around the Web Speech API that ships in every modern browser. The voices you see in the dropdown are the ones your operating system has installed — that's why macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android each show a different list. We add a language filter, fine-grained speed and pitch controls, and an optional audio capture path that uses MediaRecorder to record the playback so you can download a WebM/WAV file.
Use it for accessibility (read articles aloud), language learning (hear pronunciations in any voice), proof-listening to your own writing (catches awkward phrasing the eye misses), or generating quick voice-overs for video. For studio-quality AI voices (ElevenLabs-style neural TTS) you'll want a paid API; the Web Speech API gives you good system voices for free with zero downloads, zero latency, and no rate limits. The 5,000-character cap per play prevents the engine from cutting off long inputs.
How to use it (5 steps)
- Type or paste text. Drop up to 5,000 characters into the textarea.
- Pick a voice. Filter by language, then pick a voice from your OS's installed voice list.
- Adjust speed and pitch. Use the sliders — 1.0x speed and 1.0 pitch is natural; 1.2x is good for browsing, 1.5x for skimming.
- Play, pause, stop. Click 'Play' to hear the text. You can pause and resume mid-sentence or stop entirely.
- Optionally record. On Chrome/Edge/Firefox, click 'Record while playing' to capture the audio and download it.
Use cases
- Accessibility — read web articles or notes aloud
- Language learning — hear pronunciation in different accents
- Proof-listening — catch awkward sentences in your writing
- Quick voice-overs for short videos and demos
- Reading bedtime stories from typed text
- Practicing presentations by listening to your script back
Frequently asked questions
+−What languages and voices are available?
The voice list comes from your operating system / browser — Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS each ship a different set. Typical desktop has 30–80 voices across English (US/UK/IN/AU), Hindi, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic and more. Use the language filter to narrow them down.
+−Is the text I type sent anywhere?
Speech synthesis runs through the browser's built-in Web Speech API. On most platforms (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) the voices are local — nothing leaves your device. On a few cloud-backed voices in Chrome, the text may be sent to Google's voice service to render. We don't see, log, or store anything either way.
+−Why are some voices marked unavailable or missing?
Voices are provided by your OS, not our app. Some voices ship by default; others are on-demand downloads (System Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content on macOS, Settings → Time & Language → Speech on Windows). Once installed they appear in the dropdown automatically.
+−Can I save the audio to a file?
Yes — click 'Record while playing'. The browser captures the spoken audio via MediaRecorder and gives you a downloadable WebM/WAV file. This works in Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. Safari blocks programmatic capture of speech synthesis output, so download isn't supported there.
+−Does this work on mobile browsers?
Yes — Safari iOS and Chrome Android both support the Web Speech API natively. Voice availability differs from desktop; iOS has Apple's Siri voices, Android has Google's TTS voices. The recording feature is desktop-only on Safari but works on Android Chrome.
+−How long can the text be?
We cap the textarea at 5,000 characters per playback (about 4 minutes of speech). The Web Speech API handles longer text just fine, but very long inputs sometimes get cut off by browser timeouts. For long articles, split into 2–3 chunks.
+−Why does the same text sound different in different browsers?
Each browser uses a different speech engine. Chrome on macOS uses Apple's voices; Chrome on Windows uses SAPI 5 voices; Firefox uses its own. Picking the same voice in two browsers should sound similar, but timing and prosody can differ slightly.
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