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Sometimes you want to listen instead of read: a long article while you cook, an essay you want to proofread by ear, a story for a child, a word whose pronunciation you are not sure of. The Text to Speech tool reads any text out loud in your browser. It is simple to use, but the quality depends on something many people do not realise: the voices come from your device, not from the website. This guide explains what that means for you.
How to use it, step by step
- Open Text to Speech in Chrome, Edge or Safari. If your browser has no speech feature, the page tells you so.
- Paste your text into the box. For longer text, there is a + button under the box that adds a plain text file such as a
.txtof up to 2 MB. - Open Voice & language and pick a voice. Each entry shows a name and a language code, such as
hi-INfor Hindi oren-INfor English in India. - Slide Speed and Pitch to taste. The current value is shown next to each label.
- Press ▶ Speak. While it speaks, the button changes to ❚❚ Pause, and ■ Stop becomes active.
- Press Pause to hold your place and Resume to carry on. Stop cancels the reading, and the next Speak starts from the beginning.
When the page opens, it picks a voice for you: an Indian-English voice if your device has one, otherwise your device’s default voice. If you press Speak while it is already talking, the old reading stops and the new one begins, so you never get two voices on top of each other.
Where the voices come from
Your browser has a built-in speech feature that asks the operating system to read text. The operating system (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS) and sometimes the browser supply the voices. The website only sends the text and asks for a voice, speed and pitch. That is why this tool does not need an account and does not upload your text anywhere.
- 1The page hands over your textIt also sends the voice, the speed and the pitch you chose.
- 2Your device picks the voiceThe voice list comes from your phone or computer, so you may see more voices on one device than another.
- 3Speech is created and playedSome voices are stored on the device and work offline. Some, often with “Google” or an online service in the name, may need an internet connection.
- 4You control itPause, resume or stop at any time.
Because the voice belongs to the device, the same text can sound quite different on a phone and on a laptop.
What Speed and Pitch really change
| Control | Range | At the middle | Use it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 0.5× to 2× in steps of 0.1 | 1.0× is the voice’s normal pace | Slow down for learning or difficult words, speed up to get through a long text |
| Pitch | 0.5 to 2 in steps of 0.1 | 1.0 is the voice’s normal tone | Make the voice lower or higher. Extreme values sound odd |
Speed changes how fast the same words are spoken. Pitch changes how high or low the voice is. Neither changes the words.
A good starting point is 1.0× for both. For proofreading, 0.8× to 1.0× helps your ear catch mistakes. For listening to a long article, many people find 1.25× to 1.5× comfortable. Above about 1.75×, most voices start to blur words together.
How long will it take to read my text
A natural speaking pace is often put at roughly 150 words a minute. The exact rate of a given voice varies, so treat these as estimates. Use the Word Counter to count your words first.
| Text length | 0.8× | 1.0× | 1.25× | 1.5× | 2.0× |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 words (a page) | 2.5 min | 2.0 min | 1.6 min | 1.3 min | 1.0 min |
| 1,000 words (a long article) | 8.3 min | 6.7 min | 5.3 min | 4.4 min | 3.3 min |
| 3,000 words (a short story) | 25 min | 20 min | 16 min | 13 min | 10 min |
Calculated at 150 words per minute. The tool does not show a timer, so this is a planning guide.
Doubling the speed halves the time, but comprehension drops faster than the time does. Slower is better for anything you need to remember.
Hindi text to speech: getting a Hindi voice
This is the question people ask most. The tool shows the voices your device has. If you open the list and see no entry marked hi-IN, then your device has no Hindi voice installed or enabled, and the tool has nothing to switch to. Reading Hindi text with an English voice produces strange, wrong sounds.
- 1Check the list againOpen Voice & language and look for
hi-IN. Voices sometimes load a moment after the page opens. - 2Try another browserChrome, Edge and Safari can expose different voices on the same device. Chrome often adds extra online voices.
- 3Install a voice on the deviceIn your phone or computer settings, look for Text-to-speech, Spoken content or Speech, and add Hindi. The menu names differ between Android, iPhone, Windows and Mac.
- 4Reload the pageClose the tab and open it again so the new voice appears in the list.
Menu names change between versions, so search your settings for “text-to-speech” or “spoken content” rather than following a fixed path.
The same is true for any language: choose the voice that matches the language of the text. A mixed sentence reads best when the voice matches the main language.
Getting better results from any voice
- Add the punctuation you want to hear. A full stop gives a pause, a comma gives a shorter one, and a line break gives a gap. Long unpunctuated sentences sound breathless.
- Spell out what you want spoken. Write “rupees” instead of “Rs.”, “and” instead of “&”, and “fifty per cent” if a voice gets “50%” wrong. Try a short test first.
- Separate numbers and codes. A phone number is easier to follow written as “98765 43210” than as one run of digits.
- Break very long text into parts. On some browsers and voices, a very long passage can stop part-way. If that happens, paste the rest and start again from there.
- Keep the page open. On many phones, the reading may stop if you switch to another app or lock the screen, because the browser pauses the page.
If your text is currently locked inside a picture or scanned page, first get it out with OCR. If you want to change capital letters before listening, the Case Converter can do it. And if you want the opposite direction, to speak and get text, the voice typing guide covers it.
What this tool does not do
- Reads your text out loud now
- Lets you pick the device’s voice, speed and pitch
- Pause, resume and stop
- Keeps your text on your device
- Does not save the speech as an audio file
- Does not offer voices that your device does not have
- Does not show a timer or a text highlight as it reads
If you need an audio file, you need a service that renders speech to a file. Recording speaker sound with a microphone gives a poor result.
This is the honest limit of any browser-based reader: it speaks through your device and does not hand you the audio. For converting an existing video into sound, you can use Video to MP3, which is a different job. If the aim is to check how a text reads for the ear, the readability measure in the Flesch reading ease guide is a good companion.
Questions people ask
How do I make my phone read text aloud?
Open the Text to Speech tool, paste your text, choose a voice, set the speed and press Speak. Use Pause and Resume to control it, and Stop to cancel. The voice is the one your phone already has.
Text ko awaz mein kaise badle?
Text to Speech tool kholiye, text paste kijiye, Voice & language mein voice chuniye aur Speak dabaiye. Hindi ke liye hi-IN wali voice chahiye. Agar list mein nahi hai to apne phone ya computer ki settings mein Hindi voice install kijiye.
Why is there no Hindi voice in the list?
The tool shows only the voices your device and browser provide. If no hi-IN voice appears, install Hindi in your device’s text-to-speech or spoken-content settings, try another browser such as Chrome, and then reload the page.
Can I download the speech as an MP3?
No. The tool plays the speech through your device and does not create an audio file. For an audio file you would need a service that renders speech to a file.
What do Speed and Pitch do?
Speed sets how fast the words are spoken, from 0.5× to 2×. Pitch makes the voice lower or higher, from 0.5 to 2. Neither changes the words. 1.0 for both is the voice’s normal setting.
Does it work offline?
It can, if you pick a voice that is stored on your device. Some voices, often with an online service in the name, may need an internet connection. The page itself must also be open and loaded.
Why did the reading stop in the middle of a long text?
Some browsers and voices stop on very long passages, or when the page is in the background or the screen is locked. Paste the remaining part and press Speak again, and keep the page open.
Is my text uploaded?
No. The text is handed to your browser’s speech feature on your device. Toolcloak does not receive or store it. Online voices may send text to their own service, so avoid private text with those.