Free · No sign-up · Runs in your browser
Free Text to Speech.
Paste in any text and have it read aloud using your own browser’s built-in voices — instantly, with nothing ever sent to a server.
Not uploaded — nobody sees it Live playback No length limit worth mentioning No subscription or account
Text to read aloud
Voice
Speed
1
Pitch
1
Your text never leaves this browser tab — it’s read aloud using your device’s own built-in voices. It never reaches a server, so we never see it, copy it or keep it.
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Text to speech: quick facts
Have your browser read text aloud.
Updated
- Price
- Free, no sign-up.
- Voices
- Your device’s own voices, with speed and pitch controls.
- Length
- Up to 6,000 characters at a time.
- Not available
- Downloading the audio as a file.
- Privacy
- On-device voices read your text in the browser; Altto never receives it.
How it works
How to have text read aloud
Paste up to 6,000 characters, pick a voice, set the speed and pitch, and press Play. Pause or stop at any time.
- 01
Paste or type your text
Anything from a sentence to a full article.
- 02
Pick a voice, speed and pitch
Choose from the voices already installed on your device.
- 03
Press play
Listen right there in your browser tab.
Tips
Tips for clearer listening
The voices come from your own device, so a few small choices make a big difference to how natural they sound.
- Try a few voicesThe list depends on your device and browser, and some voices sound far more natural than others. Play the same sentence with two or three before settling on one.
- Slow it down to proofreadSpeed runs from half to double normal pace. Listening to your writing a little slower than normal is one of the best ways to catch missing words and repeated phrases.
- Help the voice with tricky wordsVoices can stumble over abbreviations, codes and unusual names. Writing them out, such as “Doctor” for “Dr”, or spacing out a reference like “A B 1 2”, makes them read clearly.
- Read long documents in partsThe box takes up to 6,000 characters at a time, about 1,000 words. For longer pieces, paste a section at a time, or open the file in Word Counter and use its Read aloud button.
Like every Altto tool, this runs on your device — nothing you add is uploaded. How Altto works
6,000
characters can be read in one go: roughly 1,000 words, or about seven minutes of listening at normal speed.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Where the voices come from, and what the tool can and can’t do.
Where do the voices come from?
From your own browser and operating system — the same voices used by your device's built-in screen reader or accessibility tools. Altto doesn't add, host or process any audio.
Why don't I see many voices, or only one?
Voice availability depends on your browser and operating system. Chrome and Edge on Windows or macOS usually offer the widest choice; some mobile browsers offer fewer. Installing additional system voices (in your OS accessibility settings) will add more options here.
Can I download the audio as a file?
Not from this tool. There's no reliable, cross-browser way to capture your system's built-in speech synthesis as an audio file — it plays directly through your device's audio, the same way a screen reader does.
Is my text sent anywhere?
Not by Altto. The voices listed are the ones that run on your own device, so your text is turned into speech right here in the browser. Some browsers also offer online voices run by Google or Microsoft, which send the text away to be spoken; Altto leaves those out, and only lists them, marked “online”, if your device has no voices of its own.
Is there a length limit?
You can enter up to 6,000 characters at a time — plenty for an article, a script or a long paragraph.
Can it read a PDF or Word document?
Not directly, as it reads text you paste in. Open the document, copy the text and paste it here, or open the file in Word Counter, which reads PDF and Word files and has its own Read aloud button.
Is there a better option for reading whole websites?
Your device has a screen reader built in that reads apps and web pages as you move around them: Narrator on Windows, VoiceOver on Mac and iPhone, and TalkBack on Android. This tool is best for listening to a particular piece of text.
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