text to speech on device

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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What Is Text-to-Speech (TTS)?

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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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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.

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ReadSpeaker’s Blog

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.

STEM topics are notoriously hard to teach using most text-to-speech programs. Here’s how ReadSpeaker can help students of all abilities learn math.

Confused by all the hype surrounding custom AI voices? These five facts cut through the noise to help you get the TTS voice you need.

Want to get the most out of your Moodle LMS? Then you need to understand the Moodle Certified Partner Network. Learn all about it here.

Building your first Adobe Captivate course? You’ll probably need a voice over. Find out how to produce one here.

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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

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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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The 7 Best Text-to-Speech Apps for Android

Text-to-speech is a handy feature on your Android phone even if you don't have a disability. These text-to-speech apps take it to the next level.

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.

Best free text-to-speech software of 2024

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

• Best overall
• Best custom voice
• Best for beginners
• Best Microsoft extension
• Best website reader
• How to choose
• How we test

1. Best overall 2. Best custom voice 3. Best for beginners 4. Best Microsoft extension 5. Best website reader 6. FAQs 7. How to choose 8. 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:

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the entries on our best free text-to-speech software list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.

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, ' 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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Run Google Cloud Speech AI locally, no internet connection required

Calum barnes.

Product Manager, Cloud Speech

We’ve all been there— asking a voice assistant to play a song, launch an app, or answer a question, but the assistant doesn’t comply. Maybe it’s a network outage, or maybe you’re in the middle of nowhere, far away from coverage—either way the result is the same: the voice assistant can’t connect to the server and thus cannot help. 

With our Speech-to-Text (STT) API now processing over 1 billion minutes of speech each month, it’s clear that voice assistants — and Automatic Voice Recognition (ASR) in general — are essential to how millions of people make decisions and navigate their lives. Typically, however, to successfully provide high-quality speech results to consumers, the AI systems responsible for ASR have needed a stable cloud connection to specialized hardware.

With Speech On-Device, which went into GA at Google Cloud Next ‘22, we’re excited to  embed the powerful speech recognition available in the cloud for a  variety of new use cases in environments with inconsistent, little, or no internet connectivity.  These on-device Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech technologies have already been used in Google Assistant, but with Speech On-Device, a new generation of apps and services can harness this technology. 

Build speech experiences with–or without–network connectivity 

From cars that drive through tunnels, to apps running on integrated devices like kiosks, to IoT devices, Speech On-Device delivers server-quality voice capabilities with a fraction of the processing power—all while helping to maintain privacy by keeping data on the local device. 

Running locally is made possible by new modeling techniques, on both the Speech-to-Text (STT) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) fronts.

For Speech-to-Text (or ASR), years of work on our end-to-end Speech models, such as our latest conformer models , has decreased the size and compute necessary to run fully-featured speech models. These advancements have resulted in quality comparable to that of a server, while still allowing for models that are lightweight enough to run on local devices CPUs. 

For Text-to-Speech, we leverage new technology developed at Google to bring high-quality voice into vehicles. Speech On-Device TTS not only provides acoustic quality comparable to our WaveNet technology, DeepMind’s breakthrough model for generating more natural-sounding speech , but it also is significantly less computationally demanding and can easily run on embedded CPUs without the need for accelerators.

Speech On-Device is easy for developers to get started with. Each system (STT and TTS) provides customers with a binary, built for their specific hardware, operating system, and software environment. This binary exposes a local gRPC interface that other services on the device can talk to, making it easy for multiple services to access speech recognition or speech synthesis as they need to, without additional libraries or integration.  

Each model is only a couple hundred megabytes in size. The entire system can run on the single core of a modern ARM-based System on Chip (SoC) while still achieving latencies usable for real-time interactions. This means it can be added to existing systems without worrying about acceleration or optimization. And, as with all Cloud Speech-to-Text API models, Speech On-Device is built to work directly out-of-the-box, with no training or customization necessary. 

Join the Google Cloud customers already using Speech On-Device

We’re excited to see the new speech-driven experiences that organizations will build with this service—especially after seeing Speech On-Device’s early adopters in action. For example, Toyota is leveraging Speech On-Device as Ryan Wheeler — Vice President, Machine Learning at Toyota Connected North America — discussed in a Google Cloud Next ‘22 session . 

If you are interested in Speech On-Device, there is a review process to help assess whether your use case is aligned with our best practices. To get started, contact your seller today .

Google Cloud Text-to-Speech API now supports custom voices

Google Cloud’s Text-to-Speech API now supports custom voices to help businesses differentiate their brands and deliver better customer experiences.

By Calum Barnes • 2-minute read

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Text to speech with natural sounding voices.

     4.5/520M+ downloads

Read aloud docs, articles, PDFs, email — anything you read — by listening with our leading text-to-speech reader for desktop and mobile devices.

Enjoy text to speech in 30+ languages with multiple voices in each language that sounds natural. You can try it for free, today!

Text to speech demo. See how it works.

Best text to speech for chrome, ios, android, & safari, enjoy text to speech on all your devices, with one subscription. cloud storage included..

Text to speech Chrome extension

Listen to any text on your laptop or desktop. read aloud with the speechify text-to-speech extension for chrome. ​, text to speech for ios, get the #1 rated app for text-to-speech in the app store. speechify can read books, documents, and articles while you cook, work out, commute, or any other activity you can think of., text to speech android app, speechify is a text to speech (tts) screen reader that can read any text, pdf, document, book, email, file, or article online out loud on your phone., safari tts extension, text to speech api, speechify powers the star tribune, the direct, and more. easily add text-to-speech to your website.​, how speechify works.

Using Speechify on text-to-speech is a breeze. It takes only a few minutes and you’ll be off, listening to all those words turn into high-quality, natural-sounding audio.

• Install it for free on any device
• Select your voice and speed
• Listen to any text
• Scan books to turn them into audiobooks

Learn more about text-to-speech online.

Install Speechify anywhere, free

Turn almost any text into natural sounding audio, instantly

Chrome Extension

Android App

Safari Extension

What is text to speech

Text to speech is also known as TTS, read aloud, or even speech synthesis. It simply means using artificial intelligence to read words aloud be; it from a PDF , email, docs, or any website.  There isn’t a voice artist recording phrases or words, or even the entire article. Speech generation is done on-the-fly, in real time, with AI.

And that’s the beauty of it all. You don’t have to wait. You simply press play and artificial intelligence makes the words come alive instantly, in a very natural sounding voice. You can change voices and accents across multiple languages.

Turn every article into a podcast or audiobook. Have hard copies of your favorite books? Easily scan them and turn them into your personal library audiobooks.

You don’t have to rely on other audiobook publishers.

Speechify text to speech reviews

Get started with text to speech

And begin removing barriers to reading.

Try for free

Text to speech features

Listen at any speed.

Our high-quality AI voices can read up to 9x faster than the average reading speed, so you can learn even more in less time. While it isn’t easy to listen to 900 words per minute, but who are we to limit what you are capable of? Most other text to speech readers do go that fast. Try us out today. Ease into 380 words per minute and train your ears to listen faster and slowly increase the speed to as fast as you need it to be.

Listen on desktop or mobile devices

Anything you’ve saved to your Speechify library instantly syncs across devices so you can listen to anything, anywhere, anytime.

Natural-sounding human voices

Our reading voices sound more fluid and human-like than any other AI reader so you can understand and remember more.

Listen to any book on your shelf

Use the app to snap a pic of a page in any book and hear it read out loud to you.

Multi lingual and high quality natural sounding voices

Speechify offers high-fidelity, most natural sounding voices that sound very human like. Easily select your language, then the voice in your language and enjoy natural sounding native sounding text to speech. Speechify is available in 30+ languages with multiple voices within each language. Enjoy Speechify in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, & Ukrainian.

Everything is an audiobook or a podcast

Reading your favorite blog, news article, or a lengthy PDF but it’s time to work out? No problem. Simply press play and Speechify will convert your article into an instant audiobook. You don’t have to be stuck to a screen to read.

Text to speech use cases

Speechify was first built to serve a single purpose; to help with dyslexia. But the use case for text to speech app with the best sounding voice exploded. If you love to read, need to read, or struggle with reading, Speechify is for you.

Students of any grade can benefit from TTS. Read faster and retain much more with Speechify. You can listen to your notes or text book and follow along while stimulating audio and visual inputs.

Those with disabilities

Speechify was created by Cliff Weitzman who struggled with dyslexia. It helped him excel at his studies. Speechify is perfect for those who also struggle with dyslexia. Other disabilities such as dry eyes, migraines,  TBIs or any illness thats a barrier to reading. Our mission has been constant – remove barriers to reading.

Professionals like lawyers & doctors

Professions that require an extensive amount of reading such as lawyers, doctors, editors and such can read important case files quickly and become more familiar with their work in shorter amounts of time

Parents can use text to speech to read their children’s favorite books either at home or those long car rides. You don’t have to turn on an iPad or a movie to entertain your kids. They can listen to their favorite stories over and over again. Reading has proven to have significant results in early childhood development. Let them read, plenty.

Those that love podcasts

The use cases are plenty. Try Speechify free and see how it can help you in your use case. Tell us, we’d love to know how.

Speechify pricing.

Upgrade to Speechify Premium and power through your reading with our most advanced tools and features. See pricing .

• 30+ natural, human-like voices
• 15+ exclusive languages
• 5x faster listening speeds
• Advanced highlighting, notetaking, and importing tools

Only available on iPhone and iPad

To access our catalog of 100,000+ audiobooks, you need to use an iOS device.

Coming to Android soon...

Join the waitlist

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The best dictation software in 2024

These speech-to-text apps will save you time without sacrificing accuracy..

The early days of dictation software were like your friend that mishears lyrics: lots of enthusiasm but little accuracy. Now, AI is out of Pandora's box, both in the news and in the apps we use, and dictation apps are getting better and better because of it. It's still not 100% perfect, but you'll definitely feel more in control when using your voice to type.

I took to the internet to find the best speech-to-text software out there right now, and after monologuing at length in front of dozens of dictation apps, these are my picks for the best.

The best dictation software

Windows 11 Speech Recognition for free dictation software on Windows

Dragon by Nuance for a customizable dictation app

Google Docs voice typing for dictating in Google Docs

Gboard for a free mobile dictation app

Otter for collaboration

What is dictation software?

When searching for dictation software online, you'll come across a wide range of options. The ones I'm focusing on here are apps or services that you can quickly open, start talking, and see the results on your screen in (near) real-time. This is great for taking quick notes , writing emails without typing, or talking out an entire novel while you walk in your favorite park—because why not.

Beyond these productivity uses, people with disabilities or with carpal tunnel syndrome can use this software to type more easily. It makes technology more accessible to everyone .

If this isn't what you're looking for, here's what else is out there:

AI assistants, such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana, can help you interact with each of these ecosystems to send texts, buy products, or schedule events on your calendar.

AI meeting assistants will join your meetings and transcribe everything, generating meeting notes to share with your team.

AI transcription platforms can process your video and audio files into neat text.

Transcription services that use a combination of dictation software, AI, and human proofreaders can achieve above 99% accuracy.

There are also advanced platforms for enterprise, like Amazon Transcribe and Microsoft Azure's speech-to-text services.

What makes a great dictation app?

How we evaluate and test apps.

Our best apps roundups are written by humans who've spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it's intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We're never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog .

Dictation software comes in different shapes and sizes. Some are integrated in products you already use. Others are separate apps that offer a range of extra features. While each can vary in look and feel, here's what I looked for to find the best:

High accuracy. Staying true to what you're saying is the most important feature here. The lowest score on this list is at 92% accuracy.

Ease of use. This isn't a high hurdle, as most options are basic enough that anyone can figure them out in seconds.

Availability of voice commands. These let you add "instructions" while you're dictating, such as adding punctuation, starting a new paragraph, or more complex commands like capitalizing all the words in a sentence.

Availability of the languages supported. Most of the picks here support a decent (or impressive) number of languages.

Versatility. I paid attention to how well the software could adapt to different circumstances, apps, and systems.

I tested these apps by reading a 200-word script containing numbers, compound words, and a few tricky terms. I read the script three times for each app: the accuracy scores are an average of all attempts. Finally, I used the voice commands to delete and format text and to control the app's features where available.

I used my laptop's or smartphone's microphone to test these apps in a quiet room without background noise. For occasional dictation, an equivalent microphone on your own computer or smartphone should do the job well. If you're doing a lot of dictation every day, it's probably worth investing in an external microphone, like the Jabra Evolve .

What about AI?

Before the ChatGPT boom, AI wasn't as hot a keyword, but it already existed. The apps on this list use a combination of technologies that may include AI— machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) in particular. While they could rebrand themselves to keep up with the hype, they may use pipelines or models that aren't as bleeding-edge when compared to what's going on in Hugging Face or under OpenAI Whisper 's hood, for example. 

Also, since this isn't a hot AI software category, these apps may prefer to focus on their core offering and product quality instead, not ride the trendy wave by slapping "AI-powered" on every web page.

Tips for using voice recognition software

Though dictation software is pretty good at recognizing different voices, it's not perfect. Here are some tips to make it work as best as possible.

Speak naturally (with caveats). Dictation apps learn your voice and speech patterns over time. And if you're going to spend any time with them, you want to be comfortable. Speak naturally. If you're not getting 90% accuracy initially, try enunciating more.  

Punctuate. When you dictate, you have to say each period, comma, question mark, and so forth. The software isn't always smart enough to figure it out on its own.

Learn a few commands . Take the time to learn a few simple commands, such as "new line" to enter a line break. There are different commands for composing, editing, and operating your device. Commands may differ from app to app, so learn the ones that apply to the tool you choose.

Know your limits. Especially on mobile devices, some tools have a time limit for how long they can listen—sometimes for as little as 10 seconds. Glance at the screen from time to time to make sure you haven't blown past the mark. 

Practice. It takes time to adjust to voice recognition software, but it gets easier the more you practice. Some of the more sophisticated apps invite you to train by reading passages or doing other short drills. Don't shy away from tutorials, help menus, and on-screen cheat sheets.

The best dictation software at a glance

Best free dictation software for apple devices, apple dictation (ios, ipados, macos).

Look no further than your Mac, iPhone, or iPad for one of the best dictation tools. Apple's built-in dictation feature, powered by Siri (I wouldn't be surprised if the two merged one day), ships as part of Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems. On iOS devices, you use it by pressing the microphone icon on the stock keyboard. On your desktop, you turn it on by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation , and then use a keyboard shortcut to activate it in your app.

If you want the ability to navigate your Mac with your voice and use dictation, try Voice Control . By default, Voice Control requires the internet to work and has a time limit of about 30 seconds for each smattering of speech. To remove those limits for a Mac, enable Enhanced Dictation, and follow the directions here for your OS (you can also enable it for iPhones and iPads). Enhanced Dictation adds a local file to your device so that you can dictate offline.

You can format and edit your text using simple commands, such as "new paragraph" or "select previous word." Tip: you can view available commands in a small window, like a little cheat sheet, while learning the ropes. Apple also offers a number of advanced commands for things like math, currency, and formatting. 

Apple Dictation price: Included with macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Apple Watch.

Apple Dictation accuracy: 96%. I tested this on an iPhone SE 3rd Gen using the dictation feature on the keyboard.

Recommendation: For the occasional dictation, I'd recommend the standard Dictation feature available with all Apple systems. But if you need more custom voice features (e.g., medical terms), opt for Voice Control with Enhanced Dictation. You can create and import both custom vocabulary and custom commands and work while offline.

Apple Dictation supported languages: 59 languages and dialects .

While Apple Dictation is available natively on the Apple Watch, if you're serious about recording plenty of voice notes and memos, check out the Just Press Record app. It runs on the same engine and keeps all your recordings synced and organized across your Apple devices.

Best free dictation software for Windows

Windows 11 speech recognition (windows).

Windows 11 Speech Recognition (also known as Voice Typing) is a strong dictation tool, both for writing documents and controlling your Windows PC. Since it's part of your system, you can use it in any app you have installed.

To start, first, check that online speech recognition is on by going to Settings > Time and Language > Speech . To begin dictating, open an app, and on your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + H. A microphone icon and gray box will appear at the top of your screen. Make sure your cursor is in the space where you want to dictate.

When it's ready for your dictation, it will say Listening . You have about 10 seconds to start talking before the microphone turns off. If that happens, just click it again and wait for Listening to pop up. To stop the dictation, click the microphone icon again or say "stop talking."  

As I dictated into a Word document, the gray box reminded me to hang on, we need a moment to catch up . If you're speaking too fast, you'll also notice your transcribed words aren't keeping up. This never posed an issue with accuracy, but it's a nice reminder to keep it slow and steady. 

To activate the computer control features, you'll have to go to Settings > Accessibility > Speech instead. While there, tick on Windows Speech Recognition. This unlocks a range of new voice commands that can fully replace a mouse and keyboard. Your voice becomes the main way of interacting with your system.

While you can use this tool anywhere inside your computer, if you're a Microsoft 365 subscriber, you'll be able to use the dictation features there too. The best app to use it on is, of course, Microsoft Word: it even offers file transcription, so you can upload a WAV or MP3 file and turn it into text. The engine is the same, provided by Microsoft Speech Services.

Windows 11 Speech Recognition price: Included with Windows 11. Also available as part of the Microsoft 365 subscription.

Windows 11 Speech Recognition accuracy: 95%. I tested it in Windows 11 while using Microsoft Word. 

Windows 11 Speech Recognition languages supported : 11 languages and dialects .

Best customizable dictation software

Dragon by nuance (android, ios, macos, windows).

In 1990, Dragon Dictate emerged as the first dictation software. Over three decades later, we have Dragon by Nuance, a leader in the industry and a distant cousin of that first iteration. With a variety of software packages and mobile apps for different use cases (e.g., legal, medical, law enforcement), Dragon can handle specialized industry vocabulary, and it comes with excellent features, such as the ability to transcribe text from an audio file you upload. 

For this test, I used Dragon Anywhere, Nuance's mobile app, as it's the only version—among otherwise expensive packages—available with a free trial. It includes lots of features not found in the others, like Words, which lets you add words that would be difficult to recognize and spell out. For example, in the script, the word "Litmus'" (with the possessive) gave every app trouble. To avoid this, I added it to Words, trained it a few times with my voice, and was then able to transcribe it accurately.

It also provides shortcuts. If you want to shorten your entire address to one word, go to Auto-Text , give it a name ("address"), and type in your address: 1000 Eichhorn St., Davenport, IA 52722, and hit Save . The next time you dictate and say "address," you'll get the entire thing. Press the comment bubble icon to see text commands while you're dictating, or say "What can I say?" and the command menu pops up. 

Once you complete a dictation, you can email, share (e.g., Google Drive, Dropbox), open in Word, or save to Evernote. You can perform these actions manually or by voice command (e.g., "save to Evernote.") Once you name it, it automatically saves in Documents for later review or sharing. 

Accuracy is good and improves with use, showing that you can definitely train your dragon. It's a great choice if you're serious about dictation and plan to use it every day, but may be a bit too much if you're just using it occasionally.

Dragon by Nuance price: $15/month for Dragon Anywhere (iOS and Android); from $200 to $500 for desktop packages

Dragon by Nuance accuracy: 97%. Tested it in the Dragon Anywhere iOS app.

Dragon by Nuance supported languages: 6 languages and dialects in Dragon Anywhere and 8 languages and dialects in Dragon Desktop.  

Best free mobile dictation software

Gboard (android, ios).

Gboard, also known as Google Keyboard, is a free keyboard native to Android phones. It's also available for iOS: go to the App Store, download the Gboard app , and then activate the keyboard in the settings. In addition to typing, it lets you search the web, translate text, or run a quick Google Maps search.

Back to the topic: it has an excellent dictation feature. To start, press the microphone icon on the top-right of the keyboard. An overlay appears on the screen, filling itself with the words you're saying. It's very quick and accurate, which will feel great for fast-talkers but probably intimidating for the more thoughtful among us. If you stop talking for a few seconds, the overlay disappears, and Gboard pastes what it heard into the app you're using. When this happens, tap the microphone icon again to continue talking.

Wherever you can open a keyboard while using your phone, you can have Gboard supporting you there. You can write emails or notes or use any other app with an input field.

The writer who handled the previous update of this list had been using Gboard for seven years, so it had plenty of training data to adapt to his particular enunciation, landing the accuracy at an amazing 98%. I haven't used it much before, so the best I had was 92% overall. It's still a great score. More than that, it's proof of how dictation apps improve the more you use them.

Gboard price : Free

Gboard accuracy: 92%. With training, it can go up to 98%. I tested it using the iOS app while writing a new email.

Gboard supported languages: 916 languages and dialects .

Best dictation software for typing in Google Docs

Google docs voice typing (web on chrome).

Just like Microsoft offers dictation in their Office products, Google does the same for their Workspace suite. The best place to use the voice typing feature is in Google Docs, but you can also dictate speaker notes in Google Slides as a way to prepare for your presentation.

To get started, make sure you're using Chrome and have a Google Docs file open. Go to Tools > Voice typing , and press the microphone icon to start. As you talk, the text will jitter into existence in the document.

You can change the language in the dropdown on top of the microphone icon. If you need help, hover over that icon, and click the ? on the bottom-right. That will show everything from turning on the mic, the voice commands for dictation, and moving around the document.

It's unclear whether Google's voice typing here is connected to the same engine in Gboard. I wasn't able to confirm whether the training data for the mobile keyboard and this tool are connected in any way. Still, the engines feel very similar and turned out the same accuracy at 92%. If you start using it more often, it may adapt to your particular enunciation and be more accurate in the long run.

Google Docs voice typing price : Free

Google Docs voice typing accuracy: 92%. Tested in a new Google Docs file in Chrome.

Google Docs voice typing supported languages: 118 languages and dialects ; voice commands only available in English.

Google Docs integrates with Zapier , which means you can automatically do things like save form entries to Google Docs, create new documents whenever something happens in your other apps, or create project management tasks for each new document.

Best dictation software for collaboration

Otter (web, android, ios).

Most of the time, you're dictating for yourself: your notes, emails, or documents. But there may be situations in which sharing and collaboration is more important. For those moments, Otter is the better option.

It's not as robust in terms of dictation as others on the list, but it compensates with its versatility. It's a meeting assistant, first and foremost, ready to hop on your meetings and transcribe everything it hears. This is great to keep track of what's happening there, making the text available for sharing by generating a link or in the corresponding team workspace.

The reason why it's the best for collaboration is that others can highlight parts of the transcript and leave their comments. It also separates multiple speakers, in case you're recording a conversation, so that's an extra headache-saver if you use dictation software for interviewing people.

When you open the app and click the Record button on the top-right, you can use it as a traditional dictation app. It doesn't support voice commands, but it has decent intuition as to where the commas and periods should go based on the intonation and rhythm of your voice. Once you're done talking, Otter will start processing what you said, extract keywords, and generate action items and notes from the content of the transcription.

If you're going for long recording stretches where you talk about multiple topics, there's an AI chat option, where you can ask Otter questions about the transcript. This is great to summarize the entire talk, extract insights, and get a different angle on everything you said.

Not all meeting assistants offer dictation, so Otter sits here on this fence between software categories, a jack-of-two-trades, quite good at both. If you want something more specialized for meetings, be sure to check out the best AI meeting assistants . But if you want a pure dictation app with plenty of voice commands and great control over the final result, the other options above will serve you better.

Otter price: Free plan available for 300 minutes / month. Pro plan starts at $16.99, adding more collaboration features and monthly minutes.

Otter accuracy: 93% accuracy. I tested it in the web app on my computer.

Otter supported languages: Only American and British English for now.

Is voice dictation for you?

Dictation software isn't for everyone. It will likely take practice learning to "write" out loud because it will feel unnatural. But once you get comfortable with it, you'll be able to write from anywhere on any device without the need for a keyboard. 

And by using any of the apps I listed here, you can feel confident that most of what you dictate will be accurately captured on the screen. 

Related reading:

The best transcription services

Catch typos by making your computer read to you

Why everyone should try the accessibility features on their computer

What is Otter.ai?

The best voice recording apps for iPhone

This article was originally published in April 2016 and has also had contributions from Emily Esposito, Jill Duffy, and Chris Hawkins. The most recent update was in November 2023.

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Miguel Rebelo

Miguel Rebelo is a freelance writer based in London, UK. He loves technology, video games, and huge forests. Track him down at mirebelo.com.

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10 Helpful Text-to-Speech Readers for Back to School

As school approaches, parents and students alike should be aware of the resources available to them as they prepare to tackle a new grade, new year, and new learning challenges. Text-to-speech software is often a vital resource for students with dyslexia—to aid reading, promote comprehension, and enhance overall literacy skills. Here are 10 helpful text-to-speech software and applications that are great assistive technology tools to have at the start of the school year.

For reading on your desktop computer or laptop

NaturalReader , self-proclaimed as the most powerful text-to-speech reader, can turn PDFs, web pages, e-books, and even printed material into spoken word. Available for both Mac and PCs, this software can convert and save any text-filled document into an audio file. Audio features such as speed and voice are adjustable, and once an audio file is saved it can be transferred to other devices, such as a cell phone, so the user has the file wherever he or she goes.

TalkButton , available for Macs and Microsoft Word, is text-to-speech software that can be controlled through a toolbar at the top of the computer screen. Text that is read out loud can be adjusted to slow down, speed up, paused, or replayed back a few seconds with the help of the accessibility toolbar. Audio files created from the text-to-speech software can be saved and downloaded to iTunes.

Browsealoud is a web page navigation software available for most versions of Windows that is designed to help those with dyslexia and second-language learners browse the internet. The software strips the web page down to its essential text so the user can focus on the text alone. Its text-to-speech feature also comes with a magnifying glass icon that follows the text as it is read aloud.

ReadSpeaker is a screen reader software for Mac or PC that allows documents, web pages, and e-books to be read aloud. The resource is entirely web-based, so users can access it from any internet-connected computer with their log-in information. Saved documents and images can be made accessible on any device, though. ReadSpeaker comes in a variety of packages to accommodate for individual, business, classroom, and student needs.

For reading on your tablet or phone

Voice Dream Reader is a text-to-speech assistive application for both Apple and Android devices that converts PDFs, web pages, Microsoft Word, and other document formats into spoken word, while also offering additional features such as bookmarking, note-taking, and a built-in dictionary.

CapturaTalk offers text-to-speech assistance alongside many other reading and writing resources, making it a useful resource for tasks that require both reading, writing, and research. The app’s web browser removes ads and rearranges a site’s formatting to present the user with a decluttered and simple text page. The application also has a dyslexia friendly font that can be turned on or off. You can find this app at the AppStore and Google Play store.

Read & Write , created by the same company as Browsealoud, is available for tablet and Chrome browsers. This application has both text-to-speech and “Speak As I Type” abilities. Its alternative keyboard and features help users read and write common tablet tasks such as emailing, typing, and reading.

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Use voice typing to talk instead of type on your PC

With voice typing, you can enter text on your PC by speaking. Voice typing uses online speech recognition, which is powered by Azure Speech services.

How to start voice typing

To use voice typing, you'll need to be connected to the internet, have a working microphone, and have your cursor in a text box.

Once you turn on voice typing, it will start listening automatically. Wait for the "Listening..." alert before you start speaking.

Note:  Press Windows logo key + Alt + H to navigate through the voice typing menu with your keyboard. 

Install a voice typing language

You can use a voice typing language that's different than the one you've chosen for Windows. Here's how:

Select Start > Settings > Time & language > Language & region .

Find Preferred languages in the list and select Add a language .

Search for the language you'd like to install, then select Next .

Select Next or install any optional language features you'd like to use. These features, including speech recognition, aren't required for voice typing to work.

To see this feature's supported languages, see the list in this article.

Switch voice typing languages

To switch voice typing languages, you'll need to change the input language you use. Here's how:

Select the language switcher in the corner of your taskbar

Press Windows logo key + Spacebar on a hardware keyboard

Press the language switcher in the bottom right of the touch keyboard

Supported languages

These languages support voice typing in Windows 11:

• Chinese (Simplified, China)
• Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR)

Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)

• Dutch (Netherlands)
• English (Australia)
• English (Canada)
• English (India)
• English (New Zealand)
• English (United Kingdom)
• English (United States)
• French (Canada)
• French (France)

Italian (Italy)

• Norwegian (Bokmål)

Portuguese (Brazil)

• Portuguese (Portugal)
• Romanian (Romania)
• Spanish (Mexico)
• Spanish (Spain)
• Swedish (Sweden)
• Tamil (India)

Voice typing commands

Use voice typing commands to quickly edit text by saying things like "delete that" or "select that".

The following list tells you what you can say. To view supported commands for other languages, change the dropdown to your desired language.

• Select your desired language
• Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
• Croatian (Croatia)

German (Germany)

Note:  If a word or phrase is selected, speaking any of the “delete that” commands will remove it.

Punctuation commands

Use voice typing commands to insert punctuation marks.

Use dictation to convert spoken words into text anywhere on your PC with Windows 10. Dictation uses speech recognition, which is built into Windows 10, so there's nothing you need to download and install to use it.

To start dictating, select a text field and press the Windows logo key + H to open the dictation toolbar. Then say whatever’s on your mind.  To stop dictating at any time while you're dictating, say “Stop dictation.”

If you’re using a tablet or a touchscreen, tap the microphone button on the touch keyboard to start dictating. Tap it again to stop dictation, or say "Stop dictation."

To find out more about speech recognition, read Use voice recognition in Windows  . To learn how to set up your microphone, read How to set up and test microphones in Windows .

To use dictation, your PC needs to be connected to the internet.

Dictation commands

Use dictation commands to tell you PC what to do, like “delete that” or “select the previous word.”

The following table tells you what you can say. If a word or phrase is in bold , it's an example. Replace it with similar words to get the result you want.

Dictating letters, numbers, punctuation, and symbols

You can dictate most numbers and punctuation by saying the number or punctuation character. To dictate letters and symbols, say "start spelling." Then say the symbol or letter, or use the ICAO phonetic alphabet.

To dictate an uppercase letter, say “uppercase” before the letter. For example, “uppercase A” or “uppercase alpha.” When you’re done, say “stop spelling.”

Here are the punctuation characters and symbols you can dictate.

Dictation commands are available in US English only.

You can dictate basic text, symbols, letters, and numbers in these languages:

Simplified Chinese

English (Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom)

French (France, Canada)

Spanish (Mexico, Spain)

To dictate in other languages, Use voice recognition in Windows .

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