Text to Speech

Reads your text aloud through the browser's built-in speech synthesis, letting you choose any voice your system offers and adjust speaking rate and pitch between 0.5 and 2.

What is the Text to Speech?

This page is a front end for the Web Speech API, the speech synthesis engine already built into your browser. It ships no voices of its own; the dropdown lists whatever your operating system and browser expose, which is why the same page sounds different on Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. Rate and pitch are handed straight to that engine, along with the language tag attached to the voice you select.

Key Features

• Voice dropdown populated from the voices your browser and system provide
• Speed slider from 0.5x to 2x in steps of 0.1
• Pitch slider covering the same 0.5 to 2 range
• Pause and resume without losing your place, plus a full stop
• Progress bar that advances as the engine reports word boundaries

Common Use Cases

• Proofreading a draft by ear, where clumsy sentences are far easier to catch
• Checking how a brand name or headline sounds before you commit to it
• Listening to a long article while your hands and eyes are busy
• Practicing pronunciation with a voice tagged for the language you are learning

How to Use the Text to Speech

1. Replace the sample paragraph in the Text to Speak box with your own text.
2. Pick a voice from the dropdown, which lists each voice's name and language tag.
3. Set the Speed and Pitch sliders before you start, since both are locked in at that moment.
4. Press Speak and watch the bar beneath the buttons fill as the reading advances.
5. Use Pause to hold your place and resume, or Stop to cancel the reading entirely.

Tips for Best Results

• Moving the sliders mid-sentence does nothing; stop, adjust, then press Speak to hear the new settings.
• If the voice list looks empty, wait a moment and reopen it, since browsers load voices asynchronously.
• A voice tagged for a different language than your text will mispronounce almost every word.
• If playback cuts off early, break long passages into sections, as some engines stop after a stretch.

Why Use WiserWork's Text to Speech?

Nothing is sent to a paid speech service and there is no character quota to run down, because the reading is performed by software already installed on your device. That also means the page is honest about its limit: browser speech synthesis offers no way to hand back an audio file, so the Download MP3 button explains that instead of pretending otherwise.

Who Uses the Text to Speech?

Writers and editors play drafts back to catch repetition and awkward rhythm that reads fine on screen. People with dyslexia or eye strain use it to get through long text without staring at it. Language learners compare their own pronunciation against a voice tagged for the language they are studying.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do the voices in the dropdown come from?

From your operating system and browser, not from this site. Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and each browser ship a different set, so the list you see belongs to the device you are on.

Can I download the speech as an MP3?

No. The Web Speech API plays audio but gives no way to capture it as a file, and the Download button on the page says exactly that when clicked. Recording your system audio with a separate recorder is the only route.

Is my text sent to a server?

The page itself never uploads it. Be aware that a few voices offered by some browsers are cloud-based rather than local, in which case the text reaches that voice provider when it is spoken; voices installed on your own system stay entirely offline.

Why does the voice list start out empty?

Browsers load their voice catalog asynchronously, so it can be unavailable for a moment after the page appears. The page listens for the voices-changed event and fills the dropdown as soon as they arrive.

What exactly do the Speed and Pitch sliders control?

Speed multiplies the voice's normal speaking rate between 0.5x and 2x, and Pitch shifts the voice higher or lower across the same range. Both are applied at the moment you press Speak, not while a reading is already playing.

Why did the progress bar not move?

The bar is driven by boundary events that the speech engine fires as it crosses each word. Some voices and browsers do not report those events, so the audio plays normally while the bar stays still.

Does pressing Speak twice read the text twice?

No. Starting a new reading cancels whatever is currently being spoken, so you get a clean restart rather than two overlapping voices.

How does it handle numbers, abbreviations and punctuation?

That is decided entirely by the voice engine rather than by this page, and engines differ considerably. Spelling out an ambiguous item, such as writing nineteen eighty-four instead of the digits, is the reliable fix.

Can it read languages other than English?

Yes, provided a voice for that language is installed on your device. The dropdown shows a language tag beside each name, and additional voices can usually be added through your operating system's language or accessibility settings.

Why does the same text sound different on my phone and my laptop?

Because the synthesis is done locally by whatever engine that device has. Two similarly named voices on different systems are not the same voice, and each engine interprets rate and pitch slightly differently.

Hearing a sentence read back catches problems that rereading it never will. The voices belong to your device rather than to this page, so pick one, set the pace, and let it read.