Speechify

Text-to-speech reader that turns documents, articles and books into audio

AI Audio & MusicFree planOverseasβ˜…β˜…β˜…β˜…β˜† 4.0

What is Speechify?

Speechify is a text-to-speech reader built around listening rather than audio production. Point it at a PDF, a web article, an email or an e-book and it reads the text back in a natural voice, keeping your position synced across phone, desktop and browser extension so you can start on one device and continue on another. Optical character recognition handles scanned pages and photos of text, which is where plain screen readers give up. It also offers a library of narrating voices, playback speeds well above normal reading pace, and the option to record your own voice for personal listening. It is a consumer and accessibility tool first; studio-grade voice generation belongs to dedicated platforms.

Last updated: 2026-09-20. This site only provides an index; for exact features, pricing, and licensing, see the official website.

Key features

  • Reads PDFs, web pages, e-books, emails and scanned documents aloud
  • Optical character recognition for scanned pages and photos of text
  • Position synced across mobile, desktop and browser extension
  • Large voice library with adjustable pitch and playback speed
  • Speed control far above normal reading pace for skimming
  • Record your own voice and listen to documents in it

Pros & cons

Strengths

  • Genuinely useful for long documents and daily reading backlogs
  • Handles scanned and photographed text that screen readers skip
  • Works as an accessibility aid as well as a convenience tool

Watch out for

  • The better voices sit behind the paid plan
  • Very high speeds become hard to follow for dense technical text
  • Not designed for producing narration assets for other projects

Best for & use cases

reading long documents hands-free, accessibility support, study revision and commuting listening

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FAQ

Does it read scanned documents?

Yes, OCR is included, so photographed pages and scans are converted to text before being read. Accuracy depends on the scan: straight, high-contrast pages work far better than skewed or handwritten ones.

How natural do the voices sound?

The premium voices are close to human for general prose, and the free tier uses more mechanical ones. Technical text with dense notation, or unusual proper nouns, will still mispronounce occasionally.

Can I use the audio in a video or podcast?

That is outside its main purpose and the terms restrict commercial redistribution of the generated audio. For narration assets, use a dedicated speech synthesis platform instead.