How to convert text to speech for free
Want a voiceover for a video, or to listen to an article instead of reading it? Here's how to turn any text into natural-sounding speech for free — no signup, no API key.
- Open the Text to Speech tool. Open the free Text to Speech tool.
- Paste your text. Paste or type the text you want spoken.
- Pick a voice and generate. Choose a voice, then generate the audio.
- Download the audio. Save it as MP3 or WAV to use anywhere.
Write for the ear, not the eye
Text that reads well on a page can sound wrong when spoken. Before you generate, make a few edits: shorten long sentences, replace semicolons with full stops, and spell out anything the voice might misread. "Dr", "St" and "2026" are ambiguous on the page but clear as "Doctor", "Street" and "twenty twenty-six". Punctuation is your pacing control: a comma adds a short pause, a full stop a longer one, a new paragraph a breath.
Getting a natural result
- Generate a short test first. One paragraph tells you whether the voice, pace and pronunciation suit the material before you convert the whole script.
- Split long scripts. A few chunks of a few hundred words each are easier to review, re-generate and edit than one long file.
- Fix names phonetically. If a name or product is mispronounced, respell it the way it sounds ("Sean" as "Shawn") in the text you feed the tool.
- Remove empty lines and stray characters. Bullet symbols, URLs and markdown are read out literally or produce odd pauses.
- Listen once before downloading. It is faster to catch a wrong emphasis now than after the audio is in your video timeline.
What the audio is useful for
- Video voiceovers: explainer videos, product demos, slideshows and social clips, dropped onto the timeline as a voice track.
- Listening instead of reading: turn an article or a long email into audio for a commute.
- Proofreading: hearing your writing read aloud exposes repeated words and clumsy sentences that your eyes skip.
- Prototypes: placeholder narration for an app, a phone menu or an e-learning module before recording a real voice.
MP3 or WAV?
Choose MP3 when file size matters: web pages, podcasts, sharing by message. Choose WAV when you will edit the audio further in a video or audio editor, because it has not been compressed and survives re-exporting better.
Privacy
This is an AI tool, so the text you enter is sent to a free AI voice service and the audio comes back to your browser for download. The interface flags this. Keep confidential material out of it; for a public script, a blog post or a video narration it is not a concern.
FAQ
Is there a word limit?
You can convert long passages; for very long text, split it into a few chunks for the smoothest results.
Can I use the audio in YouTube videos?
Yes — download the file and drop it into your video editor as a voiceover track.
Is my text uploaded?
Yes. Text to Speech works through a free AI voice service, so the text is sent to it and the audio is returned to your browser. Avoid confidential content.
How do I fix a mispronounced word?
Respell it phonetically in the text before generating. Writing a name the way it sounds fixes most cases.
Should I download MP3 or WAV?
MP3 for small files and sharing, WAV for further editing in a video or audio editor.
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