Text to Speech on Mac: 3 Free Ways to Have Your Mac Read to You
Your Mac can already read text out loud. Here's how to turn on Speak selection, when Word's Read Aloud is the better pick, and how to get more natural voices for free.
The quickest text to speech on a Mac is built in: turn on Speak selection in System Settings, highlight any text, and press Option-Esc. For long documents or more natural voices, a free browser tool like Free Voice Reader reads pasted text, PDFs and ebooks with no sign-up.
Here are the three free options and when each one makes sense.
How do I turn on text to speech on a Mac?
Go to Apple menu > System Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak, and turn on Speak selection. Then highlight text in almost any app and press Option-Esc to hear it, and press Option-Esc again to stop (Apple's guide).
If nothing is selected, your Mac reads the available text items in the current window instead. That's handy for a quick listen to an email or web page.
How do I change the Mac's voice or reading speed?
In the same Read & Speak settings, use the System voice menu to pick a voice, and click the Info button next to it to adjust how fast or loud it speaks (Apple: change Spoken Content settings). You can also download additional voices from Apple there.
If the first voice grates on you, try a few others before giving up on the feature. Voice choice changes the experience a lot.
Can Word on a Mac read documents aloud?
Yes. In Word, go to the Review tab and select Read Aloud, or press Control + Option + Space to start and Option + Space to play or pause (Microsoft support).
You can change the voice and reading speed from the gear icon in the controls. If you write in Word, it's the most convenient way to proofread by ear. We cover it in more detail in our Word Read Aloud guide.
Which Mac text to speech option should I use?
Use Speak selection for short bits of text in any app, Word's Read Aloud for Word documents, and a browser tool when you have a PDF, an ebook or a long document and want a more natural voice.
| Option | Cost | Best for | Works on PDFs and EPUBs | Character limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speak selection (built in) | Free | Short passages in any app | Only text you can select | None |
| Word Read Aloud | Included with Word | Word documents | No | None |
| Free Voice Reader, cloud voices | Free | Pasted text, quick listening | Yes, including scanned PDFs (OCR) | 5,000 per conversion |
| Free Voice Reader, local voices | Free | Long documents, privacy | Yes | None |
How do I get more natural voices on a Mac for free?
Use Free Voice Reader's local voices. They run in your browser after a one-time download of roughly 90 to 330 MB (it depends on your browser), have no character limit, and keep your text on your Mac.
The main local model is Kokoro-82M, an open model under the Apache 2.0 license. Our post on running Kokoro locally on a Mac goes into the technical side.
Can my Mac read a PDF aloud?
Yes, if the PDF has selectable text: open it in Preview, select the text, and press your Speak selection shortcut. For scanned PDFs, there's no text to select, so the built-in reader can't help.
For those, upload the PDF to Free Voice Reader, which runs OCR in your browser first. Our PDF read-aloud guide walks through it.
Frequently asked questions
What's the keyboard shortcut for text to speech on a Mac?
Option-Esc is the default for Speak selection, once you've turned it on in Read & Speak settings. You can change the shortcut there.
Can I save Mac text to speech as an audio file?
With Free Voice Reader, MP3 download comes with Lifetime Boost or a subscription. See text to MP3.
Does it work on older Macs?
The menu path above is for current macOS with System Settings. Free Voice Reader works in a recent browser on any Mac.
Is there a Mac app?
Yes, we also make a Mac app. The web tool needs no install.
Want a quick comparison? Paste a paragraph, press play, then try the same text with Option-Esc.
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