Free Text to Speech Guides
Task and platform guides for listening to text, PDFs, and web articles in your browser. Each one covers what works, what does not, and why.
Wordcast runs on the speech engine already built into your browser, so what you can do depends on the browser and device in front of you. These guides cover the differences that actually matter: which voices you get, what happens to a file you open, and where each platform falls short. Every limit stated here is one we tested rather than one we assumed.
Use cases
What you want to listen to changes what matters. A PDF needs a text layer before anything can read it; a page of pasted notes does not.
PDF Read Aloud
Drop a text-layer PDF up to 25 MB and Wordcast parses the local file in your browser, then reads it with a voice the browser exposes. No Wordcast account is required, and scanned PDFs need OCR first.
Dyslexia Reading Tool
Wordcast reads pasted text and text-layer PDFs aloud in your browser. It offers sentence highlighting and a 0.5x to 2x speed control, so you can listen while following the text on screen. It is a reading aid, not a medical treatment.
Platforms
Voice quality, voice availability, and playback limits are set by the browser and operating system, not by Wordcast. These cover what each platform actually gives you.
Chrome Read Aloud
Wordcast turns Chrome into a free read-aloud reader with no extension. Open wordcast.app, paste text or add a compatible local file, and listen with a voice Chrome exposes. No Wordcast signup or host permission is required.
iPhone Read Aloud
Wordcast unlocks free iPhone read aloud and iPad read aloud without an App Store download. Open wordcast.app in Safari or iOS Chrome, paste text or drop a PDF, and your iPhone reads it aloud using Siri voices already on your device. No install, no sign-in, no character cap on iPhone read aloud sessions.
Mac Text to Speech
Wordcast is free Mac text to speech that runs in a browser with no install or sign-in. Add a text-layer PDF, paste an article URL, or paste a passage, then choose a voice exposed by the browser and set a speed from 0.5x to 2x.
Comparisons
An honest read on where a paid reader is worth the money and where the voices already on your device are enough.
Longer reads
The blog goes deeper on how browser speech works, why voice lists differ between machines, and the bugs worth knowing about.
Read the blog