Read a PDF aloud (free, in your browser)

By Alex, editor · Updated October 25, 2026 · Published by Ecomparadise, LLC

Free and private: the voice is generated in your browser, so your text is never uploaded. Download the audio as WAV.

Type or paste text, then press Read aloud. Nothing is uploaded.

How to do it

Press "Open .txt or .pdf" and choose your PDF. The text is extracted in your browser, then read aloud. Remove headers, footers and page numbers you do not want read before you start.

Tip: Scanned PDFs have no text layer, so there is nothing to read. Use an OCR tool to extract the text first, then paste it here.

How it works

  1. Type, paste or open a .txt or .pdf file (text PDFs only).
  2. Choose one of 13 English voices and a speed.
  3. Press Read aloud. The first time, the voice model downloads once (about 90 MB) and is cached.
  4. Speech is generated on your device part by part and starts playing straight away. When it finishes, download the WAV file.

Tips for natural-sounding speech

ProblemWhat to do
A name is mispronouncedSpell it the way it sounds, e.g. "Siobhan" as "Shiv-awn"
No pause where you want oneAdd a full stop, or a blank line for a longer pause
Numbers read oddlyWrite them in words: "twenty twenty-six", "three point five percent"
Abbreviations read letter by letterWrite the full words: "for example" instead of "e.g."
Sounds rushedLower the speed to 0.9 and use shorter sentences

Honest limits

Your text stays private

Most free text-to-speech sites send your text to a server. VoiceRuler generates the voice inside your browser, so your words never leave your device. The Kokoro model is released under the Apache-2.0 licence, which allows commercial use of the output.

Related guides

More: reading and studying

Frequently asked questions

Is my PDF uploaded?

No. The PDF is opened and read entirely in your browser.

Can it read long PDFs?

Up to 100,000 characters at a time, roughly 50 pages of normal text. For a longer document, process it in sections.

Is VoiceRuler free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no daily limit and no watermark, because the voice runs on your device.

Is my text uploaded?

No. Speech is generated in your browser. Only the model and voice files are downloaded.

Which languages are supported?

English only, in American and British voices.

The Rulers

Eight free tools. No sign-up, nothing to install.

Made by the same small team. CutRuler, ScribeRuler, TextRuler and VoiceRuler run entirely in your browser, so your files stay on your device.