Free Text to Speech
Type or paste any text and instantly convert it to natural-sounding speech using Kokoro, an open-weight 82-million parameter AI voice model. Choose from 28 English voices across American and British accents with male and female options, and adjust speaking speed from 0.5x to 2x. Everything runs locally in your browser using WebAssembly — no signup, no server, no API calls. Your text never leaves your device.
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What Is Kokoro TTS and How Does This Text to Speech Tool Work?
This free text-to-speech tool is powered by Kokoro, an open-source 82-million parameter speech synthesis model. Unlike robotic-sounding TTS engines, Kokoro produces natural, expressive speech that rivals commercial services like ElevenLabs, Google Cloud TTS, and Amazon Polly — but runs entirely in your browser with no API keys, no cloud processing, and no data leaving your device.
The model supports 54 distinct voices across 9 languages: English (American and British), Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, French, Hindi, Italian, and Portuguese. Each voice has been trained to sound natural with proper intonation, rhythm, and emphasis. You can preview voices instantly and switch between them to find the perfect match for your content.
All processing happens locally using WebAssembly and WebGPU acceleration. Your text is never uploaded to any server, making this tool ideal for converting sensitive documents, personal notes, or confidential content into speech. The model downloads once and is cached in your browser for instant access on return visits.
How Kokoro Generates Natural Speech
Kokoro is an open-source text-to-speech model built on the StyleTTS2 architecture, available on GitHub and Hugging Face. At just 82 million parameters, it is remarkably lightweight compared to commercial TTS models while delivering comparable quality. The model uses phoneme-based synthesis with prosody prediction, producing speech that captures natural pauses, stress patterns, and emotional tone.
For web deployment, Kokoro can be integrated through ONNX Runtime Web or Transformers.js, enabling real-time speech synthesis directly in the browser. Developers building accessibility features, language learning apps, content narration tools, or voice-enabled interfaces will find Kokoro a production-ready alternative to paid TTS APIs. The model's small size and efficient architecture make it practical for edge deployment on mobile devices, embedded systems, and offline applications.
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How It Works
Type or paste the text you want spoken aloud.
Choose a voice and speed, then click Generate Speech.
Listen to the AI-generated audio, download it, or try another voice.
Key Features
Privacy & Trust
Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this text-to-speech tool completely free?
Yes, it is 100% free with no character limits, no daily caps, and no signup required. Commercial TTS services like ElevenLabs ($5-99/month), Google Cloud TTS ($4-16 per million characters), and Amazon Polly ($4 per million characters) all charge based on usage. Because Kokoro runs locally in your browser, there are no server costs, so you can generate as much speech as you need at zero cost.
Is my text sent to a server when generating speech?
No. All text processing and audio generation happens entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly. Your text never leaves your device — not even temporarily. There are no API calls, no cloud processing, and no logging of your content. This makes it safe for converting confidential documents, private notes, sensitive emails, or proprietary content into speech without privacy concerns.
What is Kokoro and how good is the voice quality?
Kokoro is an open-weight text-to-speech model with 82 million parameters, released under the Apache 2.0 license. It uses the StyleTTS2 architecture with phoneme-based synthesis and prosody prediction, which means it captures natural pauses, stress patterns, and emotional tone rather than just reading words mechanically. In blind listening tests, Kokoro voices are often indistinguishable from commercial services like ElevenLabs or Google Cloud TTS for standard narration. The quality is excellent for voiceovers, presentations, and accessibility — though it may not match the very top tier of commercial services for highly expressive or conversational styles.
Which voices are available?
This tool includes 28 English voices: 20 American English (11 female, 9 male) and 8 British English (4 female, 4 male). Each voice has a different style and tone — some warmer and conversational, others more formal and neutral. The default voice, Heart, is rated the highest quality overall.
Can I control how fast the voice speaks?
Yes. You can adjust the speaking speed from 0.5x (very slow, useful for language learning or careful listening) to 2x (double speed, useful for skimming long content). The default is 1x, which sounds like natural conversational pace. Speed changes are applied during generation, so you can experiment with different speeds for the same text.
Why does the model take a while to load on first use?
The Kokoro model weighs approximately 92MB and needs to download to your browser cache on first visit. On a typical broadband connection this takes 30-90 seconds. Once cached, subsequent visits load in just a few seconds because the model is read from local storage. If the download seems stuck or fails, try refreshing the page or switching to a faster network connection.
Can I download the generated audio as a file?
Yes. The tool generates audio in WAV format which you can download with one click. WAV is a universal uncompressed audio format that works in every video editor (Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, iMovie), audio editor (Audacity, Logic, GarageBand), presentation tool (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote), and media player. If you need MP3 for smaller file sizes, you can convert the WAV using any free audio converter after downloading.
How does this compare to Google Text-to-Speech, Amazon Polly, or ElevenLabs?
Cloud TTS services charge per character and require you to send your text to their servers. Google Cloud TTS costs $4-16 per million characters, Amazon Polly costs $4 per million characters, and ElevenLabs starts at $5/month. Kokoro runs free in your browser with complete privacy. Voice quality is comparable to Google and Amazon for standard narration. ElevenLabs excels at highly expressive and cloned voices, which Kokoro does not attempt. For most practical use cases — narrating presentations, accessibility audio, content previewing, learning pronunciation — Kokoro delivers excellent quality at zero cost.
Does the text-to-speech tool work on phones and tablets?
It works best on desktop or laptop computers. The 92MB model requires significant memory and processing power for speech synthesis. Newer phones with 6GB+ RAM (iPhone 14+, recent flagship Android devices) can run it, but expect slower generation times compared to desktop. On older or budget mobile devices, the model may fail to load. If you need TTS on mobile, generate the audio on a desktop first and transfer the WAV file to your phone.
Can I use the generated audio in commercial projects like YouTube videos or podcasts?
The Kokoro model is released under the Apache 2.0 license, which is one of the most permissive open-source licenses available. This generally permits commercial use, modification, and distribution. However, you should review the full license terms for your specific use case, especially if you plan to use the generated audio in a product or service. The Apache 2.0 license requires attribution but does not restrict commercial use.
Is this the same as the browser built-in text-to-speech voices?
No, and the difference is dramatic. Browser built-in TTS (the Web Speech API) uses your operating system's pre-installed voices, which typically sound robotic, flat, and mechanical. Kokoro is a neural AI model that generates speech from scratch with natural intonation, rhythm, emphasis, and breathing patterns. The result sounds like a real human speaking rather than a computer reading words. If you have tried the "Speak" feature in your browser or a screen reader and found it too robotic, Kokoro is a significant step up in quality.
What is the maximum text length I can convert to speech?
There is no hard character limit, but very long texts will take proportionally longer to generate since all processing happens on your device. For most hardware, passages up to a few thousand words process smoothly. If you need to convert a full article or document (5,000+ words), consider generating it in sections to avoid potential memory issues on lower-end devices. Each section can be downloaded as a separate WAV file.
Can I use this to listen to articles or documents hands-free?
Yes, this is one of the most popular use cases. Paste an article, blog post, or document into the tool, select a voice you find pleasant to listen to, and generate the audio. You can listen directly in the browser or download the WAV file to play on your phone, in your car, or through any audio player. It is particularly useful for catching up on reading during commutes, while exercising, or when your eyes need a break from screens.
Limitations
- Initial model download is ~92MB on first use
- Generation speed depends on device hardware
- Very long texts may take more time to process
- English only — 28 voices in American and British accents
- Best results with well-punctuated text