The shortlist
6 things that do it.
Built-in iPhone accessibility settings that read the screen or selected text aloud.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Apple page; it is a setting in iOS.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Reading everything on screen aloud with Speak Screen, or just chosen text with Speak Selection.
- The catch
- You turn it on first in Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak. Apple also lists Accessibility Reader for a full-screen reading view.
- ios
Built-in Android accessibility feature that reads selected items on screen aloud.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Google page; it is an accessibility setting.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Hearing text or items you tap or drag across, and reading text from a camera view, per Google's help page.
- The catch
- Some steps only work on Android 11 and up. If you cannot see it in Accessibility settings, Google says to install the Android Accessibility Suite from Google Play.
- android
Read aloud in Edge's Reading mode, which strips a web page back to its text and reads it out.
- Free
- No separate price is stated on the Microsoft page; it is a browser feature.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Reading web pages aloud in the browser with no extra app.
- The catch
- It works on webpages in Edge, so it will not read text in other apps.
- web
A text-to-speech reader for web pages, PDFs and documents, with apps and browser extensions.
- Free
- Free: listen at speeds up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices, text to speech features only (Speechify pricing page).
- Paid
- from $29 per month (Premium, monthly view)
- Best at
- Reading documents and pages aloud in many voices, with scan-and-listen on Premium.
- The catch
- The free plan listens at up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices; Premium is $29 a month on the monthly view of the pricing page.
- web
- ios
- android
- mac
- windows
- chrome
Text-to-speech for documents, PDFs, ePub and web pages, with apps and a Chrome extension.
- Free
- The site says it has a free forever plan with no credit card needed; what it includes was not detailed on the page we read.
- Paid
- price not checked
- Best at
- Listening to PDFs, Word docs, ePub and web pages, and scanning physical text with the camera.
- The catch
- Paid plan prices did not appear on the page we read, so we cannot quote one.
- web
- ios
- android
- chrome
ElevenLabs' reader app that voices ePubs, PDFs, articles and pasted text.
- Free
- The app is completely free to download and use today, per ElevenLabs.
- Paid
- from Free
- Best at
- Voicing your own files, links and pasted text in 32 languages for free, per the app's FAQ.
- The catch
- You cannot export audio from the app; ElevenLabs says that is only on its web platform. It also says a premium version may arrive later.
- ios
- android
The same shortlist, as a table
| Thing | Free tier | Paid from | Platforms | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone Speak Screen and Speak Selectionrel="nofollow noopener" | No separate price is stated on the Apple page; it is a setting in iOS. | not checked | ios | You turn it on first in Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak. Apple also lists Accessibility Reader for a full-screen reading view. |
| Android Select to Speakrel="nofollow noopener" | No separate price is stated on the Google page; it is an accessibility setting. | not checked | android | Some steps only work on Android 11 and up. If you cannot see it in Accessibility settings, Google says to install the Android Accessibility Suite from Google Play. |
| Microsoft Edge Read aloudrel="nofollow noopener" | No separate price is stated on the Microsoft page; it is a browser feature. | not checked | web | It works on webpages in Edge, so it will not read text in other apps. |
| Speechifyrel="nofollow noopener" | Free: listen at speeds up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices, text to speech features only (Speechify pricing page). | $29 per month (Premium, monthly view) | web, ios, android, mac, windows, chrome | The free plan listens at up to 1.5x with 10 robotic-sounding voices; Premium is $29 a month on the monthly view of the pricing page. |
| NaturalReaderrel="nofollow noopener" | The site says it has a free forever plan with no credit card needed; what it includes was not detailed on the page we read. | not checked | web, ios, android, chrome | Paid plan prices did not appear on the page we read, so we cannot quote one. |
| ElevenReaderrel="nofollow noopener" | The app is completely free to download and use today, per ElevenLabs. | Free | ios, android | You cannot export audio from the app; ElevenLabs says that is only on its web platform. It also says a premium version may arrive later. |
How we checked
What we read, and what we haven't tested yet.
On 2026-10-02 we read Apple's iPhone User Guide page on speaking the screen, Google's Select to Speak help page, Microsoft's Edge Reading mode page, the Speechify pricing page, the NaturalReader homepage and the ElevenReader page on the ElevenLabs site. Nothing was tested hands-on, so this is what the companies say about their own products.
If none of these fit
The manual way.
If an app won't read what you need, try the built-in options first: iPhone Speak Screen, Android Select to Speak, or Edge Read aloud for web pages. None of our products reads text aloud.