Free, open-source Chrome extension that reads selected text aloud with a natural neural voice — text to speech that runs offline, right in your browser.
🌐 Website & guides: https://romkakn.github.io/voice-reader/ 🇮🇱 מדריך התקנה בעברית (לא-מתכנתים): ראו
INSTALL.md— כולל צילומי מסך וצעד-אחר-צעד. 🔒 אבטחה ופרטיות: ראוSECURITY.md.
- Make Chrome read text out loud (free)
- Free TTS Chrome extension — no account
- Install an unpacked extension (Developer mode)
- Offline neural TTS with Piper + WebAssembly
- Privacy-first TTS — zero data to the cloud
- Word highlighting & focus mode
- Read-aloud for dyslexia & reading difficulty
- Free Speechify alternative for Chrome
You highlight a paragraph, right-click, and hear it. That's the whole idea. Voice Reader is a free text to speech Chrome extension that reads web pages aloud using a natural neural voice (Piper VITS) compiled to WebAssembly. The voice generation happens on your machine, so there's no API key, no account, and no subscription. After a one-time voice download (~63MB) it keeps working offline.
Most read-aloud tools ship your text to a server. This one doesn't. If you've looked at Speechify and balked at the paywall, Voice Reader is a free alternative that stays on your device. When a neural voice isn't loaded yet, it falls back to your browser's built-in Web Speech API so you're never stuck.
| Feature | What it does |
|---|---|
| Neural voice (Piper VITS) | Generates natural speech locally via WebAssembly — no cloud round-trip |
| Web Speech fallback | Uses the browser's built-in voices when no neural voice is loaded |
| Right-click to read | Select text, right-click, and listen to it on any page |
| Voice modes | Switch between Explanatory and Storytelling tone |
| Floating control bar | Draggable bar for play, pause, speed, and mode |
| Synced captions | Live captions with karaoke-style word highlighting |
| Focus mode | Surfaces one sentence at a time to cut distraction |
| Click-to-replay | Tap any word or sentence to hear it again |
| Adjustable speed | Slow down or speed up reading to taste |
| Offline after setup | Works with no connection once the voice is downloaded |
- Listen to long documentation instead of scrolling through it (Claude docs, Google Cloud, API references)
- Read Wikipedia articles aloud while you do something else
- Get through dense English articles when reading them is slow going
- Dyslexia-friendly reading help and general accessibility support
- Study by listening — let your ears carry the load when your eyes are tired
- Reduce reading fatigue on long sessions
- Multitask: cook, walk, or commute while a page reads itself to you
- Download or clone this repository.
- Open
chrome://extensionsin Chrome (or Edge, Brave, Opera). - Turn on Developer mode (top-right toggle).
- Click Load unpacked and pick the extension folder.
- Pin Voice Reader to your toolbar.
New to unpacked extensions? The step-by-step guide walks through it with screenshots. Hebrew speakers can follow INSTALL.md.
- Select any text on a web page.
- Right-click and choose Read aloud (or use the floating control bar).
- Adjust speed, switch voice mode, or turn on focus mode from the bar.
- Click a highlighted word to replay from there.
Voice Reader uses Piper VITS models compiled to WebAssembly. The first time you pick a neural voice, the extension downloads the model once (~63MB) and caches it. After that, every word is synthesized on your device — nothing leaves the browser, and it works with no internet connection. If a neural voice isn't ready, the Web Speech API handles playback so reading never blocks.
MIT — see LICENSE. Zero runtime dependencies; everything is vendored.
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