Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS)

Name: Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS)
Rating: 3.58 (170 reviews)
Author: Joel Purra

Fast & easy text-to-speech. Read aloud from websites, PDF, email. Privacy-aware, open source code.

As of May 2026, Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) has 50,000 users and a 3.58/5 rating from 170 reviews in the Accessibility category.

Joel Purra Accessibility

Chrome Web Store ↗.crx

Users0%

50.0K

50,000

Rating0%

3.58

170 reviews

Reviews0%

170

Version

v8.0.2 Chrome Extension (2025-09-10)

Manifest V3

History

2 snapshots

Tracking since Apr 21, 2026.

View as table

Date	Users	Rating	Reviews	Version
Apr 21, 2026	50.0K	3.58	170	v8.0.2 Chrome Extension (2025-09-10)
May 31, 2026	60.0K	3.58	170	v8.0.2 Chrome Extension (2025-09-10)
Now	50.0K	3.58	170	v8.0.2 Chrome Extension (2025-09-10)

Permissions & access

Permissions: activeTabcontextMenusoffscreenscriptingstorage
Host access: None declared

Screenshots

Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) screenshot 1

Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) screenshot 2

Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) screenshot 3

Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) screenshot 4

Talkie: text-to-speech (TTS) screenshot 5

About

# Install additional voices

New voices, languages, dialects can be downloaded for FREE for your operating system from for example Microsoft, Apple, and Google. Once installed correctly, Talkie will auto-detect them.

☑ Windows 11: Settings → Time & Language → Language & Region
☑ Windows 10: Settings → Time & Language → Language
☑ macOS: System Preferences → Accessibility → Speech → System voice → Customize...
☑ ChromeOS: Settings → Manage accessibility features → Text-to-Speech voice settings → Speech Engines

# Usage

1. Select desired text on any web page.
2. Click the Talkie button in your browser bar

You can also select the text, then right click on it, and choose Talkie in the menu. This way also works in PDF-files and some special types of pages in Chrome.

https://joelpurra.com/projects/talkie/#usage

# Shortcut keys

A convenient option is to use the Talkie shortcut keys:

☑ ⌘+Shift+A on macOS
☑ Ctrl+Shift+A on Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
☑ ⌘+Shift+1 or Ctrl+Shift+1 to read text from the clipboard in any program (Talkie Premium feature)

If the key does not work, please check that it is not already in use by another extension. How to check or change the Talkie shortcut key:

https://joelpurra.com/projects/talkie/#shortcut-keys

# Features

☑ Lets you listen to the selected text on any part of a page -- a short snippet or an entire news article. Just highlight what you want to hear read aloud and hit play.

☑ Automatically detects the text language per-page, and chooses a voice in the same language to match it.

☑ Privacy aware -- no unnecessary tracking or external services.

# Voices

☑ Uses your browser's built-in Web Speech API for text-to-speech (TTS) known as Speech Synthesis.

☑ All text and speech is processed internally by your browser. While ultimately depending on your specific browser, all processing is expected to be done on your own machine and not use a server.

☑ The available voices may differ depending on your operating system, browser, browser version, and any other installed extensions/software.

☑ Custom voices using Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI) should work, but not all have been tested.

https://joelpurra.com/projects/talkie/#install-additional-voices

# Upgrade to Talkie Premium!

☑ Select your favorite voice per language!
☑ Adjust the speed and pitch per language!
☑ Read text from the clipboard in any program!

# Open source

For open source code (GPL-3.0) and more, see the project web page:

https://joelpurra.com/projects/talkie/

See also additional tools developed by Joel Purra:

https://joelpurra.com/