Is there a free app to do AI text-to-speech?
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I'm looking for a free way to do AI-powered "text to speech", so I can copy-paste an article or document and have it read to me.
I've tried
say
on the command line, but the lack of AI means it is much harder to comprehend. All of the non-AI TTS-libraries that I've found are also much harder to comprehend than the new generation of AI-powered TTS.
Specifically, the new AI-powered TTS services seem to understand some of the meaning and structure of the sentence that is being read, and so they provide better natural cadence. This alleviates stress on the listener to parse the meaning of what is being read out.
All of the apps I've come across so far have tried to get me to sign up for services that cost well in excess of $100 per year.
My best alternative at the moment is to write my own code to use an API such as the Google Cloud text-to-speech API, but even that will cost me around $0.12 to speak a typical 1300-word article.
Perhaps there is some kind of open-source software that works on Mac Silicon, that I can install to generate better speech from text?
Asked by Andrew Parks
(199 rep)
Aug 24, 2023, 01:24 AM
Last activity: Jul 2, 2025, 03:03 PM
Last activity: Jul 2, 2025, 03:03 PM