Last updated: 2026-10-11
Speechify won Apple's 2025 Design Award for Inclusivity and reports 60M+ users. It is a text-to-speech reader for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome, Edge and the web, built around highlighted follow-along listening, with voice typing, AI podcasts and a voice assistant added on top of the reader.
About Speechify
Speechify is a read-aloud and voice AI app from Speechify Inc., started by Cliff Weitzman, who built the first version himself as a dyslexic student at Brown University to keep up with his course readings. The founding idea is that listening takes less effort than decoding text, so the app turns PDFs, web pages, email, scanned book pages and Google Drive files into speech, highlights each word as it is read, and lets you raise the speed gradually. Apple gave it a 2025 Apple Design Award in the Inclusivity category. CB Insights lists about $4.5M raised across seed rounds, the latest in January 2021, though that profile is unclaimed and may be incomplete.
Reading aloud is the core, and the other features are built around it. Scan & Listen takes a photo of a printed page and reads it back, which matters for textbooks and handouts that never got an audiobook. A Voice AI Assistant answers questions about whatever you are listening to, summaries and quizzes recap a document, and AI Podcasts turn a file or a short description into an episode. The newest layer is voice typing, which dictates into other apps and cleans up filler words, on the Chrome extension, the Mac app and Windows.
It suits three groups. Students and people with dyslexia, ADHD or low vision get the accessibility design the app started from. Professionals with a backlog of PDFs, contracts and email can clear it while commuting or walking. Writers and creators can reshape a document into audio or a rough draft. If reading aloud is the whole job, our guide to what an hour of synthetic audio really costs compares ElevenLabs, Murf AI and others. If dictation is the whole job, Wispr Flow is the specialist, and for meeting capture Otter.ai and Granola cover that ground. To edit audio afterwards by editing its transcript, Descript does that, and our guide to summarizing videos and podcasts covers the case where you want a summary instead of a read-aloud.
Speechify runs on the web, as Chrome and Edge extensions, on iPhone and iPad, on Android, and on Mac and Windows, with one library that syncs across them. Its assistant competes for the same speak-a-question habit as ChatGPT voice mode and Gemini Live, and the company's argument is that voice should be the default there, not an afterthought. For answers grounded in files you upload, Gemini Notebook, the renamed NotebookLM, is the closest free comparison. Developers who want a speech-to-text API instead of an app can look at Speechmatics. Browse every tool tagged with voice, or the wider category under AI voice assistants or voice dictation, or let Smart Match shortlist one for your own use.
Pricing
5x. Premium: $29 monthly, or $139 if you pay yearly (the pricing page labels the yearly option a 60% saving). Speechify Studio and the Speechify API are sold separately on their own pricing pages.
Prices read in US dollars on 2026-10-11. For a dictation-first rival, see Wispr Flow.
| Tier | Monthly price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Text to speech only, Listening speed up to 1.5x, 10 robotic-sounding voices, Listen anywhere |
| Premium (monthly) | $29/mo | 1,000+ natural voices in 60+ languages, Listening up to 5x, Scan & Listen, AI summaries and chats, Voice typing, AI Podcasts |
| Premium (yearly) | $139/yr | Same Premium features as the monthly plan, Billed once a year, Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive imports |
Key Features
- Text to speech reader: Premium lists 1,000+ voices in 60+ languages and listening speeds up to 5x, with each word highlighted as it is read.
- Scan & Listen: Reads a photo of a printed page aloud, which covers books and handouts that have no audio edition.
- Voice typing: Dictates into other apps and removes filler words; the vendor's own demo claims 160 words per minute against 40 on a keyboard.
- Voice AI Assistant: Answers spoken questions about the page, PDF or book you are listening to, and can summarize it or quiz you on it.
- AI Podcasts: Creates a podcast episode from a document or a short description, with adjustable tone and depth.
- Cloud imports and sync: Pulls files from Google Drive, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive, and syncs the library across every device you sign in on.
- Celebrity voices: Adds Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow voices alongside the standard library on the iOS app.
Pros
- Word-by-word highlighting and gradual speed control come from a dyslexia-first design, and Apple's Inclusivity award recognised that focus.
- Trustpilot shows the company replying to 91% of negative reviews, typically within a week, and both review sources read agree at 4.7.
- One subscription covers listening, dictation, podcasts and an assistant, where Wispr Flow is built around dictation.
Cons
- Dictation trails the specialists: TechCrunch's hands-on test when voice typing launched found a higher word error rate than Wispr Flow, Willow and Monologue, and triggering it on sites such as WordPress was unreliable.
- In that same review the sidebar assistant did not work in browsers that ship their own assistant, including OpenAI's Atlas, Perplexity's Comet and Dia.
- The free plan reads text only, so summaries, podcasts, dictation and the assistant all sit behind the paid tier.
- The July 2026 privacy policy bars training on Google Drive data but says nothing comparable about uploaded documents or dictation audio, and no HIPAA or business associate agreement statement appears on the consumer pages read.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Google Drive data is not used to train generalized AI or ML models (privacy policy, updated July 22, 2026). No equivalent statement was found for uploaded documents or dictation audio.
- Compliance
- SOC 2 (stated on the vendor's own blog; report type and date not given)
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do you pay for Speechify?
Speechify Premium costs $29 a month billed monthly, or $139 a year billed yearly, which works out to about $11.58 a month and which the pricing page labels a 60% saving. Premium is the only paid consumer tier, and it unlocks the full voice library, faster listening, summaries, podcasts, voice typing and the assistant. Speechify Studio (voiceovers and dubbing) and the Speechify API have their own pricing pages and are not covered by the consumer plan.
Does Speechify have a free plan?
The free plan is text to speech only, with listening capped at 1.5x and 10 voices that Speechify itself calls robotic sounding. Summaries, podcasts, voice typing and the assistant all need Premium. The pricing page lists no word or time quota for the free plan, so try your own documents before you pay.
What are the best alternatives to Speechify?
ElevenLabs is the choice when you need voice cloning or voice agents. Wispr Flow fits when dictation is the job and reading aloud is not, and Gemini Notebook (the renamed NotebookLM) suits answers grounded in files you upload, free with a Google account. Murf AI is better when you are producing voiceovers rather than listening.
Speechify or Wispr Flow: which should you pick?
Wispr Flow is built around dictation, and its Pro plan is $144 a year on annual billing, while Speechify's yearly plan costs less and also reads aloud. TechCrunch measured a higher word error rate for Speechify's voice typing than for Wispr Flow in its launch-time test, so Wispr Flow is the safer pick when daily dictation accuracy matters most. Choose Speechify if you listen to documents as often as you write.
How do you set up Speechify?
Use the web app, the iOS, Android, Mac or Windows apps, or add the Chrome or Edge extension, and start on the free plan. Upload a PDF, paste a link or point the camera at a printed page, press play, then raise the speed in small steps. Speechify said at launch that it would add voice typing and the assistant to every app gradually, so check that your platform has them before paying.
Top Alternatives
- ElevenLabs: Pick ElevenLabs if you need voice cloning or voice agents; pick Speechify if the job is listening to your own documents.
- Wispr Flow: Pick Wispr Flow if dictation accuracy is the daily job; pick Speechify if you also listen to documents, since its yearly plan costs less than Wispr Flow's $144.
- Gemini Notebook: Pick Gemini Notebook if you want answers grounded in uploaded sources and a free start; pick Speechify if you want documents read to you in a chosen voice.
- Murf AI: Pick Murf AI if you produce voiceovers for video; pick Speechify if you are the listener, not the producer.