AI is impacting numerous aspects of modern society. It is becoming a game-changer in many industries and areas, including digital communication. Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming the way we communicate and produce content. One of the ways AI is making communication more accessible and efficient is through the development of text to speech software.
The text to speech (TTS) technology represents a major breakthrough due to the fact that its benefits expand across multiple domains. By transforming text into speech, such tools can help individuals with visual impairments or learning disabilities like dyslexia and ADHD overcome reading and comprehension obstacles. TTS software can help companies and digital content creators produce voiceovers for various purposes, facilitate translations and language learning, as well as streamline content consumption.
Below you can find a list of 10 tools you can use to convert text to speech:
Eleven Labs
Eleven Labs gives you the opportunity to create realistic AI voices in a timely manner for various purposes. No matter if you’re a content creator, developer or business, you can resort to this tool to create audio books, engaging videos, character voices for the gaming industry or AI chatbots capable of human-like interactions.
Eleven Labs places at the users’ disposal many useful features:
- Text to speech with 120 voices and 29 languages.
- Speech to speech to change already-created voice recordings.
- Text reader option to read any form of text aloud.
- Video and podcast dubbing to translate content in foreign languages.
As far as the creation process goes, things are really intuitive. Once you let the software know who you are, what content you want to produce and to whom it is addressed, you can start your project. In the newly-opened page, just add your text, choose one of the AI voices or create your own voice and go to Voice settings to adjust stability, similarity and style exaggeration. When everything is ready hit the Generate speech button.
Pros
- User-friendly interface to quickly accomplish your task.
- Many AI voices resemble human voices.
- The option to create translations in your own voice.
- The free plan allows up to 10,000 characters/month and to download your project.
Cons
- No criteria to filter the voices.
- No control over the speed of the voice.
Pricing
Eleven Labs comes with a free plan, which lets you generate speech, translate content and create synthetic voices. You benefit from approximately 10 minutes of audio/month in this version. To remove the limitations and enjoy other features you’ll have to select one of the paid editions:
- Starter:
$5$1/month (1st month 80% off) - Creator:
$22$11/month (1st month 50% off) - Pro: $99/month
- Scale: $330/month
Murf
Murf is an AI voice generator designed for a wide range of creators, from product developers and educators to marketers, social media influencers and customer support professionals. Depending on your needs, you can use this tool to create voice overs for ads and promo videos, e-learning and how-to materials, audio books, podcasts, presentations and more.
Murf comes packed with features:
- 120+ voices, 20+ languages to choose from.
- Complete control over the voice over.
- Upload your own voice and change it.
- Add videos, music or images and sync them with the chosen voice.
- Import your own script.
- Translate projects in more than 20 languages.
The process of generating a voice is quite simple. Once you’ve entered the Studio mode, click on Create Project. In the new page simply enter your text in the text field or import your script from the left side menu. Next you can start making adjustments to the voice style, pitch, speed or pronunciation. You can also add pauses of preset or custom length. When you’re done, just click on the play button to generate audio.
Pros
- Easy to use thanks to the intuitive interface.
- A large diversity of male and female voices and of voice styles.
- Multitude of options to customize the voice and make it as natural as possible.
- Useful voice changer feature.
- Correct pronunciation and accent for other languages as well.
Cons
- You can’t download your projects in the free plan.
- Some AI voices seem robotic.
Pricing
Murf is available with a free demo version. This allows you to create a project without the possibility of downloading it. In order to do that, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the paid plans:
- Creator: $23/month
- Business: $79/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Play.ht
Play.ht is a tool that aims to create human-like voices from text. The software is designed to generate realistic AI voices for a large variety of use cases: video voiceovers, audio storytelling, gaming, e-learning, podcasts, IVR systems, translation & dubbing and many more. Play.ht offers a wide array of AI voices, from conversational, character and narrative to local accents, training and children voices.
Here are its main features:
- Constantly-growing library of more than 900 voices.
- Over 140 languages and accents.
- Multi-lingual speech synthesis.
- Voice cloning option.
- Multi-voice feature for the same audio file.
- WordPress plugin to add audio to your blog posts.
Turning text into speech isn’t difficult at all. You’re first prompted with some simple questions, so that the software can understand what kind of audio content you’re trying to produce and for whom. In the next phase copy and paste your text in the text field, select the voice and the speed and click on the Generate button. There are also advanced voice controls for stability, similarity and intensity.
Pros
- Easy-to-navigate interface.
- Many of the English AI voices are realistic, perfectly resembling the human voice.
- The possibility to regenerate the created sample in various ways.
- Excellent options to filter voice by accent, age, gender, tempo, loudness or texture.
- Customizable voice clone creation.
- You can download your audio file even in the free version.
Cons
- Not so many options to adjust the AI voices.
- Lack of variety for non-English voices.
Pricing
Play.ht offers a free plan, which grants access to all the available languages and voices. You can export your creation, but attribution is required. There are three paid plans:
- Creator: $31.20/month
- Unlimited: $79.20/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Syntesia
Synthesia represents an interesting alternative because it gives you the chance to turn text not only into speech, but video as well. Basically with this tool you can create high-quality videos using AI-powered avatars and voiceovers. Avatars play the role of TV presenters/news anchors and simply speak out the words you’ve implemented in the script. You can use the tool to create sales or technical training videos, how-to and product videos and more.
Here are its main features:
- Choose from 160+ built-in AI avatars or build your own.
- 400+ male and female AI voices in 130+ languages.
- AI voice generator and text to speech tool.
- Create a voice clone based on your recording.
- One-click translation of videos into multiple languages.
- Video editor with 60+ pre-designed templates.
Making the conversion from text to speech is pretty straightforward. Here are the steps to follow:
- Add your script.
- Select an avatar that best matches your use case.
- Choose an adequate voice.
- Click on the Generate button.
When it comes to the AI voices, you can insert pauses at any moment during the speech, as well as add alternative pronunciations if something doesn’t sound right. At any point you can make diverse adjustments to your creation. You can change the background, add another scene, insert media, a title or logo, add a transition and more.
Pros
- Abundance of features.
- Easy to use editor.
- The possibility to add two avatars in a scene and create realistic dialogues.
- A large variety of AI voices, languages and accents.
Cons
- Not so many options to customize the speech.
- The processing of a video is not exactly fast.
Pricing
Synthesia is available with a free plan. The plan is limited though to 3 minutes of video/month, only 6 AI avatars and limited voices. The paid plans are the following:
- Starter: $22/month
- Creator: $67/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Lovo
Lovo is a text to speech generator that caters for various needs. You can take advantage of its AI-powered voiceovers to create ads, educational and e-learning materials, audiobooks, podcasts, social media content, product demos or human-like customer service. But this is rather an all-in-one tool, available with numerous features:
- Text to speech with 500+ voices expressing 30+ emotions.
- Voice cloning feature.
- Video editor and video creation platform.
- AI art generator and writer.
So how does it work? Is it easy to generate a voice for your projects? The answer is yes. The interface is easy to navigate, with the features and project settings displayed in the left-side panel and the timeline in the bottom section. All you have to do is select the Text to Speech option and then insert your text in the corresponding field. You can then choose the preferred voice, change the speed or apply a fade in/out effect and generate your audio file.
Pros
- Plenty of global voices and voice styles.
- The possibility to create custom pronunciation rules for your project.
- Multiple options to create subtitles.
- Useful if you need to create other types of content.
Cons
- Certain features, like adding pause or emphasis, aren’t supported in the more accessible plans.
- Not as fast in generating audio as other tools.
- No download possible in the free plan.
Pricing
Lovo offers a 14-day free trial version that encompasses the features of its Pro version. You can share your work via link or on social media, but you can’t download your audio or video files. There are other four plans:
- Basic: $24/month
- Pro: $24/month (1st year 50% off)
- Pro+: $75/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Respeecher
Respeecher is not your standard tool to create voice from text. Of course, it does have the feature, but the one that stands out is the speech-to-speech feature. Respeecher prides itself on being able to replicate voices for numerous projects with the aid of artificial intelligence. You can use this tool to clone voices for movies, animations, songs and TV shows, for games, ads or perhaps dubbing. In the future it can be used to help patients suffering from stroke and ALS replicate their own voices and speak in a natural way.
Respeecher offers the following key features:
- Speech to speech conversion.
- Text to speech option.
- Over 100 natural voices to choose from.
- Train your own AI voice model.
- Ethical guidelines to prevent misuse.
Converting one voice to another is easily accomplished. These are the steps to follow:
- Record/upload your voice or enter a text script.
- Select one of the available voices and customize it.
- Download the audio with the new voice.
Pros
- Ideal for reproducing the voice of a beloved actor or historical figure.
- Successful voice swaps, with natural-sounding, emotional delivery.
- Plenty of voice customization options.
- Useful audio settings for the speech to speech conversion.
Cons
- The accent voices aren’t so convincing.
Pricing
Respeecher comes with a 30-day free trial version, which lets you clone voices and download the results. There are three main paid versions:
- TTS Only: $9/month
- Explorer: $29.50/month
- Creator: $44.50/month
Resemble
Resemble is an optimal product for companies, due to the fact that it is conceived with a clear focus on security and safety. In that sense the tool provides customizable voice cloning for cyber threat simulations, deepfake audio detection and AI-based watermarking option for invisible audio watermarking. Basically it offers the necessary features to help you protect your business against online scams and content misuse. Speaking of features, here’s what the tool can additionally do:
- Text to speech and speech to speech creation.
- Voice marketplace with 40+, ready-to-use AI voices.
- Neural audio editing.
- Localize option to dub your voice into numerous languages.
When it comes to converting text into speech, the process is simple. The first step is to find the desired voice. You can either choose one of the voices from the marketplace or clone your own voice. The second step is to add the text you wish to convert. In this phase you can also duplicate it, generate multiple texts, add another speaker and choose your output settings. You can download your files individually or a full audio file.
Pros
- It’s fairly easy to use.
- Packed with safety features for enterprises.
- You can create a custom AI voice, with control over nuance, tone and personality.
- You can download the demo file you generate.
Cons
- No option to adjust the speed of the voice.
- No voice cloning in the free plan.
Pricing
Resemble offers a demo version, which enables you to generate up to 6 minutes of audio/month. You can upgrade to one of the following plans for more features:
- Personal: $0.006/second
- Creator: $29/month
- Professional: $99/month
- Growth: $299/month
- Business: $499/month
WellSaid Labs
WellSaid Labs is another professional text to speech converter. Addressed to enterprises, the tool can be used to generate high-quality voiceovers for corporate training content, commercials (anything from TV and radio ads to product promotions), as well as video production (from YouTube videos to movies). Here are the main features of WellSaid Labs:
- Studio to generate a natural voiceover for various productions.
- Create unique voice avatars tailored to your brand and content.
- Full control over the entire audio materials.
- Teams feature for creatives to work together.
- Develop your individual phonetic library.
To generate a voiceover from text is an easy task. Here’s what you have to do: create a new project, choose a voice avatar based on your preferences and add your script in the text field. You can create a single take, render by paragraph or sentence. In general, the options and settings are in the right place and you won’t have a hard time navigating through the platform.
Pros
- Truly realistic, high-quality AI voices.
- You can instruct the AI voice to follow the pace, loudness and pausing you want.
- The possibility to filter voices by performance styles, regional accents and voice characteristics.
- The options to make pronunciation adjustments.
- Fast rendering.
Cons
- Rather expensive in comparison to other tools.
- Voices available only in the English language.
- Limited 7-day free trial.
- The demo version doesn’t allow you to download your audio material.
Pricing
WellSaid Labs has a 7-day free trial, which allows you to create a single project. If you want to download your audio file and remove the restrictions, you’ll need to upgrade to one of the four paid plans:
- Maker: $44.08/month
- Creative: $89.08/month
- Business: $179/month
- Enterprise: Custom price
Listnr
Listnr is a simple tool that uses generative AI to give voice to your texts. The platform makes it possible to quickly turn a blog article or a specific text into an audio file. There are various use cases for the software: short-form content like Shorts and Reels, YouTube videos, podcasts, audio books, gaming or sales materials. Listnr enjoys:
- 1000+ different voices in over 142 languages.
- Voice cloning.
- Text to video in various languages.
- Control over the AI voices, with emotion, punctuation and pauses fine-tuning.
Using Listnr is far from complicated. To generate voice from text first click on the +New TTS Voiceover button. In the new pop-up window select one of the two options: you can create a voiceover by inserting a link from a blog post or by using the editor and simply pasting your text. You can then select a voice for your text, set the style and speed, adjust the pause duration and make pronunciation changes if necessary. Next click on Save to generate and listen to the voiceover and then on Export to download it to your PC.
Pros
- User-friendly interface.
- Accessible paid plans.
- Options to customize pause duration between paragraphs and after punctuation marks.
- You can build your own pronunciation library.
- Downloads possible in the free version.
Cons
- Non-English voices require improvements.
- The tool seems too simplistic and lacks the variety of features other tools have.
Pricing
Listnr offers users a free version which doesn’t have time limitations. Basically you can use this free license forever. And things get even better. The free plan allows up to 1,000 words/month, 20 downloads and access to more than 300 standard voices. There are four other paid plans available, which are quite conveniently-priced:
- Student: $5/month
- Individual: $19/month
- Solo: $39/month
- Agency: $99/month
Speechelo
Speechelo can be a good alternative if you’re looking for a quick and simple way to convert text into voice. The tool may not offer the multitude of features as its competitors offer, but it can be effectively put to use to create voiceovers for sales, training or educational videos. Speechelo places at your disposal:
- 30+ AI voices in more than 20 languages.
- Online text editor.
- Full customization control over the speech.
You can transform text into voice in three simple steps:
- Paste your text. (The software will analyze it and add punctuation marks if necessary to make it sound more natural.)
- Select the preferred language and voice. In this stage you can also make various adjustments to the speech.
- Generate your audio file and download it.
Pros
- Straightforward process of turning text into voice.
- You can add breathing and pauses, choose a voice tone and adjust the speed and pitch.
- It’s not subscription-based, purchasing it requires a one-time fee.
Cons
- It can not be tested before purchase. It’s the only tool in our list that doesn’t offer a demo version or free plan.
- Considerably smaller library of voices and languages than other tools.
Pricing
At the time of writing the article, the tool is being offered at the discounted price of $47. You benefit from a lifetime license, a 60-day money-back guarantee and free training and updates.
Conclusion
Turning a text into a speech is not something completely new. The technology has been available for a while now. What is phenomenal though is the progress made in recent years with the aid of AI. If in the past the generated voices were predominantly robotic, now it’s not the case anymore. Artificial intelligence has made it possible to create natural-sounding voices, able to replicate human tone, emotion and expression.
Today’s text to speech tools are fundamentally changing the way we communicate by making information more accessible, more convenient and more efficient. Their benefits range from helping people with visual impairments and learning disabilities overcome the barriers of written content to enhancing the educational experience and aiding companies provide a simplified and engaging experience for their audiences.