Is ReadLoud a Speechify alternative?

Yes, for people who listen sometimes rather than every day. Speechify's annual plan is the better deal above roughly ten hours a month. Below that, minutes are cheaper and there is nothing to cancel.

Are the voices as good?

ReadLoud uses Google's current Gemini TTS and Chirp 3 HD models, with delivery styles you can steer in plain language. Speechify has its own celebrity and premium voices. Try a minute free and judge with your own text.

Can I import my Speechify library?

There is no import tool. Links and files you added to Speechify can be added to ReadLoud the same way, one at a time.

Does ReadLoud have a Chrome extension or mobile app?

ReadLoud is a web app that installs to your phone's home screen and plays with the screen off. There is no browser extension yet.

ReadLoud vs Speechify

Speechify is the best-known text to speech app, and for daily listeners it is worth its yearly price. ReadLoud exists for everyone else: the people who listen to a long article on Sunday, a paper before a meeting, a chapter on a flight, and who noticed that their subscription renewed again.

The short version

	ReadLoud	Speechify
Pricing	Minutes, from $9 a pack; never expire	Premium about $139 a year, billed annually
Free tier	1 minute with no account, 20 minutes with one	Limited free plan with basic voices and a speed cap
Voices	30 voices, 4 engines (Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro, Gemini 3.1, Chirp 3 HD), steerable delivery styles	Large catalogue including celebrity voices on paid plans
Word highlighting	Measured from the actual audio, verified against a speech recogniser	Yes
Files	PDF, EPUB, DOCX, HTML, Markdown, text, links, paste	PDF, docs, links, scans via OCR, browser extension
Speed	0.5x to 4x, pitch preserved; exact at every step	Up to 4.5x on paid plans
Phone	Installable web app, lock-screen controls, screen-off playback	Native iOS and Android apps
Download audio	Yes, single MP3	Paid plans
Browser extension	Not yet	Yes
Languages	50+ locales on the Narrator engine	Many

Where the money goes

A subscription is a bet that you will use the product more than you think. Speechify Premium costs about $139 a year. If you listen an hour a day that is pennies per hour, an honest bargain. If you listen three hours a month it is nearly four dollars an hour, and the year renews whether or not you noticed.

ReadLoud sells minutes. $9 buys an hour, $36 buys five, $99 buys sixteen and a half. The minutes sit in your account until you use them. A quiet month costs nothing, and there is no cancellation flow because there is nothing to cancel.

The break-even is around ten hours a month. Above that, keep Speechify. Below it, you have probably been paying for hours you did not listen to.

What ReadLoud does differently

Highlighting that stays on the word

Most readers estimate word timing from the text and drift over a long document. ReadLoud measures it: the audio for each passage is aligned to the words with an energy model the moment it is generated, then refined against Google's speech recogniser in the background. Timing is verified in tests against ground truth, and the highlight stays locked across a whole book.

Audio only for what you hear

Nothing is generated until you press play. Generation runs a little ahead of you and pauses when you pause, so a book you abandon after ten minutes has cost ten minutes. Everything generated is cached: rewind, re-read and reopen for free.

Delivery you can direct

The Gemini engines take a short instruction: newsreader, calm narrator, patient teacher, storyteller, or your own words. The Narrator engine (Chirp 3 HD) has one even, audiobook-like read in more than fifty languages.

Imports that skip the noise

PDF headers and footers, citation brackets, URLs and layout junk are detected and skipped, and shown dimmed on the page so you can see what was left out. A pronunciation dictionary fixes the names your field mispronounces.

What Speechify does better

Speechify has native mobile apps, a browser extension that reads any page in place, OCR for photographed pages, and a larger voice catalogue including licensed celebrity voices. If those matter to you, they are real advantages. ReadLoud is a focused web app: paste, link or upload, then listen.

Try it on your own text

The honest test is a paragraph you know well. Paste one on the home page and listen to a minute for free, no account required.

Questions

Is ReadLoud a Speechify alternative?: Yes, for people who listen sometimes rather than every day. Speechify's annual plan is the better deal above roughly ten hours a month. Below that, minutes are cheaper and there is nothing to cancel.
Are the voices as good?: ReadLoud uses Google's current Gemini TTS and Chirp 3 HD models, with delivery styles you can steer in plain language. Speechify has its own celebrity and premium voices. Try a minute free and judge with your own text.
Can I import my Speechify library?: There is no import tool. Links and files you added to Speechify can be added to ReadLoud the same way, one at a time.
Does ReadLoud have a Chrome extension or mobile app?: ReadLoud is a web app that installs to your phone's home screen and plays with the screen off. There is no browser extension yet.