Speechify

Speechify started as a tool that turns written text into spoken audio, and it is still widely used to read articles, PDFs, emails, and documents out loud. Over time it has grown well beyond a simple screen reader.

The biggest change came in 2026, when Speechify moved to its own SIMBA 3.x voice model developed in its AI Voice Research Lab. SIMBA 3.0 reached general availability in March 2026, and the SIMBA 3.2 streaming variant now sits at the top of the Voice Arena leaderboard while powering both the consumer app and the Voice API. This shifted the product from a text reader toward a broader voice-AI platform.

On the capability side, you get text-to-speech in over 1000 voices, reading speeds up to 5x, and a set of newer voice-first features: a Voice AI Assistant, AI Podcasts, Voice Typing, and voice chat. There are also licensed celebrity voices such as Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, and Gwyneth Paltrow. For developers, the Voice API exposes the same SIMBA models, including real-time speech-to-speech and speech recognition.

Pricing follows a freemium model. The Free tier costs nothing and covers basic reading. Premium is $29 per month, or roughly $139 per year on the annual plan, and unlocks the full voice library, higher speeds, and premium voices. Speechify Studio and the Voice API are priced separately, with API pricing around $6 per million characters.

The limitations are worth noting. The most natural voices and useful speeds are gated behind Premium, the celebrity voices are novelty features rather than core tools, and the monthly plan is expensive unless you commit annually. Free users hit fairly quick limits on high-quality voices.

Speechify fits people who consume a lot of written content by ear, students and professionals who want faster reading, and developers who need a modern TTS or speech-to-speech API without building their own model.