How-To

Google Chrome: Make the Browser Read Text to You

By Brian Burgess

Updated May 27, 2021

Sometimes you don’t have time to read through an article by looking at the screen and having it read to you works better. Here’s how to do that in Google Chrome.

If you have poor eyesight or are too lazy to read a webpage, Google Chrome can read it for you. Make Chrome read to you with the Chrome Speak extension.

Make Google Chrome Read Text Aloud to You

Go to the Read Aloud extension page on the Chrome Web Store and click the Add to Chrome button.

Next, verify you want to install the extension by clicking the Add Extension button.

Now, open any website and highlight the text you want Google Chrome to read. Right-click on the highlighted text and click on the “Read aloud selected text” option from the menu that comes up. It will read the entire text for you.

It can read the entire article for you as well. Head to a web page where you want the article read. Click the “Read Aloud” icon in the upper-right corner of the toolbar. Text will be highlighted as it is read to you. At the top, you will have basic playback buttons like play/pause and skip ahead.

You can change different things like the playback speed, type of voice used, pitch, volume, and more from the Options page.

That’s all there is to it. This is a simple extension that does exactly what it advertises. And if you are an Edge user, check out our article on how to make Microsoft Edge read aloud to you.