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Text to speech on a Chromebook

A Chromebook can read text aloud in two free ways. The built-in Select-to-speak reads the lines you highlight. Read It To Me, a free Chrome extension, reads a whole page, PDF or Google Doc from the top and highlights the line it is on.

Add to Chrome — free

Way 1: Select-to-speak, built into ChromeOS

Good for a sentence or a paragraph. It comes with every Chromebook.

Open Settings → Accessibility. Under Text-to-Speech, turn on Select-to-speak.
Hold the Search key and drag over the text. Or highlight the text and press Search + S.
The Chromebook reads it and highlights each word. Press Ctrl to stop.

Google’s own steps: Hear text read aloud — Chromebook Help.

Way 2: Read It To Me, for whole pages and PDFs

Good for an article, a chapter or a school PDF. You press play once and it keeps reading.

Open Read It To Me in the Chrome Web Store and click Add to Chrome. No account.
Pin it: click the puzzle icon next to the address bar, then the pin next to Read It To Me.
Open the page or PDF you want to hear. Click the Read It To Me icon — a side panel opens next to the page.
Press ▶. The current line is highlighted, and the page stays where it is.
Change the speed and the voice in the panel. Reading continues on the next page of a PDF by itself.

Which one to use

A few lines, a quiz question, a caption — Select-to-speak. Nothing to install.
A long article, a PDF, a Google Doc, a book — Read It To Me. It reads to the end, remembers the voice and speed, and can translate the page into your language and read the translation.

School Chromebook: “Add to Chrome” is blocked

On school Chromebooks the administrator decides which extensions are allowed. A student cannot bypass that, and should not try. Ask the teacher or the school IT team. An administrator can install Read It To Me for a class in a minute:

Google Admin console → Devices → Chrome → Apps & extensions → Users & browsers.
Pick the class or school unit, click + → Add Chrome app or extension by ID.
Extension ID: dgoegmgdhakmijhepjiligkkmlepkkic.

Read It To Me asks for no account and shows no ads. Page text goes from the browser straight to the voice service; PDFs are opened on the device and not uploaded.

Questions about Chromebooks

Does my Chromebook have text to speech built in?

Yes. It is called Select-to-speak: Settings → Accessibility → Text-to-Speech → Select-to-speak. It reads the text you highlight. For whole pages and PDFs, use a read-aloud extension such as Read It To Me.

Is Read It To Me free on a Chromebook?

Yes. It is free, with no account and no word limit on the built-in voices. Premium AI voices are optional and need your own API key.

Can a Chromebook read a PDF aloud?

Yes. Open the PDF in a Chrome tab, open the Read It To Me panel and press play. It reads page by page and highlights the line.

Can it read Google Docs aloud?

Yes. Open the document in Google Docs and press play in the Read It To Me panel.

The school Chromebook will not let me install it. What now?

Ask the teacher or school IT. An administrator can install it for a class in Google Admin console by the extension ID dgoegmgdhakmijhepjiligkkmlepkkic.

Make your Chromebook read to you

Install Read It To Me and press play on the next page you need to read.