Privacy‑First Text‑to‑Speech: What Stays On Your Device

Last updated: December 2025

People often paste sensitive text into text‑to‑speech tools: drafts, notes, letters, study material, even private messages. So it’s reasonable to ask: where does my text go?

Local Speech vs Cloud Speech

There are two common ways text‑to‑speech works:

Local (on-device / browser voices): speech is generated by your device’s speech engine.
Cloud TTS: your text is sent to a server, converted to audio, and the audio is returned.

For the deeper decision guide (privacy + voice quality + trust questions), see Local vs Cloud Text‑to‑Speech.

Tradeoff: Cloud TTS can provide very natural voices, but it requires sending text off-device. Read‑Aloud plays audio in your browser and does not export audio files, keeping control on your device.

What Read‑Aloud Tries to Do

Read‑Aloud is built around the idea of browser-local speech. Read‑Aloud itself does not upload your pasted text to our servers — speech is generated by your browser/OS speech engine.

Read‑Aloud specifics

Voices come from your device. Different browsers/OSes expose different voice lists.
On iPhone/iPad: if audio is silent or voices don’t load, see Help.
No file downloads. Read‑Aloud focuses on in‑browser playback and does not export audio files.

Deep dives: Browser compatibility

What You Should Still Be Careful About

Your own device: if you’re on a shared computer, avoid pasting private content.
Browser extensions: some extensions can read page content. Use only extensions you trust.
Screen sharing: if you paste private text while sharing your screen, others can see it.

Privacy checklist (before you paste)

☐ I am not screen‑sharing (or the shared window does not include my text box)
☐ I am not on a shared/public computer
☐ I trust any browser extensions installed in this browser
☐ The text does not contain passwords, 2FA codes, or private identifiers
☐ If it’s sensitive, I will paste only the section I need (not the whole document)

Why downloadable audio files aren’t provided

Many system voices don’t provide a way for websites to capture their speech output as a file. The Web Speech API is designed to speak through your device speakers — it doesn’t hand a website an audio recording. That’s why Read‑Aloud focuses on private, in‑browser playback instead of file downloads.

Where to Learn More

Next: How to Use Read‑Aloud · All Guides