About

About WebNarrator

WebNarrator is a free browser extension that reads selected text aloud on any webpage. Select text, hit Option+Shift+S on Mac or Alt+Shift+S on Windows, and listen. WebNarrator will narrate your selected text with live word-by-word highlighting so you can follow along.

It runs on Chrome and Firefox (Manifest v3), uses your operating system’s built-in voices via the Web Speech API or its own optional on-device neural voices. There are no accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no subscriptions, and no servers. The only network event is a one-time, consent-gated download of the Kokoro neural voice model - and only if you choose to turn neural voices on.

Why it exists

I love audiobooks. For non-fiction audiobooks that try to teach you something, it can be helpful to both read and listen to the book at the same time. This sometimes helps me stay engaged when I am trying to get through a book that I want to read but feels like a slog.

I wanted the same ability while reading documentation and what not on the internet, so I built WebNarrator.

Get it

• Install for Chrome
• Install for Firefox

Built by

Built by David Reid.