AO3 Text to Speech: Free Read Aloud or a Voice for Each Character

Hear the difference: one voice or a voice for each character

Free read-aloud gives the narrator, the hero and the villain the same voice. In a chapter full of banter, you wait for the next "she said" to learn who is talking.

Here is one scene read both ways. Each clip is about 2 minutes, and anyone can play them, with no sign-in. Tamsin and Dario, two exes, are stuck in an elevator, and Bev talks to them over the intercom. Listen for lines with no "he said" or "she said," like "Don't." and "I know." With one voice, you work out who said them. With a cast, you just hear it.

We made both clips in LyricWinter Studio. Only the casting changes. First, one voice for everyone, like read-aloud:

Now the same scene, with a voice for each speaker:

Does AO3 have text to speech?

No. AO3 has no read-aloud button and no official app. A work page has Entire Work, Chapter Index, Comments, Share and Download, but nothing that plays. AO3's FAQ says it doesn't have the resources to build an app yet.^[1]

AO3 does suggest one way to listen. Its FAQ says downloads exist partly for accessibility, so readers can open a work in an app with text to speech.^[2] So you have two choices: your device's free read-aloud, with one voice for everything, or LyricWinter, with a voice for each character and an MP3 to keep.

If you'd rather hear a person read, look for podfic. Podfics are recordings made by fans, and AO3 lists more than 74,000 works under the Podfic tag.^[3] Most fics don't have one. Our guide on how to listen to fanfiction covers podfic and every other option.

The device steps below follow Apple, Google and Microsoft help pages, linked at the end. If a menu looks different on your device, check the linked page.

How to make AO3 read aloud on iPhone and iPad

Apple gives you two free tools. Listen to Page is the simplest. Speak Screen works on more pages and gives you more control.

Listen to Page in Safari

1. Open the AO3 chapter in Safari.
2. Tap the Page Menu button at the left side of the address bar (where the website name is), then tap Listen to Page.
3. To pause, tap the Page Menu button again and tap the pause button. Tap play in the same place to continue.

The steps are the same on iPad. Apple says Listen to Page works on "supported webpages," so if you don't see it in the menu, use Speak Screen instead.^[4][5]

Speak Screen

1. Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Read & Speak. If you don't see it, look for Spoken Content, its older name.
2. Tap Speak Screen and turn it on.
3. Open the AO3 chapter and swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers.
4. Use the controls that appear to pause, change the speed, or skip forward and back. You can also ask Siri to "Speak screen."

In the same Read & Speak menu you can open Voices to pick a different voice, set the Speaking Rate (speed), and add Pronunciations for names the voice gets wrong. iPad uses the same menu.^[6][7]

How to make AO3 read aloud on Android

Android also gives you two free tools. Chrome's Listen to this page reads the whole chapter page. Select to Speak, built into Android, reads whatever is on your screen.

Listen to this page in Chrome

1. Open the AO3 chapter in Chrome.
2. Tap More (the three dots at the top right), then tap Listen to this page.
3. Check which mode is playing. If the player says AI playback, tap Switch playback mode at the bottom left to get Standard playback.
4. Tap the player to change the speed (shown as 1.0x). In Standard playback, you can also open Options and tap Voice to pick a different voice.

Step 3 matters for fic. Google says Standard playback "reads all the words on the page," while AI playback turns the page into a podcast-style conversation. AI playback is the default when it's available.^[8]

Google says the feature needs the Make searches and browsing better setting turned on. To find it, tap More, then Settings, then Google services. Once it's playing, Chrome keeps reading with your screen locked. If Listen to this page isn't in the menu, Chrome can't play that page.^[8] Try Select to Speak instead.

Select to Speak

1. Open Settings, tap Accessibility, then Select to Speak, and turn on Select to Speak shortcut.
2. Open the AO3 chapter and start Select to Speak with its shortcut: swipe up with two fingers, or tap the Accessibility button (a small person icon).
3. Tap Play to hear everything on the screen. The player has buttons to pause, skip forward or back, and change the speed.

Google says some of these steps need Android 11 or later. To check your version, open Settings and tap About phone, then Android version. Google also says Select to Speak might not work in every mobile browser. In Select to Speak settings, you can turn on Read in background, so it keeps reading while you scroll.^[9]

How to make AO3 read aloud on Windows and Mac

Read aloud in Microsoft Edge

1. Open the AO3 chapter in Microsoft Edge.
2. Press Ctrl+Shift+U on Windows or Command+Shift+U on a Mac. You can also right-click the page and choose Read aloud. Or open Settings and more (the three dots at the top right) and choose Read aloud. It may be under More tools.^[10]
3. To change the speed or voice, open Voice options on the Read aloud bar.^[11]

Press the same shortcut again to stop. Microsoft says Read aloud offers dozens of voices and accents.^[11]

Reading mode in Chrome

Google's help pages describe Listen to this page for Chrome on Android only. On a computer, Chrome reads pages aloud through Reading mode.^[12]

1. Open the AO3 chapter in Chrome.
2. Right-click the page and choose Open in reading mode. The shortcut is Alt+Shift+R on Windows and Command+Option+R on a Mac.
3. Select Play at the top right. Use Playback speed to go faster, and Settings, then Voice selection, to change the voice.

Google notes that Reading mode isn't available on every website. If it doesn't work on a chapter, use Edge.

How to hear each AO3 character in a different voice

LyricWinter Studio made the full-cast clip above. It works in any browser, on your phone or computer. It isn't a play button on AO3: you bring the chapter into Studio and make the audio, then listen in Studio or download the MP3.

What's free

• Free, with no card: importing a chapter, finding the characters, and playing each voice's sample.
• 2,500 words of audio a month: making audio uses words from your plan. On most voice engines, a 1,000-word scene uses about 1,000, so 2,500 make roughly 15 minutes of listening. The free plan refills to 2,500 every month.
• One engine costs more from October 12, 2026 (UTC): each voice runs on an AI voice engine, and from that date ElevenLabs v4 uses 3 times the words. When Studio picks voices for you, it uses v4 whenever it can. To make your words last, change a character's engine in the Characters tab before you create audio.
• You see the cost first: the number on Create audio shows how many words it will use.
• More words: paid plans start at $6 a month for 15,000 words.
• Signing in: you use a Google or Apple account, and the free plan needs no card.

Hear an AO3 chapter with a full cast, step by step

Studio is in beta, which means it's still new, so a screen may look a little different from these steps.

1. On AO3, open the chapter and copy its link.
2. Open a new project in LyricWinter Studio and sign in with Google or Apple. If New project isn't open after you sign in, tap that link again.
3. Tap Import, choose AO3 chapter, paste the link and tap Review. Check the chapter, then tap Import.
4. Tap Manual voice assignment to meet your cast. It's free: Studio finds the characters and suggests a voice for each, without making any audio yet. The button is next to Create audio. On a phone, it's in the arrow menu beside Create audio.
5. Tap the people icon in the toolbar to open the Characters tab. Play each voice's sample, and pick another voice or engine for anyone you want to change. This is free too.
6. Tap Create audio. You can start listening before the whole chapter is done. When it's done, open the ⋯ menu on the player, choose Export final mix and download the MP3.

If Studio shows Need more words, tap Cancel. Then delete some scenes in the Write view, or give some characters another engine in step 5. Deleting changes only your copy in Studio, not the fic on AO3. For every step in detail, including how to move a line to the right character, see how to turn an AO3 chapter into an MP3.

What else Studio does with an AO3 chapter

• Gives every speaker a voice. It finds each character who talks, adds a Narrator for everything else, and picks a voice for each. A character without a good match can get a new AI voice made for them.
• Leaves out the author's notes. It also skips the tags and summary, so the audio starts with the story.
• Imports one chapter or the whole fic. Choose AO3 chapter for the chapter you're on, or AO3 work for every chapter posted so far.
• Gives you an MP3 to keep. Play it in any app, even offline, as often as you like. You can also download a full-quality WAV.
• Keeps the same voices in every chapter. Every chapter in a project uses the same cast. To give a character the same voice in your next fic too, tap Pin as default on them. Studio then uses that voice for any character with the same name.
• Stays private. Your projects are private unless you create a listening link to share one.

To learn more, see how LyricWinter works, or our page for fanfiction readers.

How to listen to long AO3 fics

Browser read-aloud reads one page. On AO3, a page is usually one chapter, so it stops at the end and waits for you. Two AO3 features fix that.

• Entire Work. Tap it at the top of a multi-chapter fic to put every chapter on one page. Then start read-aloud as usual.
• Download. Choose EPUB, an ebook file type. (AO3 also offers AZW3, MOBI, PDF and HTML.) A download contains every chapter posted so far. You can't download a single chapter, and for a work in progress you download again to get new chapters.^[2] Open the EPUB in a reading app that can read aloud, or use Speak Screen on iPhone.

To hear a long fic with its full cast, import the whole AO3 work into one LyricWinter Studio project. Use its link or an EPUB from AO3. You choose which chapters to include. Every chapter keeps the same voices and becomes its own MP3 or WAV file to download.

Fixes for common AO3 read-aloud problems

It reads the author's notes, tags and summary

Read-aloud tools read the text on the page, and an AO3 chapter page includes the summary and the author's notes. An AO3 download adds an extra first page (the preface) with the rating, tags, stats, summary and notes. The free fix is to skip ahead with your player's forward button. With Speak Screen, you can tap Speak on Touch and then tap the first line of the story.^[6]

In LyricWinter, the AO3 link import leaves all of that out, so nothing but the story is voiced. Read the notes on AO3 first. They often hold content warnings and context the author wants you to see.

It reads scene dividers out loud

Depending on the voice, divider lines like ===== may be read out as a string of symbols. The free fix is to skip past them.

In LyricWinter Studio, delete divider lines in the Write view before you tap Create audio.

It says a name wrong

On iPhone and iPad, add the name under Settings, Accessibility, Read & Speak, Pronunciations, and spell out how it should sound.^[6]

In LyricWinter Studio, select the name in the text. Open the ⋯ menu in the toolbar and choose Fix pronunciation. Once the chapter has audio, Studio can make six samples of the name on three engines. Pick the one that sounds right and apply it. The samples, and any lines Studio remakes with the new sound, use words.

The fic is locked to logged-in users

Read-aloud can usually read a locked work when you're logged in to AO3, because it reads the page your browser shows. Speak Screen and Android's Select to Speak read whatever is on your screen.

LyricWinter's link import can't open them, so it asks you to copy and paste the text instead. Copy the chapter on AO3. In Studio, make an empty project, tap New section, and paste the text into the Write view. If you copied the author's notes too, delete them there.

Before you turn someone's fic into audio

A few simple habits keep it friendly for the people who write the fics you love.

Your own fic is different. You own the audio you make, so you can use it however you like, as long as you have the right to use the voices and the story. It's also a good way to hear your chapter before you post it.

AO3 text to speech: FAQ