How to make your Mac read text aloud

Your Mac has a free way to read selected text aloud, with a keyboard shortcut. Try that first.

Turn on Speak Selection

Open System Settings, then click Accessibility in the sidebar.
On macOS 26, open Read & Speak. On macOS 14 or 15, open Spoken Content.
Turn on Speak selection.
Select some text in any app, then press Option-Esc. That's the default shortcut; your settings may use another one.

Highlight the words as they are read

Click the Info button next to Speak selection. Use Highlight Content to choose words, sentences or both, and Show controller to decide when the speech controller appears.

Use the controller to pause, resume or stop. Pressing the shortcut again also stops the reading.

On macOS 26 or later, the controller also has a button that opens Accessibility Reader, a built-in reading view.

Source: Apple, Mac User Guide, checked 10 Nov 2026.

If nothing happens

Check that Speak selection is turned on and that you're pressing its assigned shortcut.
Try a short selection in TextEdit to rule out the app you were in.
Some documents don't expose selectable text, such as a scanned page saved as an image.

When you want a consistent panel

I built Univocal to bring selected or copied text from different apps into one reading panel. It highlights each word as it is spoken and reads mixed-language text in one pass.

Select the text, or copy it, then press Option-Shift-R to open the panel. That is the default shortcut, and you can change it. If text is selected, Univocal reads the selection; otherwise it reads what you copied. Reading selected text needs Accessibility permission in macOS.

Use Play/Pause in the panel while you listen, and close the panel when you're done. The panel's language and voice controls let you choose how the text is read.

You can also dictate a draft and listen back in the same app; dictation needs Microphone permission. Reading and dictation run on your Mac and work offline after setup. Downloads, licensing and updates may use the network.

Univocal needs selected or copied text. It doesn't unlock protected documents or turn a scanned page into selectable text.

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Apple silicon · macOS 14 or later · 14-day trial, no credit card required

Written by the maker of Univocal. macOS, Speak Selection and Accessibility Reader are Apple's; Univocal is not affiliated with Apple.