Use case
Listen to web articles while you do other things.
Your reading list keeps growing and your eyes are tired. Readwave reads web articles aloud straight from your browser — no paste-into-a-box, no separate reader app. Select the story, press a hotkey, and listen while you cook, commute at your desk, or rest your eyes.
Free tier · no account · Ctrl+Alt+R
How it works
Three steps, then listen
Find something worth reading
A blog post, a news story, a long thread, documentation — anything with text in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox.
Select the article text
Drag to highlight the part you actually want to hear, skipping the menus and ads. Or grab the whole article body in one selection.
Press Ctrl+Alt+R
Readwave reads it in a natural voice. Keep the tab or close it — playback continues. Save longer reads to the Queue and listen through them later.
Why Readwave
What makes it different
No copy-paste, no extension permissions
Readwave works system-wide, so it reads the page without a browser extension that can see your whole browsing history.
Listen at your pace
Speed up skimmable posts, slow down the dense ones, and build a Queue of everything you meant to read this week.
Private and offline
The voice is generated on your machine, so the articles you read aren't logged by a cloud service. It even works on a plane.
FAQ
Good to know
- Do I need a browser extension?
- No. Readwave is a desktop app that works across every app on Windows, so it reads web pages without an extension — and without extension-level access to your browsing.
- Can it read behind a paywall or in my logged-in reader?
- Readwave reads whatever text is on your screen and selectable. If you can highlight it in your browser, Readwave can read it.
- Does it keep playing if I switch tabs?
- Yes. Once reading starts it keeps going while you move around, switch apps, or close the tab.