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Offline text to speech on iPhone, free and unlimited

Text to speech that needs a signal stops working on a plane, in a tunnel or on a hike. Here are the two ways to keep listening with no connection at all, and how to choose.

Guide5 min read

You can have an iPhone read text aloud with no internet connection and no subscription. Narratorr gives you two ways to do it: Offline AI voices, which are natural AI voices that run on the phone itself, and device voices, the ones built into iOS. Both are free, with no time limit.

This guide explains what each one is, how to set them up, and what to expect.

The three kinds of voice in Narratorr

Narratorr has three voice engines, and only one of them needs a connection.

  • Offline AI runs natural AI voices on your iPhone or iPad. It is free, works with no internet and keeps reading with the screen locked.
  • Device voices are the voices that come with iOS, in dozens of languages. They are free, offline and need nothing extra to start.
  • Online AI is a set of 45+ premium voices made on our servers. It needs internet, and it comes with 1 free hour before a subscription ($2.99/month or $19.99/year).

If your goal is to listen with no signal, you want the first two. Reading itself always works offline too: your library is on your phone.

You switch between engines at any time in Speech Settings, the waveform button at the left of the playback bar. See Support for the full explanation of the three.

Set up Offline AI

Offline AI needs a one-time download. Nothing downloads without asking.

  1. Open any book in Narratorr.
  2. Tap the waveform button at the left of the playback bar to open Speech Settings.
  3. Tap Offline AI.
  4. Narratorr shows the size and asks before it downloads. Confirm.

The download is about 111 MB as of October 2026, and one download covers all 7 languages: English (US and UK accents), Spanish, French, Hindi, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Mandarin. Wi-Fi is recommended. On cellular you can choose to wait for Wi-Fi instead.

After that, Offline AI plays with no network. The files come from narratorr.app.

If you need the space back, go to Settings (the gear in the Library), then Offline voices, and delete the download. You can download it again whenever you like.

Why you might not see Offline AI

Offline AI needs an iPhone or iPad with an A15 or M1 chip or newer, which means iPhone 13 and later. On older devices the option is not shown at all. That is not a bug, and you still have device voices and Online AI.

If you are not sure which chip you have, the simplest test is to open Speech Settings: if Offline AI is listed, your device can run it.

Or use device voices

Device voices need no download inside Narratorr. They are the voices iOS already has, and they work in dozens of languages.

They also sound better if you add better ones. On your iPhone, go to Settings, then Accessibility, then Spoken Content (or Read & Speak), then Voices. There you can download enhanced and premium quality voices for free. They appear in Narratorr's voice picker automatically.

Device voices are a good fit when you want a language Offline AI does not cover, when your phone is too old for Offline AI, or when you simply prefer the sound of a particular iOS voice.

Which one should you pick?

A quick way to choose:

  • You want the most natural sound, and your phone is an iPhone 13 or newer: Offline AI.
  • You read in a language outside the seven Offline AI languages, or your phone is older: device voices.
  • You are online and want the full range of premium voices: Online AI, knowing it uses your free hour first.

Nothing stops you from mixing. Many people keep Offline AI for the commute and device voices as a backup. Only Online AI counts toward your free hour. Offline AI and device voices never do.

What works with no connection

Once Offline AI or a device voice is selected, a lot keeps working on a plane or in a tunnel:

  • Books you imported as EPUB, PDF or TXT, from the Library's + menu or from the Files app.
  • Text you pasted or scanned. Text recognition for scanned pages runs on your device, and nothing is uploaded.
  • Web pages you already saved. Pages are saved with their text, so they play offline.
  • Your Up Next queue. When one item ends the next starts by itself, even with the screen locked.
  • Word highlighting while it reads, including with device voices.

Reading new web pages in the built-in browser does need a connection to load the page, of course. Save the page to your library first, and it will play with no signal later. The web novels guide shows how to line chapters up this way.

Turn a book into audio files

Offline AI and device voices can also export audio, so the listening does not even need Narratorr afterwards. In the Library, touch and hold a book and choose Export as Audio. You can pick the whole book or a range of chapters, then either Chapter Files (one M4A per chapter) or Audiobook (one M4B with chapter markers).

The files are saved inside Narratorr on your iPhone. Touch and hold the book again and choose Exported Audio to share them to Files, AirDrop or an audiobook app. Online AI voices cannot be exported. The PDF and EPUB guide covers this in more detail.

Limits worth knowing

A few honest caveats:

  • DRM-protected books cannot be opened, with any voice.
  • Offline AI needs the one-time download and a recent chip, as above.
  • Speed goes from 0.5x to 2x with Offline AI and device voices, while Online AI goes up to 4x.
  • Exported audio is not part of iCloud Backup, so save a copy to Files if you want to keep it.

Get started

Free to download, and Offline AI is free with no limit. Open Speech Settings, tap Offline AI, and you can be listening in the time it takes to download one file. For the full feature list see the features, for prices see pricing, and for what changed in each version see the changelog.

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