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Speech & audio

Abogen

Turns e-books, PDFs and text files into audiobooks with matching subtitles.

New this week

What it does

Abogen reads EPUB e-books, PDFs, plain text, markdown and subtitle files aloud using AI text-to-speech, and saves the result as audio. It also creates subtitles that line up with the speech.

It can be used for audiobooks or voiceovers for videos. You can pick a voice or mix voices to create a custom one. It has a desktop window and a web interface.

Who it's for

Readers, students and content creators who want spoken versions of written material.

Can I use it without coding?

With some setup. Windows has an install script you double-click; Mac and Linux use a few install commands. New to this? Start here.

Can I run it?

Cost
FreeNothing to pay or sign up for.
Runs on
Windows, Mac, Linux
Computer
An ordinary computer is fine
Privacy
Runs on your own device: your data stays with you
API key
Not needed

Try it

  1. Install the free speech tool espeak-ng for your computer.
  2. Open Abogen, choose a file and a voice, and start the conversion.
Official download page

Using Claude Code, Cursor or another AI coding assistant? Paste the prompt and it will walk you through the setup.New to this?

Before you install

  • Only download from the official GitHub page or the official download page above. Copies with similar names exist for many popular projects.
  • License (MIT): Very permissive: free to use, change and share, including for business.
  • More on staying safe

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