How to listen to a PDF on your iPhone

Four steps, about a minute total:

1. Download LoudReader from the App Store (free, no account or sign-up).
2. Find your PDF (in the Files app, a Mail attachment, or a download in Safari) and tap the Share button.
3. Choose LoudReader from the share sheet. The PDF lands in your library instantly.
4. Open it and press play. A natural offline voice reads the document aloud while each word highlights on the page.

From then on the PDF stays in your library. LoudReader remembers exactly where you stopped, and you can keep listening with the screen locked, with full playback controls on the lock screen, like a podcast app for your own documents. And because LoudReader ships as native Mac and iPhone apps, the same share-and-play workflow works on your Mac too.

Yes. iOS ships with an accessibility feature called Spoken Content. Turn it on under Settings → Accessibility → Spoken Content, enable Speak Screen, then open your PDF and swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers. Your iPhone reads what's on the screen, and an on-screen controller lets you adjust the speaking rate.

It's genuinely useful, and free, but it's a screen reader rather than a reading app. It speaks what's currently visible, it keeps no library, and it won't remember where you were in a 300-page PDF tomorrow. For a quick paragraph it's perfect. For reading whole documents or books by ear, a dedicated reader is the better tool.

The short version: Speak Screen is a free, built-in convenience for reading the screen in front of you. LoudReader is built for long-form listening, with a library that keeps your place, natural offline voices, and background playback with no word quota.

Only if the PDF contains actual text. LoudReader reads the text layer embedded in the PDF, the same text you can select and copy. A scanned PDF that's just photographs of pages has no text layer, so there's nothing to read aloud. If your scan came from an OCR app or scanner software that adds a text layer, it'll work. If not, run it through an OCR tool first and import the result.

With LoudReader, completely. The app is fully on-device and private, your library never leaves your device. Every word of speech is generated locally on your iPhone, so the app works in airplane mode, and a confidential PDF (a contract, a medical report, an unpublished manuscript) is read aloud without ever being uploaded anywhere. There's no account and nothing to sign up for, and the privacy policy is short because there's almost nothing to disclose. If privacy is your main concern, see our closer look at private text to speech with no cloud.

Nothing, for the core experience. LoudReader's free tier includes unlimited listening on every PDF and book cover to cover, an unlimited library, word-by-word highlighting, and the built-in Project Gutenberg catalog of 70,000+ free classics. Every voice is free for your first 8 hours; after that, free users keep the default voice.

Premium adds all 8 AI voices plus playback speed (0.3x to 3.0x), a sleep timer, ambient soundscapes, and notes & highlights, for $7.99/month, $49.99/year, or $199.99 once (lifetime). All billing goes through Apple. Full breakdown in the FAQ.