How to turn any book into an audiobook

1. Download LoudReader from the App Store on your Mac (macOS 15+, Apple Silicon) or iPhone (iOS 18+). Free, no account.
2. Import the book: share an EPUB or PDF to LoudReader from the Files app, Safari, or Mail, or use the import button inside the app.
3. Press play. A natural offline voice narrates the book while each word highlights in the text.

That's the whole process. The book behaves like an audiobook from then on: playback continues with the screen locked on iPhone, your position is saved automatically, and on Premium you can switch among the studio narrators available on your device and adjust speed from 0.3x to 3.0x.

No, and this is the part most people expect to be harder than it is. Older workflows meant running an ebook through a converter to produce hours of MP3 files, then loading those into a player. LoudReader skips all of it: the text-to-speech engine generates the narration live, on your device, as you listen.

Real-time narration keeps the reading controls tied to the text. The text and audio stay together (so you get word-by-word highlighting and can switch between reading and listening mid-chapter). You can choose an available voice; playback-speed control is Premium. The app generates speech as needed, and voice resources and cached audio still use storage.

The honest answer: store-bought ebooks are usually locked with DRM, and LoudReader can't open DRM-protected files. It reads standard, DRM-free EPUBs and PDFs, the formats you get from DRM-free stores, direct-from-author sales, technical publishers, your own documents, and public-domain libraries. Check the store app’s own reading and accessibility features for protected purchases.

LoudReader’s catalog lets you browse and download 70,000+ Project Gutenberg titles, subject to local copyright. Many publishers and authors also sell EPUBs without DRM so you can use a compatible reader of your choice.

The concession worth making plainly: a great human narrator is a performance, and no TTS engine matches that yet. If the audiobook you want exists and narration is part of the joy for you, buy it. LoudReader's case is different. Most books never get recorded at all, and for those, a natural offline voice is the difference between a book you listen to and a book you never get to.

Divide the word count by the narration pace. At about 150 words per minute, a comfortable listening speed, a 90,000-word novel runs roughly 10 hours and a 40,000-word novella about 4.5 hours. With Premium's speed control you can push that up to 3.0x once your ear adjusts, which turns the same novel into an afternoon.

Narration is generated locally, without uploading the book to a speech service. Speech and text recognition run locally. The app also sends crash/performance diagnostics and usage analytics. Version 1.12 has no visible in-app switch for these diagnostics and analytics; website analytics consent is separate.

The privacy policy explains diagnostics and analytics. For PDF import, see the iPhone PDF guide.

Try every available voice for your first 8 hours of listening. Afterwards, keep a free English voice selection and unlimited book listening. No LoudReader account or word quota. Individual book imports, notes and highlights are free.

Premium adds every available narrator, continued voice cloning, playback speed (0.3x to 3.0x), sleep timer, ambient soundscapes, unlimited article saving and uncapped batch imports. US prices are US$7.99/month, US$49.99/year or US$199.99 one-time (lifetime); storefront prices may vary. See the FAQ.