Visual guide
A step-by-step visual guide for text to speech for YouTube.
Faceless YouTube channels
Publish consistently without recording your own voice. Choose from 54 voices and see the available cloud characters before generating.
For YouTubers
Text to Speech for YouTube
Text to Speech for YouTube. Drop in a script, pick a voice, download a studio-quality WAV or MP3. No microphone, no signup, no watermark.
YouTube creators
Generate a YouTube voiceover, free, in under a minute
Run a faceless channel, ship explainers faster, or knock out Shorts without ever recording yourself. FreeTextoSpeech gives you 54 natural AI voices, 24 kHz WAV or MP3 downloads, and a commercial-use license, no signup, no watermark, no fees.
Related use cases
The quick answer
Paste your script into the tool above, pick a voice (Sarah, Adam, and Liam are the safest bets for narration), click Generate, and download the WAV. Drop it into Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, or CapCut, monetized use is allowed and no attribution is required.
In four steps
From script to YouTube voiceover
- 01
Write your script
Aim for ~150 words per minute of finished video. Paste up to 5,000 characters at a time (10,000 signed in), split longer scripts into chunks.
- 02
Pick a voice
Choose from 54 natural voices in 9 languages. Hit Preview to compare tones before generating.
- 03
Generate & download
Click Generate, then download a 24 kHz WAV. No watermark, no signup, no fees.
- 04
Drop into your editor
Import the WAV into Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, or Final Cut Pro. Align with your b-roll and export.
When to use it
Built for the way you ship video
Tutorials & explainers
Clear, neutral narration in voices like Adam, Liam, and Sarah, perfect for software walkthroughs and how-tos.
YouTube Shorts
High-energy delivery with Sky, Nova, Puck, or Echo. Bump speed to 1.1–1.2× to match the punchy pacing Shorts viewers expect.
Documentary narration
River and Emma deliver smooth, flowing reads ideal for travel, history, and long-form storytelling.
Voice guide
Which voice for which YouTube format
Long-form YouTube needs voices that hold up across 8–15 minute uploads without listener fatigue. These six are the ones we reach for first: five US English voices and one UK voice (Daniel) for a more formal, documentary read.
01 US English
Sarah
Warm narrator
Best for
Top-of-funnel explainers, lifestyle, finance walk-throughs. Carries 8–12 minute videos without sounding tired.
02 US English
Adam
Authoritative
Best for
History, science, business breakdowns. Sells "did you know" hooks and three-act explainer structures.
03 US English
Liam
Neutral explainer
Best for
Software tutorials, how-tos, step-by-step builds. Stays out of the way so the screen recording is the star.
04 US English
River
Smooth documentary
Best for
Travel, nature, slow-paced storytelling. The voice that buys you long average-view-duration on 12+ minute uploads.
05 US English
Bella
Friendly tutorial
Best for
Beauty, cooking, lifestyle how-tos. Approachable enough that subscribers feel they know the channel host.
06 UK English
Daniel
British formal
Best for
History deep-dives, mystery, true-crime, prestige documentary. Adds gravitas without slipping into parody.
Want to hear them? Browse all 54 voices →
Best practices
Pro tips that actually move retention
The mechanics of a good YouTube voiceover are mostly editing decisions, not voice-picking decisions. Get these right and a free TTS read sounds tighter than most amateur mic work.
- 01
Run script length math before you generate
Spoken English averages ~150 words per minute. A 10-minute video needs ~1,500 words, which is roughly 8,500 characters: two Generates without an account, one when signed in. Plan your splits at scene boundaries so seams sit on cuts, not mid-sentence.
- 02
Use punctuation to control pacing
A comma adds a short beat, a period a longer one, an em dash buys a real pause. If a line lands flat, break it into two sentences. If a transition feels rushed, add an ellipsis. The Kokoro model respects these, it is the cheapest pacing tool you have.
- 03
Mix two voices for retention
Pure single-voice narration loses energy after eight minutes. Switch between two voices (e.g. Sarah for narration, Adam for "did you know" interjections) and average view duration goes up. Viewers register the second voice as a beat change.
- 04
Duck music to -18 dB under voice
Music behind narration should sit roughly 12–18 dB under the voice peak. Use sidechain ducking in Premiere or Resolve so the bed dips under speech and rises in the gaps. If you cannot hear every consonant, the music is too loud.
- 05
Master the whole video to -14 LUFS integrated
YouTube normalizes loud uploads down. -14 LUFS integrated is the platform target, anything louder gets attenuated and you lose the perceived punch. Set your editor's loudness meter, hit -14 on the master, and let YouTube leave the file alone.
- 06
Disclose AI voice when it actually matters
YouTube's synthetic-content disclosure is for realistic depictions of real people, sensitive topics (health, news, elections) or anything a viewer might mistake for a real recording of a public figure. Standard explainer narration does not need a flag, but check the box on the upload form when in doubt. Honesty wins, and the algorithm does not punish disclosure.
Honest comparison
FreeTextoSpeech vs ElevenLabs free tier
ElevenLabs is the obvious benchmark, so here is the honest read. We win on access and license; they win if you specifically need voice cloning.
Feature
FreeTextoSpeech
ElevenLabs free tier
Free monthly cap
Character-capped free tier, resets monthly, signup required.
Watermark / attribution
Free tier exports often require attribution to the provider.
Voice library
Smaller free voice pool with most premium voices paywalled.
Commercial use on monetized YouTube
Commercial use typically gated to a paid tier.
Signup
Email signup required before first generation.
Output format
MP3 on free tier; lossless output usually paywalled.
Voice cloning
Not offered, straight TTS from the catalog.
Voice cloning available on paid tiers.
Free monthly cap
FreeTextoSpeech
5,000 characters per generation (10,000 signed in, 20,000 paid), 25,000 every 30 days without an account (500,000 signed in), no credit card.
ElevenLabs free tier
Character-capped free tier, resets monthly, signup required.
Watermark / attribution
FreeTextoSpeech
No watermark, no attribution required.
ElevenLabs free tier
Free tier exports often require attribution to the provider.
Voice library
FreeTextoSpeech
54 Kokoro voices, 9 languages.
ElevenLabs free tier
Smaller free voice pool with most premium voices paywalled.
Commercial use on monetized YouTube
FreeTextoSpeech
Allowed, including ads and sponsored videos.
ElevenLabs free tier
Commercial use typically gated to a paid tier.
Signup
FreeTextoSpeech
None. Open the page, paste, generate.
ElevenLabs free tier
Email signup required before first generation.
Output format
FreeTextoSpeech
24 kHz lossless WAV for your editor, or MP3.
ElevenLabs free tier
MP3 on free tier; lossless output usually paywalled.
Voice cloning
FreeTextoSpeech
Not offered, straight TTS from the catalog.
ElevenLabs free tier
Voice cloning available on paid tiers.
Comparison is qualitative where the competitor's specific monthly numbers shift over time, check current ElevenLabs free-tier limits before benchmarking.
In context
How creators turn a script into publishable audio for text to speech for YouTube.
FAQ
Text to Speech for YouTube FAQs
01 Can I use FreeTextoSpeech audio in monetized YouTube videos?
Yes. The audio you generate with FreeTextoSpeech is licensed for commercial use, which includes monetized YouTube videos, Shorts, ads, and sponsored content. No attribution is required.
02 Will YouTube flag AI voiceovers as synthetic content?
YouTube asks creators to disclose AI-generated audio in sensitive contexts. For narration, tutorials, and entertainment videos you can generally use AI voiceovers without restriction; disclose clearly when the audio impersonates a real person.
03 Which voice is best for YouTube narration?
For long-form narration the most natural picks are Sarah, River, Bella, Adam, and Liam for US English, or Emma and Daniel for UK English. Use Preview before generating to compare tones.
04 How do I add the generated WAV to my YouTube video?
Download the WAV, drop it into your editor (Premiere, DaVinci Resolve, CapCut, Final Cut Pro), and align it with your footage. Export as usual.
05 Does the per-generation character limit mean I cannot do a long video?
No. The studio prepares long scripts as scene sections, shows their combined character total, and can export a joined track plus individual stems within your current allowance.
06 Will AI voiceovers break YouTube monetization or push my video to the "made for kids" pile?
No. YouTube's monetization policy targets mass-produced, low-effort, repetitive content, not the use of AI narration itself. A faceless channel with original scripts, real research, and a coherent point of view monetizes fine. The July 2025 update on inauthentic content went after spam farms, not AI voice. Add a clear edit, original visuals, and your own script and you are well inside policy.
07 How do I fix mispronounced proper nouns and acronyms?
For acronyms, space the letters with periods (N.A.S.A.) or split the word so each letter is read individually. For proper nouns, spell them phonetically, write "kokoro" as "co-co-roh", "Linus" as "Lie-nus". Generate a short test clip with just the tricky word, swap voices if one engine handles it better, then paste the corrected spelling into the full script.
08 What audio format and bitrate does YouTube actually want?
YouTube re-encodes everything you upload, so the input mostly needs to be lossless. The 24 kHz WAV download from FreeTextoSpeech is fine, drop it into your editor, mix to -14 LUFS integrated, and let your editor export AAC at 384 kbps inside an MP4. YouTube transcodes to Opus on the back end regardless, so don't convert to MP3 before importing.
Still wondering? Get in touch →
Keep going
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Try it now
Ready for your next video?
Generate a natural AI voiceover for free in under a minute.