Compare · Speechify vs Paper2Audio
Speechify vs Paper2Audio
Speechify: Text-to-speech app that reads text aloud across documents, web pages and email, bundled with voice typing and an AI assistant. Paper2Audio: Document-to-speech app that turns PDFs, ebooks, papers and web articles into audio, skipping page numbers, footnotes and citations. Here is how they differ, and where Book2Speech fits if what you want is your books as audiobooks.
Choose Speechify if…
•
Reads web pages, email and any on-screen text through browser extensions and the Mac app, not just book files.
•
A much larger voice catalogue on the paid plan: 1,000+ voices in 60+ languages.
•
Faster top listening speed on Premium (up to 900 words a minute).
•
Scan & Listen for printed pages, plus Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive imports on Premium.
Choose Paper2Audio if…
•
A generous free plan: 56 hours of new audio a week.
•
Built for papers: reader view with tables, figures and math, and skips footnotes, citations and page numbers.
•
Offline listening on the mobile apps, and a native Android app.
•
A sleep timer that can stop at the end of a chapter or document.
Or, for your books: Book2Speech
•
Any book, not just the bestsellers that got an audiobook: fewer than 1 in 100 books ever does.
•
Unlimited free listening in English with Standard voices, no trial clock.
•
A real audiobook file to keep: M4B with chapters and cover, or MP3. One is included on the Free plan.
•
Built for whole books: the book’s own chapters, a start past the front matter, page clutter left out of PDFs.
•
265 narrators in 42 languages, and 70,000 free classics ready to play.
•
Paid plans from $4.99 a month.
Notes on the comparison
Pricing shown in USD on 2026-10-07 from the vendor pricing page; the US App Store lists different in-app prices (Premium Monthly $11.99 or $24.99, Premium Annual $139.99–$159.99).
Upload formats verified from Speechify’s own upload guide: DOC, DOCX, PDF and EPUB. TXT and MOBI were not listed on any fetched page.
MP3 download and offline listening are Premium features (“Offline MP3 Download” on the vendor’s Free vs Premium page). Word-for-word highlighting is from the App Store description.
Pronunciation editing, chapter splitting and a sleep timer were not confirmed on a fetched vendor page; a Windows app was not named on the fetched pages.
Prices in USD on 2026-10-07. The pricing page shows $16/month with annual billing (“Save 20%”); the US App Store lists Plus Monthly $20.00 and Plus Annual $191.99.
Formats from the vendor FAQ: PDF, EPUB, HTML, TXT, DOCX, DOC, RTF and Markdown; the App Store adds scanned documents. MOBI is absent.
Plus subscribers can download audio files, which the FAQ says are M4A (Opus); MP3 and M4B are not named, so export is shown as not verified.
The FAQ describes voices “optimized for … pronunciation accuracy” but no pronunciation editor.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Speechify or Paper2Audio?
Speechify: Premium $29/month (monthly billing); yearly billing advertised at 60% off. Premium includes at least 150,000 words a month (1,000,000 a month through 2026). Paper2Audio: Plus $20/month or $191.99/year on the US App Store ($16/month billed annually on the pricing page): 168 hours a week, audio and transcript downloads. For books, Book2Speech starts free and from $4.99 a month.
Which has a better free plan, Speechify or Paper2Audio?
Speechify: Free plan: 10 basic voices, listening speed up to 1.5x, 5-file limit, text-to-speech features only. Paper2Audio: Free: 56 hours of audio generation a week, all AI voices, offline listening on the mobile apps (content may be used to improve models). Book2Speech’s Free plan has unlimited English listening with Standard voices.
Can I download audiobooks with Speechify or Paper2Audio?
Speechify: MP3. Paper2Audio: not confirmed on its own pages. Book2Speech downloads an M4B with chapters and cover, or an MP3, and the Free plan includes one.