How to have your Mac read emails aloud in Mail

Short answerOpen the email, click in the message body, then choose Edit → Speech → Start Speaking. Or select the text and press Option-Esc with Speak Selection on. It's free and works in Mail, Outlook and Gmail in a browser. Aloud reads the selection with Control-Option-S and skips URLs so links don't get spelled out.

The free built-in fix

1. Open the message. Double-click it to open in its own window, or select it in the list.
2. Click in the body. Click in the text, or select just the part you want read.
3. Start speaking. Choose Edit → Speech → Start Speaking, or press Option-Esc with Speak Selection on.
4. Stop. Choose Edit → Speech → Stop Speaking.

Outlook and Gmail

Outlook for Mac and Gmail in a browser work with Speak Selection: select the text and press Option-Esc. Long newsletter emails read best in Aloud's reader, where you can skip around.

The better fix: Aloud

If the built-in tools keep getting in your way, Aloud (ours, $19 once per Mac, macOS 14 or later) is made for this:

• Select text in any app and press Control-Option-S (or right-click → Services → Read with Aloud).
• A reading window with a word highlight and click-to-seek, so you can jump to any sentence.
• Speed from 0.75x to 2x, changed mid-sentence, and resume from the last sentence.
• Natural voices: your Mac's Enhanced and Premium voices, the on-device Kokoro neural voice (Apple silicon, macOS 15+), or ElevenLabs/Cartesia with your own API key.
• Private by default: with Apple or Kokoro voices nothing leaves your Mac; no account, no analytics in the app.
• Skips URLs, citation markers and footnote marks, so links and tracking addresses aren't read out.

Buy Aloud, $19 once   Launch offer: code LAUNCH25 takes 25% off until Oct 31. 3-day free trial, no card or account.