How to have web articles read aloud on a Mac

Safari: Reader plus Speak Selection

1. Open Reader. In Safari, open the article and choose View → Show Reader (Shift-Command-R). This strips menus, ads and sidebars.
2. Select the article. Click in the article text and press Command-A.
3. Start speaking. Press Option-Esc with Speak Selection on, or choose Edit → Speech → Start Speaking.

Microsoft Edge: Read aloud

Edge has a built-in Read aloud feature. Right-click the page and choose Read aloud, or use the toolbar. It highlights as it reads and offers several voices; Microsoft's more natural voices need an internet connection. Immersive Reader (in the address bar) removes clutter first.

Google Chrome: reading mode

Right-click the page and choose Open in reading mode. Recent versions of Chrome include a play button in the reading mode panel that reads the article aloud. You can also select text and use Option-Esc.

Brave and other browsers

Select the article text and press Option-Esc. Browser extensions such as Read Aloud also work in Chromium browsers, with free browser voices and paid cloud voices.

With Aloud: one key in Safari, Chrome, Edge or Brave

1. Open the article in Safari, Chrome, Edge or Brave.
2. Press ⌃⌥A. The first time, macOS asks whether Aloud may control the browser (the Automation permission); allow it.
3. Aloud takes the article the browser already has (title and body, without menus, ads and captions) and reads it in its reader with each word highlighted. Nothing is downloaded again.
4. Web addresses are read as the site's name, and citation marks like [12] are skipped.
5. Close the reader and it keeps playing. Reopen the article later from the menu bar to continue where you stopped.

For other browsers, select the text and press ⌃⌥S.