Frequently asked questions

Install the Chrome extension, select text on any page or open the sidepanel, and press play. Readox reads the text aloud with word-by-word highlighting so you can follow along.

Yes. Premium voices in English and Spanish are free, along with browser voices, PDF reading, OCR, word highlighting, keyboard shortcuts, unlimited reading, and the main Library. No account required. Optional Pro adds 100 AI summaries per month, up to 10 collections, and more saved library items.

Readox is fully supported on Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge. We would like to support other Chromium-based browsers (like Arc and Vivaldi) in the future — functionality may be partially supported today. If you have any questions about this, let us know.

No. The free plan, including premium English and Spanish voices, works without signing in or creating an account. You only need a Google account if you upgrade to Pro. You can do that in Settings → Account.

Both. Select text on any page and press play to hear just that selection, or open the sidepanel with no selection to read the entire page.

Readox highlights individual words as they are spoken — not just one sentence at a time like other extensions. You can click any word in the transcript to jump to that position.

Play/pause, skip to the next or previous sentence, seek forward and back, adjustable speed from 0.5x to 2x, and a waveform scrubber to jump anywhere in the text.

Configurable browser shortcuts for play, pause, and stop let you control playback without leaving the page. Set them up in your browser's extension shortcuts after installing.

Yes. Readox automatically detects PDFs opened in your browser and extracts the text for reading. Included free.

Yes. If a PDF contains scanned pages instead of selectable text, Readox automatically extracts text from each page using on-device OCR. Works for both free and Pro users.

Formulas, footnotes, headers, and footers are automatically skipped by default so they don't interrupt playback. You can fine-tune these settings after installing. PDF support is actively improving — complex documents may still have rough edges. If something reads incorrectly, email us at contact@readox.ai and we'll look into it.

Drag an image onto the sidepanel, paste a screenshot, or use the file picker — Readox extracts the text and reads it aloud. Everything runs on your device. Included free.

JPEG, PNG, WebP, and SVG up to 10 MB. OCR supports seven language packs: English, Latin (French, German, Spanish, and more), Cyrillic, Korean, Chinese/Japanese, Thai, and Greek. Premium voices support English and Spanish. For other reading languages, choose an available browser voice.

Yes. Screenshots, photos of documents, whiteboards, signs — anything with readable text. Copy an image to your clipboard and paste it directly into the sidepanel.

Natural-sounding English and Spanish voices that run entirely on your device. No cloud servers, unlimited premium voice usage, and no per-word fees. All are free, with no account or subscription required.

Night and day. Premium voices sound natural and expressive. Browser voices are functional but robotic. The best way to hear the difference is to try them.

No. Premium voices run fully on your device. Your text never leaves your browser for premium voice playback. This means unlimited usage, and each voice works offline after its files have been downloaded.

The voice selector in the sidepanel plays a sample for each voice so you can hear it before selecting. Pick by accent and style.

Open the voice picker, choose a premium voice, and confirm with the Download and use button. Setup stays inside the picker, with progress and a retry option if needed. There is no second dialog, account requirement, or automatic switch to a browser voice. Already downloaded voices can be selected straight away.

The first setup downloads the shared speech files. Each individual voice downloads when first used. Before going offline, listen with each voice you want to use so its files are ready. A voice that has not been downloaded still needs an internet connection. The page or saved text also needs to be available.

Premium voices need a compatible device and browser. Settings will show if your computer cannot run them. Browser voices remain available, and Pro summaries do not require premium voice support.

Toggle Summarize mode on, press play, and hear a summary instead of the full text. Works with text selections, full pages, and scanned images. Pro includes 100 summaries per month.

Yes. Choose the summary length and tone to match how you want to hear it. Customize in settings after upgrading.

If you summarize the same text with the same settings again, an available cached result can be returned without counting again toward your usage. An hourly cleanup removes cached summaries that have not been accessed for more than one hour.

Yes. Summaries use up to the first 40,000 characters of the text. Longer text is trimmed before summarization. This limit applies only to AI summaries, not to listening with premium voices.

Pages, selections, notes, summaries, PDFs, and text files can go into your main Library, which is included free. Saved items keep reading progress so you can return to them later.

Up to 10 collections for separate listening queues, with up to 50 items per collection and more saved library items.

If you sign in for Pro, we collect your email, account information needed to identify your subscription, usage counters for cloud features like AI summaries, and any optional pronunciation feedback you choose to submit. We may also record anonymous voice and OCR download counts.

Premium voices and OCR run on your device, so text is not sent to a speech service for premium playback or uploaded for OCR. Browser voices may use online processing, depending on the selected provider. If you choose to submit optional pronunciation feedback, limited feedback-related information may be sent to our servers to help improve the service. Summarization sends text and summary instructions to our API and OpenAI. Readox temporarily caches the generated summary and a content fingerprint, not the original source text. An hourly cleanup removes cached summaries that have not been accessed for more than one hour. OpenAI has separate data-retention policies. See our privacy policy for details.

Stripe handles all billing and payment processing. We never see or store your card details.

See the pricing page for current pricing and a full comparison. Pro is billed monthly and includes 100 AI summaries per month, up to 10 collections, and more saved library items. Premium voices remain free.

Yes. Open Settings → Account in the extension to manage your subscription and cancel renewal. Pro access continues until the end of your paid billing period. Free premium voices remain available after Pro ends.

The free plan is fully functional with premium English and Spanish voices, browser voices, PDF reading, OCR, word highlighting, keyboard shortcuts, and the main Library — no time limit. Pro adds 100 AI summaries per month, up to 10 library collections, and more saved library items.

Some sites use unusual layouts or dynamic content that can make text extraction tricky. Try selecting the text manually and pressing play. If you're still having issues, email us the URL at contact@readox.ai and we'll look into it.

Readox is fully supported on Google Chrome, Brave, and Microsoft Edge. Other Chromium-based browsers like Vivaldi and Arc may have partial support — for example, Vivaldi doesn't fully support Chrome's Side Panel API, which can cause a blank panel. As a workaround on Vivaldi, click the Readox icon in the left sidebar instead. If you run into issues on any browser, let us know.

Email us at contact@readox.ai. We read and respond to everything.