The 9 Best Apps for Listening to Scripts in 2025

Reading scripts is a skill that often gets overlooked by new faces in the industry, and text-to-speech apps have made it so much easier to find time to do so. With so much focus on writing screenplays, not enough writers focus on the research, education, and inspiration that comes from reading scripts. From formatting tricks, to clever dialogue, to straight-up great scene work, a screenwriter can impove their writing process by reading screenplays. Also, using tools for screenwriting based in TTS, reading scripts aloud, and AI script analysis can be as helpful to your screenplay as putting on another pot of coffee. So here are the 9 Best Apps for Listening to Scripts in 2025, that will help you be a better screenwriter in 2026.

Scriptation is the Emmy® award winning app for marking up scripts, used by thousands of productions and screenwriters worldwide, that you can download free in the App Store; sure, you probably knew all that. Did you know Scriptation also has innovative new text-to-speech capability for listening to scripts?

Not all PDF reading apps have the same ability to analyze script elements like Scriptation, meaning you can fully customize what parts of the script are, and are not, read back to you. Goodbye, detailed flowery action lines! Hello script conversations that sound like actual conversations. It’s like having a table read on demand; meaning you can hold that read in your car, in your kitchen, or anywhere you can carry your device.

There’s also a wide variety of voices to choose from, ranging from classy Brit to ugly American, with all the classes and cadences in-between. Speed control gives you the differences between a slow burn and a Sorkin-chat fest, so you’ll also have the right tone captured as you listen to your script read aloud. Take advantage of all this and the many other customization assets the Scriptation playback feature offers to take your workflow to a whole other level.

Try Scriptation’s free script annotation app and see for yourself

Guess who recently launched Table Reads! Arc Studio Pro allows users an easy to use interface that easily turns what they’re writing into what they’re hearing with text-to-speech script reading. With real-time collaboration capability, you can work with your team to get the screenplay ready to hear before sitting back to hear your work read aloud with their great new text-to-speech features.

Maybe you just finished your script pass, and want to spend you ride to the office listening to your script? Well no problem, since Arc Studio Pro has download capability into an mp3 so you can listen to scripts anywhere.

Add in all the features of those other screenwriting softwares, Arc Studio Pro is truly the future for the screenwriter looking for the most versatile apps for listening to scripts.

Perfect for student writers, Voice Dream Reader is an app for listening to scripts that can be a helpful screenwriting tool for those who need a little extra time reading. With highly-customizable formats helpful for long-form screenwriting content (IE your besties Lord of the Rings-esque spec epic), Voice Dream Reader lets you set your own stage for text-to-speech script readings that work best for the reader.

They also have a variety of premium voices through partnerships with Acapela and Amazon Polly, so you can have more characters sound more different; helpful for screenplays with ensemble casts. That’s on top of their 200+ premium voices in-app in 30 languages, so listening to scripts read aloud doesn’t mean getting sick of “Carl“.

Flying cross country and trying to get off-book? They’ve got you covered. Voice Dream Reader also understands you may want a text-to-speech app for script reading that’s available when you’re not online, and delivers a fully off-line experience with fast loading times and file storage options. Get started with a free download today, and start listening to scripts by tomorrow.

“Let Speechify read to you” is the slogan, but what that doesn’t tell you is the bevy of celebrity readers lending their voices to your text-to-speech apps for the listening to scripts experience. From Snoop Dogg handling your narration to Mr. Beast reading your protagonist, Speechify has partnered with many a known voice to take reading your script aloud to the next level.

Founder Cliff Weitzman cites his struggles with dyslexia as an inspiration for making Speechify one of the leaders in text-to-speech tech, so those who struggle with the written word can still enjoy the power of it. With over 50 million listeners worldwide, it’s safe to say Cliff has already achieved this inspirational goal.

Speechify is more than it’s story, though, as it’s also a leader in speech-to-text script reading. They allow you to scan any page and have it read aloud – not just screenplays, but ideal for Outlines and Pitch docs that aren’t as format heavy as other in a traditional writing process. Speechify also offer a wide variety of languages, voices, and playback speeds to go with the ability to clone your own voice; so if you get sick of listening to scripts, you have no one else to blame.

Powered by large language models (LLMs) that fuel over 30 languages for listening, NaturalReader also uses AI script tools so the voices reading your script actually understand the context of their lines. The idea of AI analysis isn’t exclusive to this text-to-speech app for script reading, but NaturalReader has both personal and commercial applications for their software (and it’s AI tools).

NaturalReader also offers a fun – and addictive – voice style menu, giving you hours of conversation tone styles ranging from ‘shouting‘ to ‘unfriendly’. Also helpful is their pronunciation editor, which makes sure the right emphasis goes to the correct syllable throughout your screenplay. Whether you’re looking for a voice over to help advertise your business, populate your video game demo, or just listen to screenplays while you go for a walk, NaturalReader makes sure you can hear your screenplay read aloud in the way it was meant to be heard.

Plans range from free for one user, to an account and team options with reasonable pricing of an app for listening to scripts.

“Google that” takes a whole new meaning when using it’s Text-To-Speech tools, which makes listening to your story notes in Google Docs that much easier. Free and easy to access through Chrome plug-ins, Google Text-to-Speech is one of the easiest options for those working at a desktop who want to hear their documents read aloud to them.

Google offers over 300 voices in 50+ languages (and dialects) to hear, as well as other customizable options akin to their text-to-speech peers. That includes training a model on your own voice, for both actors who want to hear how their lines will sound and narrators working on their next project. You’ll pay more for different levels of voice options, which is pretty standard, but for just being able to hear your screenplay read aloud, Google Text-to-Speech is a good budget option.

Celtx has long been praised as the free screenwriting tool for aspiring screenwriters, and now their script-to-text playback is taking their offerings a step further. Their Read Through model is perfect for screenwriters in the middle of a scene who want to hear just how crackling their dialogue might be. There’s a huge advantage to not having to leave the screenwriting app you’re working in to hear it; while they may come with more read-aloud options (as are very detailed in this very post), being in the writing process is helped by being able to stay in the writing process.

Go to any line, any time to for text-to-speech script reading that gets your screenwriting to the next stage – having it read by actors while it gets shot. And as always with a Celtx account, you can autosync all your scripts so they can be backed up to your online studio. So no matter what you’re writing a script, you can hear it read aloud on your device, wherever you’re working.

Screenplayer AI brings artificial intelligence advantages to it’s script reading app, something more and more text-to-speech apps are using to help understand various screenplay formats and writing structures. With Screenplayer AI, AI voices bring your script off the page without having to call your buddies or buy enough pizza to feed an entire rehearsal group.

If concerns over AI tools lead you to press pause, know that Apple TV+, Paramount, and Netflix are already trusting Screenplayer AI with their productions. There are also AI components, whether voice focused or more help with formatting, in most of your text-to-speech script reading apps; but most are focused on using AI tools to better the human performance, and not replace it. Screenplayer AI is certainly in that group wishing to enhance their users screenwriting skills.

Talking Scripts touts itself as providing just what you want to hear from your screenplay – the type of customization that only the best text-to-speech apps for reading scripts can offer. With founding partners Idris Elba and Stefan Schwartz, they definitely had experienced readers weighing in on what does – and doesn’t – work for an on-the-go script reading experience. That’s why the Talking Scripts app will analyze your PDF and determine the four main characters, assigning different voice characteristics to those parts and getting you to into the script playback process fast.

Feel like you have a few things that would help move this app to the top of the list? Then join their beta testing program and hop into the dev seat to help build the type of screenplay listening tools that will best help your writing process. With the app being built by industry pros, you also get excellent scene partner help and line-learning options, making Talking Scripts one of the most actor-friendly script reading apps on the market.

Whether you’re a screenwriter, actor, producer or simply a crew member who likes to know what it is they’re working on, getting scripts read to you is a necessary thing to save time and grow your screenplay knowledge. These 9 Best Apps for Listening to Scripts provide smart, detail-focused and industry tested TTS tools and AI components you can count on, wherever you choose to listen.

Follow the Scriptation blog for more on the best screenwriting tools, crew apps, and craft insight for all your production needs.