Glossary
What Is Text-to-Speech (TTS)?
Text-to-Speech (TTS) is technology that turns written text into spoken audio using a computer-generated voice. It's what lets an app, website, or voice agent read words out loud instead of showing them on a screen.
TTS does one job: it takes text and speaks it. You feed in a sentence, and the software produces an audio clip of a voice reading that sentence. Modern TTS voices sound close to a real person, with natural pauses and tone, not the flat robot voice people remember from years ago.
Here's a quick example. A customer calls your business after hours and asks about your return policy. A voice agent looks up the answer as text, then TTS reads it back out loud: "Sure, you can return any item within 30 days for a full refund." The caller hears a clear human-sounding reply instead of waiting for a callback.
TTS is one half of a voice conversation. The other half is speech-to-text, which turns what a caller says into words the AI can read. Put the two together with a language model in the middle, and you get a voice agent that listens, thinks, and talks back.
For a website, TTS is the part that gives your AI chat or voice agent an actual voice. A visitor can ask a question by speaking, the agent finds the answer in your content, and TTS says it out loud. That's useful for phone lines, accessibility, and anyone who'd rather listen than read.
Most TTS tools let you pick a voice, set the speaking speed, and choose a language or accent. You don't record anything yourself. You write or generate the text, and the voice handles the rest, which is how a single set of answers can serve both your chat box and your phone line.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between text-to-speech and speech-to-text?+
Text-to-speech turns written words into spoken audio, so a computer reads text out loud. Speech-to-text does the reverse: it turns spoken words into written text. A voice agent usually uses both, one to understand the caller and one to reply.
Do TTS voices still sound robotic?+
Not the good ones. Older systems sounded flat and choppy, but current AI-based TTS produces voices with natural pauses, rhythm, and tone. Many sound close enough to a real person that callers don't always notice it's generated.
How does TTS help a small business website?+
It lets your AI agent answer out loud instead of only in text. That powers after-hours phone support, makes your site easier to use for people who prefer audio, and means the same answers you wrote for chat can also be spoken to callers.