Read documents aloud on your Mac
Scroll reads documents aloud on your Mac — PDFs, web pages, Mail, Notes, and Pages. Press Right ⇧ and it picks out the relevant body text, skips menus and sidebars, and speaks it in a natural voice. Use your own OpenAI key for cloud voices, or switch to fully local system speech that needs no key.
It reads what's already on your screen, so there's nothing to import — open the document and press one key.
How to read documents aloud
Speak the body text
Press Right ⇧ and Scroll's low-cost text step finds the relevant body content, skips navigation and chrome, and reads it aloud with a natural voice or your system voice.
Explain instead of recite
Prefer the meaning over the words? Look explains and summarizes the page as you scroll, getting deeper when you slow down, instead of reading it verbatim.
Talk about what you hear
Ask opens a live voice conversation about the document on screen, so you can ask a follow-up without stopping to type.
What Scroll reads aloud
- Reads PDFs, web pages in Safari and Chrome, Mail, Notes, Pages, and Electron apps.
- Vision OCR covers scanned PDFs and image-only text, so even non-selectable content is read.
- Cloud voices use your own OpenAI API key; fully local system speech needs no key and no internet.
- Read Aloud skips menus, sidebars, ads, and comments so you hear the document, not the interface.
- Runs on macOS 26 Tahoe or later; one-time $49 purchase with a 7-day free trial, lifetime license for three Macs.
Questions, answered
How do I make my Mac read a document aloud?
Open the document, then press Right ⇧ to turn on Read Aloud. Scroll finds the relevant body text, skips the interface chrome, and speaks it. You can use a cloud voice with your OpenAI key or the fully local system voice.
Can Scroll read PDFs out loud?
Yes. Scroll reads PDFs in Preview, Safari's PDF viewer, and in-browser viewers. For scanned or image-only PDFs it uses Vision OCR, so the text is still read aloud even when it isn't selectable.
Does it read web pages and email aloud?
Yes. Read Aloud works on web pages in Safari and Chrome, plus Mail, Notes, and Pages. It picks out the article or message body and skips navigation, ads, and signatures so you hear the content itself.
Do I need an internet connection?
Not for local-only mode. With local-only mode on, comprehension and speech both run on your Mac, so you can read documents aloud offline. Cloud voices are optional and only used when you enable cloud mode with your OpenAI key.
How much does it cost to read documents aloud?
Scroll is a one-time $49 purchase with a lifetime license for three Macs. Local-only reading is free to use after that. Cloud voices use your own OpenAI API key, billed by OpenAI directly.
Keep reading
Read less. Understand more.
Try Scroll free for 7 days with email only, or keep it forever for $49. Requires macOS 26 Tahoe or later.