microsoft text to speech language pack

Text to speech

An AI Speech feature that converts text to lifelike speech.

Bring your apps to life with natural-sounding voices

Build apps and services that speak naturally. Differentiate your brand with a customized, realistic voice generator, and access voices with different speaking styles and emotional tones to fit your use case—from text readers and talkers to customer support chatbots.

Lifelike synthesized speech

Enable fluid, natural-sounding text to speech that matches the intonation and emotion of human voices.

Customizable text-talker voices

Create a unique AI voice generator that reflects your brand's identity.

Fine-grained text-to-talk audio controls

Tune voice output for your scenarios by easily adjusting rate, pitch, pronunciation, pauses, and more.

Flexible deployment

Run Text to Speech anywhere—in the cloud, on-premises, or at the edge in containers.

Tailor your speech output

Fine-tune synthesized speech audio to fit your scenario.  Define lexicons  and control speech parameters such as pronunciation, pitch, rate, pauses, and intonation with  Speech Synthesis Markup Language  (SSML) or with the  audio content creation tool .

Deploy Text to Speech anywhere, from the cloud to the edge

Run Text to Speech wherever your data resides. Build lifelike speech synthesis into applications optimized for both robust cloud capabilities and edge locality using  containers .

Build a custom voice for your brand

Differentiate your brand with a unique  custom voice . Develop a highly realistic voice for more natural conversational interfaces using the Custom Neural Voice capability, starting with 30 minutes of audio.

Fuel App Innovation with Cloud AI Services

Learn five key ways your organization can get started with AI to realize value quickly.

Comprehensive privacy and security

Documentation.

AI Speech, part of Azure AI Services, is  certified  by SOC, FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITECH, and ISO.

View and delete your custom voice data and synthesized speech models at any time. Your data is encrypted while it’s in storage.

Your data remains yours. Your text data isn't stored during data processing or audio voice generation.

Backed by Azure infrastructure, AI Speech offers enterprise-grade security, availability, compliance, and manageability.

Comprehensive security and compliance, built in

Microsoft invests more than $1 billion annually on cybersecurity research and development.

We employ more than 3,500 security experts who are dedicated to data security and privacy.

Azure has more certifications than any other cloud provider. View the comprehensive list .

Flexible pricing gives you the power and control you need

Pay only for what you use, with no upfront costs. With Text to Speech, you pay as you go based on the number of characters you convert to audio.

Get started with an Azure free account

After your credit, move to  pay as you go  to keep building with the same free services. Pay only if you use more than your free monthly amounts.

Guidelines for building responsible synthetic voices

Learn about responsible deployment

Synthetic voices must be designed to earn the trust of others. Learn the principles of building synthesized voices that create confidence in your company and services.

Obtain consent from voice talent

Help voice talent understand how neural text-to-speech (TTS) works and get information on recommended use cases.

Be transparent

Transparency is foundational to responsible use of computer voice generators and synthetic voices. Help ensure that users understand when they’re hearing a synthetic voice and that voice talent is aware of how their voice will be used. Learn more with our disclosure design guidelines.

Documentation and resources

Get started.

Read the  documentation

Take the  Microsoft Learn course

Get started with a 30-day learning journey

Explore code samples

Check out the  sample code

See customization resources

Customize your speech solution with  Speech studio . No code required.

Start building with AI Services

How to add text-to-speech voices to Windows 10 so that text can be read in the tone or language of your choice

• You can add text-to-speech voices to Windows 10 through your PC's Settings app.
• Once you've added a text-to-speech voice to Windows, you can use it in programs like Microsoft Word, OneNote, and Edge.
• Visit Business Insider's Tech Reference library for more stories .

Microsoft has a text-to-speech feature built into a number of Windows programs, including Microsoft Office, the Edge web browser, and OneNote. 

By default, the voices for your computer's current language are already installed. But if you need to install a second language, or if additional voices are released for your primary language, you can install them as well. 

The text-to-speech voices for all Microsoft apps are installed in the Settings app. Here's how to find and add them to Windows .

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

Windows 10 (from $139.99 at best buy), acer chromebook 15 (from $179.99 at walmart), how to add text-to-speech voices in windows 10.

1. Click the Start button in the bottom-left, and then click the Settings icon, which looks like a gear. 

2. In Settings, click "Time & Language."

3. In the navigation pane on the left, click "Language."

4. Click "Add a preferred language" and then scroll through the list until you see the language you want to add. Click it, and then click "Next." It'll be installed.

5. After it's installed, select it in the list of languages and click "Options."

6. On the language's details page, click "Download." This will install the language pack, which includes the voices for this language. 

How to choose a voice for text-to-speech in Windows 10

After you've downloaded voices, you can choose which one Windows uses for text-to-speech.

1. While still in the "Time & Language" section of Settings, click "Speech" in the left sidebar.

2. Underneath "Speech language," make sure it's set to the language you want text-to-speech to use.

3. Underneath "Voices," click the "Choose a voice" drop-down menu and select the voice you want to use by default. You can vary its speed and preview the voice here as well. 

Some programs let you pick a text-to-speech voice that's different from the one the rest of Windows uses.

In Word, for example, click "Review" and then click "Read Aloud." A playback control menu will appear in the top-right of the screen. Click the gear icon to open the Read Aloud settings. Here, you can choose the voice you want to use in Word. 

Likewise, the Edge browser has a similar option. When you choose "Read aloud" from the three-dot menu, "Voice options" appears at the top of the page. Click it to change voices.

Related coverage from  Tech Reference :

How to use speech-to-text on a windows computer to quickly dictate text without typing, you can use text-to-speech in the kindle app on an ipad using an accessibility feature— here's how to turn it on, how to use text-to-speech on discord, and have the desktop app read your messages aloud, how to use google text-to-speech on your android phone to hear text instead of reading it, 2 ways to lock a windows computer from your keyboard and quickly secure your data.

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Get more Microsoft text-to-speech voices

I am using Windows 10 and want to get more voices for Microsoft at the moment I only have two options: Microsoft Hazel and Microsoft Zira.

Does anyone know how I can get more options?

• text-to-speech
• text-to-speech-voices

• So how come you didn't find the link in my answer? ;) By the way it wasn't my downvote. –  DavidPostill ♦ Jan 2, 2016 at 14:20
• @DavidPostill Ok I do have those voices on my pc but this is not the place that I was looking. I am trying to get new voices for the text-to-speech found in windows narrator and through ease of access-> use computer without display -> set up Text to Speech –  Quantum spaghettification Jan 2, 2016 at 14:23
• My answer also tells you where you can download new voices ... –  DavidPostill ♦ Jan 2, 2016 at 14:25
• Plain links are problematic It helps to explain them to provide some context. –  SDsolar Nov 16, 2017 at 15:52
• 1 Seem that the answers here need some updates... Would be great to be able to install new TTS voices these using powershell. Where are MS hiding these? –  not2qubit Dec 17, 2022 at 18:13

3 Answers 3

Does anyone know how i can get more voices.

You can download some more voices from many free TTS voices (which may not be so good). One of the sources for downloading free Microsoft and LTS TTS voices is Zero2000 . You can also purchase very high quality TTS voices for Windows from companies like Ivona , Cepstral or CereProc .

Source Choose Text-to-Speech Voice in Windows 10

Narrator for Windows (all versions) has a few built-in options for male and female voices.

To set Narrator voice options (Microsoft)

Here is a good source for more voices:

Best Free Windows Narrator Voices You Can Use (Zero2000.com)

In the world of today, more and more people use the text to speech computer technology to free their eyes and save time. As a vital component of the text to speech technology, voices, i.e. speech engines, are the core of text to speech software. Because text to speech software need to invoke voices to synthetic speech and output spoken audio. There are many voices available on the Internet today, such as AT&T Natural Voices, Cepstral voices, IVONA voices, CereProc voices, NeoSpeech voices, etc.. But most of these voices are commercial and the prices are even higher than the prices of normal text-to-speech software. For example, the prices of AT&T Natural Voices are $35 (base required) plus $35 per additional voice, and the prices of Cepstral voices are &29.99 per voice. Fortunately, there are also enough high-quality free voices we can use. Most of them are compatible with the Microsoft SAPI 4 or SAPI 5. Generally, the higher SAPI version, the better quality. Here is the free voices list sorted by the recommended degree. Microsoft Mike, Mary and Sam - Microsoft Sam is the default English male voice shipped with Microsoft Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Though not the default, Microsoft Sam is also available in Windows Vista Home Premium. It is used by Narrator, the screen reader program built into the operating system. Microsoft Mike and Microsoft Mary are optional male and female voices respectively with better quality, available for download from the Microsoft website or other third party text-to-speech related websites. The most noticeable feature of these three voices is there are both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 versions of them. SAPI 5 voices are only available on Windows 2000 and later Windows NT-based operating systems. As an exception, the SAPI 5 versions of these voices cannot be installed on Windows Vista and Windows 7. The SAPI 4 versions are more compatible. They can be installed and used on Windows 98 and all the later Windows operating systems. Microsoft Anna - Microsoft Anna is the default English voice shipped with Windows Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft Anna is a SAPI 5-only voice and is designed to sound more natural than the previous system default voice Microsoft Sam. This excellent female voice is base on the new Microsoft SAPI 5.3/5.4. So you cannot use it on Windows XP directly and also there is no standalone installer of this voice on the Microsoft website. The only way to use this fantastic voice on Windows XP is by the Microsoft Streets & Trips. The Microsoft Streets & Trips 2006 and later versions install the voice and the new Microsoft SAPI onto Windows XP computers for the voice-prompt direction feature. Some third party text-to-speech related websites supply smaller repacked Microsoft Anna installers for Windows XP users. However, it's incomplete and not working correctly on Windows XP because the SAPI version of Windows XP is 5.1. Lernout & Hauspie Voices - Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, or L&H, was a leading Belgium-based speech recognition technology company. This company released dozens of high-quality SAPI 4 voices across multiple languages, including ten American English voices and two British English voices. In addition, Lernout & Hauspie Michael and Michelle are also optional male and female voices licensed by Microsoft from Lernout & Hauspie, and available through Microsoft Office XP and Microsoft Office 2003 or Microsoft Reader. Most of the above voices can be found on the Microsoft's website or downloaded directly from the 2nd Speech Center web site. Click here to download them immediately.

• your link to Zero2000.com was already provided by David Postill... –  Solar Mike Nov 16, 2017 at 9:38
• 1 Yeah, I noticed that one other person provided a link. I didn't verify it. In this answer the excerpt actually spells out what is said there, to protect against link-rot. –  SDsolar Nov 16, 2017 at 15:50

This is the answer for 2023:

You can get several voices from Windows. Just go to language setting and enable/download tts for Canadian/Australian/England and Indian languages.

You will get about 8 English TTS voices.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for browse other questions tagged windows text-to-speech text-to-speech-voices narrator ..

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Download language pack for speech

For some languages, you might need to manually download a speech pack.

 Go to  Start   and open Settings .

Select Time & language > Language .

Select the language you want to add speech to, and then select the Next  button.

Select the speech options you want included with the language.

Sign out and then sign back in for the new speech pack to be added to speech options.

Go back to Settings > Time & language > Language , select your new language, and then use the up-arrow button to move it to the top of the list and make it the default.

Go to Speech , and make sure the Speech language setting is aligned with the previous settings.

Sign out and then sign back in for the new settings to take effect.

Open language setting

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Speech, voice, and conversation in Windows 11 and Windows 10

• 5 contributors

Speech can be an effective, natural, and enjoyable way for people to interact with your Windows applications, complementing, or even replacing, traditional interaction experiences based on mouse, keyboard, touch, controller, or gestures.

Speech-based features such as speech recognition, dictation, speech synthesis (also known as text-to-speech or TTS), and conversational voice assistants (such as Cortana or Alexa) can provide accessible and inclusive user experiences that enable people to use your applications when other input devices might not suffice.

This page provides information on how the various Windows development frameworks provide speech recognition, speech synthesis, and conversation support for developers building Windows applications.

Platform-specific documentation

Universal Windows Platform (UWP)

Build speech-enabled apps on the modern platform for Windows 10 (and later) applications and games, on any Windows device (including PCs, phones, Xbox, HoloLens, and more), and publish them to the Microsoft Store.

Speech interactions

Speech recognition

Continuous dictation

Speech synthesis

Conversational agents

Cortana voice commands (not supported in Windows 10 May 2020 Update and newer)

Win32 platform

Develop speech-enabled applications for Windows desktop and Windows Server using the tools, information, and sample engines and applications provided here.

Microsoft Speech Platform - Software Development Kit (SDK) (Version 11)

Microsoft Speech SDK, version 5.1

.NET Framework

Develop accessible apps and tools on the established platform for managed Windows applications with a XAML UI model and the .NET Framework.

System.Speech Programming Guide for .NET Framework

Azure speech services

Integrate speech processing into apps and services.

Speech to text

Text to speech

Speech translation

Speaker Recognition

Voice-first virtual assistants

Legacy features

Legacy, deprecated, and/or unsupported versions of Microsoft speech and conversation technology.

Cortana Skills Kit

As part of our goal to transform the modern productivity experiences by embedding Cortana deeply into Microsoft 365 , we are retiring the Cortana Skills Kit developer platform and all skills built on this platform.

Microsoft Agent

Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) 5.3

Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) 5.4

The Bing Speech Recognition Control

Download and run full Windows samples that demonstrate various accessibility features and functionality.

Code sample browser

The new samples browser (replaces the MSDN Code Gallery).

Windows classic samples on GitHub

These samples demonstrate the functionality and programming model for Windows and Windows Server.

Universal Windows Platform (UWP) samples on GitHub

These samples demonstrate the API usage patterns for the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) in the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows 10 and later.

WinUI 2 Gallery

This app demonstrates the various Xaml controls supported in the Fluent Design System.

Other resources

Blogs and news

The latest from the world of Microsoft speech.

Community and support

Where Windows developers and users meet and learn together.

In the news

Speech blogs

Windows community - Speech

Windows Speech Developer's Forum

Stack Overflow

Windows developer

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