Voice & audio
abogen
Turns ePub, PDF or text into narrated audio with matching subtitles
★ 5.9k
August 2026
MIT
Voice & audio
What we checked ourselves
Not copied from the project's own blurb. These are things we opened and verified, with the date.
- 6 Sept 2026We checked that the link to the project still resolves.
- 14 Aug 2026We read the licence text itself (LICENSE). No unusual restrictions were stated.
- 31 Aug 2026We read the project's own documentation and found no sign that development has stopped.
Where this sits among the 119 tools we list in Voice & audio
- No API key required114 of 119
- Commercial use confirmed as allowed56 of 119
- Requires terminal commands93 that do not →
- Sends your input to the provider31 that do not →
Only 53 of the 119 meet all of the conditions above.
Counted from our own checks: every tool we list is examined against the same criteria.
What it does
Feed it an ePub, PDF, plain text, Markdown or subtitle file and it produces spoken audio plus subtitles synced to it - handy for audiobooks or for narration on short-form video. Speech comes from the Kokoro-82M model. On Windows there is a double-click installer script that pulls in everything it needs, though espeak-ng has to be installed separately first. MIT licensed.
Summary based on the project's own description. The Japanese page has a fuller beginner guide: setup difficulty, what to prepare, and a step-by-step start.
Screenshots & visuals
Before you start
- Setup difficultyEasy to start
- Command lineRequired
- API keyNot required
- Sends data onlineYes
Judged automatically from the project's own metadata. Always confirm on the official page.
abogen FAQ
- Is abogen free?
- Yes. It runs on your own machine, so there is no usage-based cost either.
- Do I need to install anything or write code to use abogen?
- It needs the command line. If you are not comfortable typing commands, expect to get stuck during setup.
- Does abogen work on a phone?
- No. It needs a computer.
- Can I use abogen commercially?
- The licence is MIT, which permits commercial use. Conditions such as keeping the copyright notice still apply, so read the licence text before shipping it inside something.
How it compares
The conditions that decide whether you can actually use it, side by side.
| Tool | Command line | API key | Sends data out | Phone | Commercial use |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| abogen (this page) | Required | Not needed | Yes | No | Yes |
| kokoro-tts | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
| MimikaStudio | Not needed | Not needed | No | No | No |
| Whisper | Required | Not needed | No | No | Yes |
"Sends data out" means your input is uploaded to someone's server. Pick "No" when the material cannot leave your organisation.