Can an iPhone read EPUB books aloud?

Yes. You can open a DRM-free EPUB in TTS Reader and listen with each word and sentence highlighted, without an internet connection. Books bought in Apple Books or the Kindle store are often protected with DRM, and TTS Reader cannot open those; for them, use the iPhone’s built-in Speak Screen inside the app where you bought the book.

Updated 2026-10-31

We make TTS Reader. Facts about Apple Books, Kindle, Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks come from their own pages, checked on 31 October 2026 and listed under Sources.

Which way works for which ebook?

Whether you can listen in TTS Reader depends on where the EPUB came from, not on the iPhone.

Which EPUB files can TTS Reader open?

TTS Reader opens EPUB files that are not protected by DRM (digital rights management, a lock a store or publisher puts on a book so that it opens only in their own apps). That covers:

• Files you made or own outright: an EPUB exported from a writing tool, a manuscript, course material, or an ebook a publisher or author sold to you without DRM.
• Project Gutenberg books: public-domain books, free with “no fees, no registration”, according to Project Gutenberg.
• Standard Ebooks: free, carefully typeset new editions of public-domain books. Its help page, in the iPad/iBooks section, says to tap the epub download link.
• DRM-free Kindle books: since 20 January 2026, verified buyers can download the EPUB and PDF files of Kindle books that the author has confirmed as DRM-free, from Amazon’s Manage Your Content and Devices page. Books borrowed through a subscription or lending service are excluded, according to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing help.

If a book opens only in the app of the store where you bought it, it is most likely protected, and TTS Reader will not open it.

How do you open an EPUB in TTS Reader?

1. Save the EPUB somewhere the iPhone can reach it: the Files app, an email attachment or a download in Safari.
2. Add it to TTS Reader from the Files app, from Mail or Safari with the Share button, or from the Add menu in the app.
3. Press play. Tap any sentence to start reading from there.

A free public-domain book does not need a file at all: search the built-in Project Gutenberg catalog in the app and start listening.

How does TTS Reader read an EPUB?

TTS Reader reads an EPUB with natural voices that run on the iPhone and highlights the current sentence and word, so you can follow the text while you listen.

• Highlighting: word-by-word and sentence highlighting; it can also dim the rest of the page so you keep your place.
• Navigation: tap a sentence to start reading there.
• Speed: 0.5× to 3×, with optional pauses between words and ready-made modes: Learn, Bedtime, Natural, Commute, Skim and Turbo.
• Languages: 31 languages, detected automatically from the text, with a matching voice. If a book is in a language the app does not support, it says so instead of reading with the wrong voice.
• Voices: 10 multilingual voices built into the app, plus 15 optional English voices (US and UK), a one-time download of about 190 MB.
• Offline and private: your own EPUB files are read entirely on the iPhone and are never uploaded. Reading continues with the screen locked, with controls on the Lock Screen and in a Live Activity.

TTS Reader is free, with no purchases, subscription, ads or account, and it needs an iPhone with iOS 26 or later. Following highlighted text can make long books easier to get through with dyslexia or ADHD; it is a reading aid, not a treatment. See settings for reading with dyslexia.

Why won’t books from Apple Books or Kindle open in TTS Reader?

Books bought in Apple Books or the Kindle store often carry DRM, which keeps them inside the store’s own apps, and TTS Reader does not open DRM-protected books. This is a choice made book by book by the publisher or author, not a fault in the file:

• Apple describes DRM for Apple Books as protection “from illegal copying” that the rights holder sets for each book.
• Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing help says that “applying DRM limits reader access to Kindle apps and devices only”.

We do not help remove DRM, and this page does not explain how. These are the legitimate ways to hear a protected book on an iPhone:

1. Speak Screen in the Books or Kindle app. In iOS 26, turn it on in Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak → Speak Screen (in earlier versions it was under Spoken Content). Open the book and swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. It is free and built in, and it reads the text that is on the screen with Apple’s voices.
2. VoiceOver in the Kindle app. Amazon says the Kindle app for iOS supports VoiceOver, with audio support for many books.
3. Read Aloud in Apple Books. Some books come with a narrator’s recording that plays with the text highlighted. Apple supports this only in fixed-layout books that the publisher has built with audio, so ordinary reflowable ebooks do not have it.
4. A DRM-free copy. If the book is in the public domain, get the EPUB from Project Gutenberg or Standard Ebooks, or find it in the TTS Reader catalog. For a Kindle book, check whether Amazon offers an EPUB download in Manage Your Content and Devices.

For a protected book, Speak Screen or VoiceOver in the store’s app is the more practical option, because TTS Reader cannot open the book at all. Other reader apps, compared in text to speech apps for iPhone, also need DRM-free files.

Where can you get free EPUB books to listen to?

Project Gutenberg’s home page lists 79,698 free ebooks, with no fees and no registration. TTS Reader includes a catalog of about 70,000 of these public-domain books: downloading a book needs an internet connection, and after that it reads offline like any other EPUB. Standard Ebooks offers fewer titles, in new, carefully typeset editions of public-domain books, free to download as EPUB.

Sources

• Project Gutenberg, home page: “79,698 free eBooks”; “No fees, no registration, completely free”. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Standard Ebooks, home page: new editions of public-domain ebooks, “free of cost” and “free of U.S. copyright restrictions”. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Standard Ebooks, How to use our ebooks: formats azw3, kepub, compatible epub and advanced epub; in the iPad/iBooks section, tap the epub download link. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Kindle Direct Publishing help, Digital Rights Management: “Applying DRM limits reader access to Kindle apps and devices only”; effective 20 January 2026, verified purchasers can download EPUB and PDF files of confirmed DRM-free books from Manage Your Content and Devices; borrowed books excluded; books published before 9 December 2025 need the author’s confirmation. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Apple Books partner support, Copyright and digital rights management: “DRM protects your book from illegal copying”; the book’s DRM settings are adjusted by the publisher in iTunes Connect. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Apple Books Asset Guide, Read Aloud overview: “Read aloud content is supported only in fixed-layout books”; a narrator’s audio file is synced with the text using Media Overlays. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Apple Books Asset Guide, Read Aloud user interface: audio button in books that include Read Aloud; “text is highlighted as the audio is read”. Checked 31 October 2026.
• AbilityNet, Speak Screen in iOS 26: Settings → Accessibility → Read & Speak → Speak Screen; swipe down with two fingers from the top of the screen. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Apple iPhone User Guide (iOS 13), Hear iPhone speak the screen, selected text, and typing feedback: earlier iOS: “Go to Settings > Accessibility > Spoken Content”. Checked 31 October 2026.
• Amazon help, Use VoiceOver with the Kindle App on iOS: the Kindle app for iOS “supports the VoiceOver accessibility feature”, with audio support for “many books and features”. Checked 31 October 2026.

More

• How to read a PDF aloud on iPhone
• How offline text to speech works
• All text to speech apps for iPhone compared