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AI · January 2, 2026

Local Reader

I made an on-device AI TTS extension using the WebGPU implementation of Kokoro TTS, the highest-rated open source TTS according to TTS arena. It runs model inference fully in your browser, so no server costs and it's secure. It was pretty easy to get the TTS working since the hard part (inference in javascript/webAssembly/webGPU) was done for me. I added some quality of life features on top: click to jump to a different paragraph, alt j & k for down and up, speed control, and voices (though the default voice has the highest quality). I made the extension mainly because I noticed…

Local Reader launched on January 2, 2026 with 6 votes, #2,272 of 14,584 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches.

What it does

Local Reader is the first AI TTS extension which provides high quality AI voices directly in your browser at no cost, unlike existing extensions and e-book readers which paywall high quality voices. Powered by the extremely capable and efficient Kokoro TTS model, Local Reader dynamically converts your webpages into high quality speech completely on-device using WebGPU, and provides dynamic highlighting, scrolling, and speed control features.

In the maker’s words, at launch

I made an on-device AI TTS extension using the WebGPU implementation of Kokoro TTS, the highest-rated open source TTS according to TTS arena. It runs model inference fully in your browser, so no server costs and it's secure. It was pretty easy to get the TTS working since the hard part (inference in…

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