Listen to your PDFs on the way somewhere
Reports, papers and manuals, as audio you can follow on a walk. Share one to Summ-it and it plays in the same queue as everything else you save — the whole document, or a short summary if that is all you need.
Send us the PDF
Share it from your phone, upload it from the browser extension, or email it to us. PDFs up to 25 MB.
Choose how deep to go
Hear the whole document read out, or a short summary first to decide whether the full read is worth it.
It plays in your queue
The audio lands in the same auto-advancing playlist as your saved articles and newsletters. Works offline, on CarPlay and Android Auto.
Cleaned up before it's read to you
Most text-to-speech tools narrate a document exactly as it appears, so you hear the navigation, the sponsor block and a raw URL spelled out mid-sentence. Summ-it runs a cleanup pass first: page chrome, ads, subscribe-and-share prompts, sign-offs and bare links come out, and numbers are converted to how you'd say them aloud.
If a document turns out not to be worth the full read, switch it to the summary instead — 150 to 1,000 words depending on the length you choose — and move on.
On iPhone
Share a PDF to Summ-it from Files, Mail, Safari or anywhere with a share sheet. It plays with lock-screen and earbud controls, works offline once downloaded, and supports CarPlay.
Get it on the App StoreOn Android
Share from Drive, Gmail or your file manager, or use the Quick Settings tile. Same offline playback and media controls, plus Android Auto.
Get it on Google PlayWhen another tool fits better
- Scanned PDFs. Summ-it reads the text in a document, so a scan with no text layer won't work. Use an OCR reader such as NaturalReader.
- Reading at your desk. Summ-it is built for the commute, the walk and the gym — you send the PDF from your computer and listen on your phone. If you want to sit and read the document instead, a reader is the better tool.
- Very fast playback. We cap at 2×. Voice Dream and Speechify both go far faster if that matters more than anything else.
- Highlighting and annotating. Not a feature — a reading app like Instapaper or Readwise Reader is the better fit.
PDF questions
How do I get a PDF read aloud on my iPhone?
Install the Summ-it iPhone app, then share the PDF to it from Files, Mail or any app with a share sheet — or forward it to us by email. It becomes audio in your play queue, either the full document or a short summary. 50 items are free.
How do I get a PDF read aloud on Android?
Install the Summ-it Android app and share the PDF to it from Drive, Gmail, your file manager or anywhere else with a share menu. You can also forward it by email or send it from the browser extension on your computer.
Can I turn a PDF into an audiobook for free?
You get 50 items free to start. A full read of up to about an hour counts as one item; on Free and Pro a longer document is trimmed to about that length, while Premium reads up to roughly three hours at one item per hour. Some languages cost two items — the in-app About Credits sheet lists which.
Does it clean the document up before reading it?
Yes — before narration, Summ-it strips the things that read badly aloud: navigation and page chrome, ads and sponsor blocks, subscribe-and-share prompts, sign-offs and bare URLs. Numbers are spoken properly too, so "$830 billion" is read out rather than spelled.
Can it read a scanned PDF?
No — Summ-it works from the text in a document, so a scanned or photographed page with no text layer will not work. A dedicated OCR reader like NaturalReader is the right tool for scans.
Where do I listen?
On your phone — send the PDF from your computer with the browser extension, and it is waiting in your queue on iPhone or Android, with CarPlay and Android Auto. That is the design: Summ-it exists for the time you are away from a desk, on a commute, a walk or at the gym.
What else can it read besides PDFs?
Web articles, YouTube videos, email newsletters, plain text and Markdown files, and anything you paste. They all land in the same queue.
Listen to a PDF on the way to work
Share a document and it plays in your queue — the whole thing, or a short version when that is all you need. Articles, newsletters and YouTube land in the same place.
50 free items to start, then $7.99/mo for Pro. Save it on your laptop, listen on your phone — including CarPlay and Android Auto.