Read faster. Finish the books you start. FastReader turns your EPUBs into a focused reading experience: one word at a time, at the pace you choose. Switch to Listen to hear your book read aloud, with a voice that runs on your device. Read or listen on your phone, tablet or computer.
Free to use. No account required. Open it in your browser and try a book before importing anything.
🇬🇧 English · 🇫🇷 Français · 🇪🇸 Español · 🇮🇹 Italiano · 🇩🇪 Deutsch · 🇵🇹 Português
Four modes within reach: Word by word, Focus, Classic and Listen. Shown with the built-in English demonstration.
Explore the reading modes · See how listening works · Find a book
- Try it: open FastReader and tap Try the reader for an instant demonstration.
- Choose your book: browse Discover, search by title or author, or tap Import an EPUB to open a file you already have.
- Start reading: tap Read on a supported catalogue result. The book opens in the reader and joins My library automatically.
- Find your pace: press play in Word by word, adjust the speed, or choose Listen to have the book read aloud.
- Pick up later: open the book from My library to return to your reading position.
Search looks through your own books and the catalogues together. Your books come first; catalogue results arrive as each source responds. All book languages are included by default, and you can narrow the search with the language and source filters.
| Mode | What it does | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Word by word | Shows one word at a time in a steady position. | Set your words per minute, choose a Gentle or Steady cadence, and use pause or previous sentence to stay with the text. |
| Focus | Emphasizes the beginning of words while keeping the whole passage visible. | Adjust how much of each word is emphasized, with an option to leave short words unchanged. |
| Classic | Displays the full text for ordinary reading. | Scroll at your own pace and move through the book with the table of contents. |
| Listen | Reads the book aloud using a voice generated on your device. | Choose your book’s language, download its voice once, and listen from your current passage. |
Books open in Word by word, ready for you to press play. If your device requests reduced motion, they open in Classic instead. You can switch modes while reading.
The aim is to help you spend more time reading and make steady progress. Choose a speed that lets you follow the story; a higher setting does not guarantee better understanding.
Start listening while the next passages prepare, or save a whole book’s audio for later. Listening is optional, free, and needs no account, subscription or paid voice service. Your book text stays on your device.
Listen to the English demonstration with LJ Speech, follow the current passage and adjust the listening speed.
Start from your current passage
- Open a book and select Listen, then choose the language of its text and a voice.
- On first use, choose Download and listen. The app shows the download size and progress; you can cancel and resume without losing completed files. With an installed voice, choose Start listening.
- Follow the text while listening. Use Pause, the passage controls and the listening speed slider whenever you need them.
The player shows preparation progress and starts speaking as soon as the first complete sentence is ready. FastReader prepares upcoming sentences while you listen. On slower devices, an initial wait or pauses between passages are possible; preparing the whole book first avoids these generation waits.
Long web addresses are read as their domain, and invisible formatting characters are cleaned up for speech. If a passage still cannot be spoken, FastReader skips it, tells you how many passages were skipped, and continues. Your book’s text stays unchanged. Interrupted preparations resume from the saved audio instead of starting over.
Choose from six voices: French (Siwis), English (LJ Speech), Spanish (Davefx), Italian (Paola), German (Thorsten) and Brazilian Portuguese (Faber). Each voice needs approximately 63 MB, plus 30 MB of shared files on first use. The app shows the download size before you start. Download a voice while connected to the internet, then use it offline. These are the Piper Medium voices currently available in FastReader.
Free up space: choose Manage audio storage from the voice chooser or the audio queue. See the space used by each book and downloaded voice, then choose what to remove:
- Delete a book’s audio to remove all its recordings and cancel its preparation.
- Delete a voice to free its download while keeping prepared recordings.
- Delete all audio keeps downloaded voices; Free up all space removes both audio and voice downloads.
Every deletion asks for confirmation. Your EPUBs and reading progress are kept, and you can download voices and prepare audio again whenever you need them.
Prepare a book and listen before it finishes
- In the voice chooser, select Prepare this book, or Download and prepare this book if its voice is not installed. Audio preparation shows progress, completed chapters and the storage used. Books wait in a local queue, with one book prepared at a time.
- Tap Listen to the beginning as soon as the first passages are ready. You can hear those passages while the rest of the book continues preparing. If listening catches up, it waits for the next passage and resumes automatically. Pressing Pause keeps playback paused.
- When the whole book is ready, Start listening resumes your saved position. Finishing a preparation never starts playback by itself.
You can keep using FastReader while a book prepares:
- Add more books returns to My library. Choose Prepare audio on another book to add it to the queue.
- View audio queue opens the preparations from your library. Use Pause preparation, Resume or Cancel preparation for each book. Closing this panel lets preparation continue.
- Selecting Listen again on a book with a preparation reopens its existing queue entry, including after reloading the app. Prepare with another voice lets you explicitly choose a different voice.
- If a preparation is paused or interrupted, the player directs you to the queue to resume it. Starting an unprepared book’s live listening takes priority over queued preparation; listening to saved passages allows preparation to continue.
Keep your audio available
- Keep FastReader open. Listening pauses when the app or tab is hidden or the screen is locked. Preparation pauses in the background and resumes when you return. After closing or reloading the app, completed passages in the preparation queue are kept; open Audio preparation and press Resume to continue. Keep the screen on while reading can prevent automatic sleep during preparation and listening where supported.
- Listen offline. Once the app, book and voice are downloaded, the browser can prepare speech without a connection. Saved audio plays offline without generating the passages again; voice files are only needed to prepare more audio.
- Manage storage. Prepared audio needs extra space beyond the voice download. Open Manage audio storage to see the actual space used and remove recordings or downloaded voices. Your books stay in the library.
- Keep your library backed up. Voice downloads and prepared audio are separate from library backups and can be lost if you clear browser data. Download voices and prepare audio again when moving to another device.
FastReader starts with a sepia theme and Verdana. Use the theme button to cycle through sepia, dark and light, or open the reading settings to find your preferred setup.
- See changes immediately: preview font size, line spacing, text width and Focus intensity before returning to your book.
- Choose your font: Verdana, Arial, Georgia, Palatino, Trebuchet MS or your device’s default font.
- Keep your place: saved progress, bookmarks, highlights and notes help you find a passage again.
- Read comfortably on a phone: accessible controls, a fixed word display, an optional screen wake lock and a table of contents within reach.
- Use a keyboard: Space plays or pauses Word by word and Listen, left and right arrows change chapters, and Escape closes the open panel. Shortcuts leave text fields and buttons available for normal use.
My library contains the books you import or open from a catalogue. Home suggestions and the demonstration stay separate until you choose a book to read.
To keep reading without a connection, open Install the app and follow the instructions for your browser. Wait until FastReader is ready offline, then open the books you want to take with you. New catalogue searches and downloads need an internet connection.
Use Download EPUB in your library to save a Classic edition without added Focus emphasis. If a source requires an unchanged edition, its original EPUB is preserved. Import supports EPUB files without DRM, up to 30 MiB. Books with complex fixed layouts or interactive content may display differently from the publisher’s edition.
Your books, reading positions, notes and preferences stay in the browser you use. You do not need an account, and personal EPUB imports are not uploaded to a server.
- Open My library and choose Backup.
- Choose Export my backup and keep the downloaded ZIP somewhere safe.
- To move to another device or recover your library, open FastReader there and restore the ZIP from the same panel.
A backup can contain up to 500 books and 250 MiB. Restoring keeps the books already present and lets you choose whether to restore reading settings too.
Phone and computer libraries are separate until you transfer a backup. Keep one before clearing browser data, switching browsers or replacing your device. Private browsing is unsuitable for keeping a library between visits.
Discover brings supported catalogues into one search, with the title, author, cover when available, and source shown for each result. Tap Read to open an available EPUB; there is no separate download-and-import step.
| Book source | Book languages | What you can explore |
|---|---|---|
| Project Gutenberg | Multiple languages | A broad catalogue of classic literature. |
| Standard Ebooks | English | Carefully edited classics with illustrated covers. |
| Ebooks libres et gratuits | French | Free French EPUB editions, searchable by title. |
| Faded Page | English | Books made available under Canadian copyright rules. |
| epubBooks | English | Classic books with covers and direct EPUB reading. |
| Ebookzy | English | Search by title or author and open an available EPUB. |
| Loyal Books | Multiple languages, including English | Live Google-powered search in a separate Loyal Books panel. Tap Read on a book result to open its available EPUB. |
Search starts with All languages. Use the language filter where available. Covers are retained when you add a book to your library, including for offline reading when its artwork is available.
Select Loyal Books to search beyond the other catalogues using the same search bar. Its panel searches all languages through Google, without FastReader’s former 499-book selection. It retains Google’s result links, pagination, attribution and any ads. Some results are audio feeds or other pages without an EPUB; Read checks the selected book’s EPUB before opening it. Google’s search component loads only when you search in this panel; it is separate from the combined catalogue results.
BDEbooks was also evaluated, but its access protection currently prevents us from verifying direct reading in FastReader. It is not included in the connected catalogues. You can still import an EPUB you have obtained from that site.
Open Settings → Book sources to check which catalogues are responding. A slow or unavailable source does not prevent you from using your library or the other results. Some providers apply shared download limits; if one is reached, FastReader explains it and you can use another source or import an EPUB you already have.
Book availability and copyright vary by country. Download only editions that are in the public domain where you live or that you are authorized to use. Each book keeps its own rights and credits. External searches are sent to the selected catalogues and, where necessary, FastReader’s catalogue service. Searches in the Loyal Books panel are sent to Google. Your EPUBs, personal notes and reading progress remain in your browser.
- New to the reader? Open Home → Read or listen: how do I get started? for a short guide, or try the demonstration.
- An import failed? Check that the file is an EPUB without DRM and below 30 MiB. The error message explains what FastReader could not open.
- A source is unavailable? Refresh its status, try another catalogue or import a file you already have permission to read.
- Found a problem or have an idea? Tell us on GitHub.
FastReader is free and open source under the MIT license. Optional voice components retain their own licenses. Books retain their own licenses.