Mac · Menubar · Text-to-speech
Hear anything read aloud.
Highlight any text on your Mac. Press a shortcut. Listen. It works in any app you already use. The voice doesn't sound like a phone tree.
How it works
The whole interaction is three keystrokes.
Highlight text
Anywhere. A Substack article, a Claude response, an email, a PDF. Whatever is in your selection.
Press the shortcut
Default is Option + S. Configurable to whatever you want. It reads your selection. If nothing is selected, it reads the focused window.
Listen
First audio plays in under two seconds. Spacebar pauses and resumes. Click anywhere else to release it.
Features
Built for people who read a lot.
Voices that don't grate
Five hand-picked voices, all designed for long-form listening. Premium AI voice models with none of the robotic phone-tree feel.
Smart preprocessing
We rewrite text before reading it. Numbers like $1.2M become 'one point two million dollars'. File paths get summarized. Lists pause between items. Acronyms pronounced right.
Configurable shortcut
Default is Option+S. Change it to anything you want in Settings. Click-and-record interface, just like every other Mac app.
Spacebar pause
While playback is active, spacebar pauses and resumes. Click anywhere else on your Mac and it releases. Your spacebar is yours again.
Local-first
Saguaro runs entirely on your Mac. Your selected text goes to the voice service. Nothing else leaves your machine.
Works in everything
Claude, Notion, Mail, Substack, Safari, Notes, Preview, anywhere you can highlight. No browser extensions. No per-app setup.
Voices
Pick the voice that fits your day.
Hand-curated from a 160-voice library. All natural-sounding, all appropriate for long-form listening. Audition them on first launch and switch any time.
Colton
Texan. Warm. The voice of the saguaro.
June
Young, bright, Southern lilt.
Oliver
British RP. Polished, theatrical, a little wry.
Vera
Warm American professional. Confident, encouraging.
Vince
Smooth, grounded, easy gravitas.
Pricing
Simple. One price. Cancel any time.
Start with the free trial. Twenty thousand characters free, about twenty minutes of audio. Subscribe to keep going. Each plan includes one hour of audio per month. Heavy readers can opt into overage at fifteen cents per thousand characters, billed only for what they use.
- 1 hour of audio included every month
- All five voices
- Then $0.15 per 1,000 characters (opt-in)
- Cancel any time
- 1 hour of audio included every month
- Two months free vs. monthly
- Same opt-in overage at $0.15 per 1k
- Priority email support
Prefer to try first? Just download the app — you get twenty thousand characters of trial automatically on first launch. Got a beta invite code? Redeem it here.
FAQ
Questions you might be wondering about.
What is Saguaro?+
A Mac menubar app that reads any text aloud in a premium AI voice. Highlight text in any app, press a shortcut, listen.
Will the voice sound robotic?+
No. Saguaro uses Hume Octave 2 — current state-of-the-art for natural, expressive AI voices. We also preprocess text through Claude Haiku before synthesis, so numbers, dates, acronyms, and file paths come out spoken correctly instead of letter-by-letter.
What apps does it work in?+
Any app that exposes selected text to macOS Accessibility. Claude, Notion, Apple Mail, Substack, Safari, Notes, Preview, Apple Books, most browsers and editors. If you can highlight it, Saguaro can read it.
How does the free trial work?+
You get 20,000 characters free — roughly 20 minutes of audio, or three or four long articles. After that, subscribe to keep listening.
What happens if I use more than one hour in a month?+
Your subscription includes one hour of audio (60,000 characters) per month. Beyond that, you can opt into overage at $0.15 per 1,000 characters, billed at the end of your cycle for exactly what you used. Overage is OFF by default so you never get a surprise charge. Toggle it on or off any time in Settings → Account.
Can I cancel?+
Yes, any time from Settings → Account in the app. Your subscription stays active through the end of the billing period after cancellation. We offer prorated refunds within seven days if it doesn't work for you.
Does Saguaro send my data anywhere?+
Only the text you explicitly highlight, and only when you press the shortcut. It goes to our backend, which forwards to Hume for voice synthesis and Claude for preprocessing. We do not log or retain your text. See the Privacy page for details.
Why does it ask for Accessibility permission?+
macOS requires Accessibility permission for any app that reads text from other apps. Saguaro uses the Accessibility API to extract the text you have highlighted. It does not record your screen, log keystrokes, or watch anything else.
What if I have a beta invite code?+
Redeem it at /beta. You'll get unlimited reads during preview.
Free in beta
Read less. Hear more.
Free while in beta. Requires macOS 14 or later. Apple Silicon.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14+ · 2.1 MB