If you've searched for an IPA converter, two names come up again and again: ToPhonetics and EasyPronunciation. They're both genuinely useful, they've both been around long enough to earn their reputations, and they solve slightly different problems.
This feature comparison was reviewed against ToPhonetics' documented features and EasyPronunciation's converter on September 20, 2026. It is not a controlled transcription-accuracy test. Full disclosure: the third option discussed below is our tool, IPAtics.
ToPhonetics — the free English workhorse
ToPhonetics is a familiar option for English conversion. Paste English text into the box and choose General American or British transcription. There's no account or paywall, and browser-based text-to-speech reads the text back to you.
For occasional English lookups, it's hard to beat. It's fast for what it does, it's free, and it doesn't ask anything of you.
Where it stops:
- English only. No other languages.
- No flashcard or Anki export.
- You leave whatever you were reading to paste into the box and copy the result back.
If you read English-language material and just need an occasional transcription, ToPhonetics is the right call and you can stop reading here.
EasyPronunciation — the multi-language converter
EasyPronunciation goes wider. It documents converters for around 38 language varieties and audio options for many of them. That breadth is its real strength when your target language is not English.
It offers paid access and a limited free allowance. Plans and credit terms can change, so check the provider's current pricing before choosing it. Its breadth is the main reason to consider it.
Where it stops:
- Paid for meaningful use; the free tier is thin.
- No global hotkey or in-context workflow — it's still a paste-in-a-box site.
- Audio quality varies by language.
- No flashcard export.
If you study one or two non-English languages and want a converter with audio options, EasyPronunciation is one candidate to evaluate with words from your own material.
Head-to-head
| ToPhonetics | EasyPronunciation | |
|---|---|---|
| Languages | English only | ~38 varieties |
| Audio | Browser TTS | Recorded, varies by language |
| Price | Free | Limited free use; paid plans/credits |
| Account needed | No | For paid features |
| In-context use | No (paste-in-box) | No (paste-in-box) |
| Anki / export | No | No |
| Best for | Occasional English lookups | Reliable multi-language conversion |
Both are converters: you bring text to them, they hand back IPA, and the rest of the workflow — hearing it, saving it, drilling it — is on you and your other tools.
A third option: the in-context workflow
The thing both converters share is that they live in a separate tab. You're reading a PDF, an article, a subtitle, or a chat, and to get IPA you stop, switch, paste, copy, and switch back. For one word that's fine. For the twentieth word of the day it's friction that adds up.
IPAtics takes the converter idea and removes the tab. It's a desktop app for macOS and Windows that sits in the background. Select any text in any application, press Alt+Q (Option+Q on Mac), and the IPA appears in a floating overlay right where you're working — for example, hello /həˈloʊ/ in US English or /həˈləʊ/ in UK English, bonjour /bɔ̃.ʒuʁ/ in French, mariposa /ma.ɾi.ˈpo.sa/ in Spanish.
What it adds on top of plain conversion:
- 14 language varieties with auto-detection — English (US & UK), German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (BR), Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Turkish, and Arabic (MSA).
- Tap any IPA symbol to see its phonetic name and example words.
- Native text-to-speech on every transcription.
- AI-generated Anki cards at your CEFR level, synced through the free AnkiConnect add-on — six card types, from vocabulary to minimal pairs.
- Phoneme-level speech analysis that records you and scores your pronunciation sound by sound.
The free tier covers 10 transcriptions a day, 20-character selections, 20 saved words, and 5 lifetime Anki exports on one device. Premium is €4.99/month or €39.99/year for unlimited transcriptions, 100-character selections, unlimited saved words and cards, and up to three devices. There's no lifetime plan. If you'd rather not install anything, the free IPA translator works right in the browser, no signup.
Which should you pick?
Pick honestly by need:
- Occasional English, nothing else? ToPhonetics. Free, instant, no reason to add a tool.
- One or two non-English languages, converter is enough? EasyPronunciation. Its language breadth and audio support may fit that use case; check current plan terms before subscribing.
- You read across apps daily, want IPA plus audio, saving, and Anki in one place? That's the workflow IPAtics was built for.
If a converter already fits how you work, there's no reason to change. The case for a workflow tool is purely about how often you reach for IPA and whether tab-switching has become a tax.
For a wider survey of the field, see the best IPA transcription tools. For deeper feature breakdowns of the two tools above, see IPAtics vs ToPhonetics and IPAtics vs EasyPronunciation. And if you just want IPA for a handful of words right now, the free online IPA translator is the fastest way to start.