Online teleprompter, free in your browser

How to use it

1. Paste your script into the box. Line breaks are kept, so a blank line between paragraphs gives you a breath.
2. Pick a speed. 150 words a minute is a natural pace for talking to a camera in English. The box tells you how long the whole script takes at that speed.
3. Press Start. After a three-second count, the words scroll past the yellow mark. Read the line at the mark.
4. Adjust as you go. Faster and Slower change the speed by ten words a minute without losing your place; pause, scroll back a line, and carry on.

The speed is in words a minute rather than an abstract scroll setting, so it means the same thing on any screen and at any text size: a 450-word script at 150 takes three minutes whether the text is small or large. If you are not sure how long your script should be, the speech length calculator turns a time slot into a word count.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a laptop, Mac or PC

The webcam sits at the top of the screen, so the closer the words are to it, the less your eyes drift. Make the browser window narrow and drag it up until the yellow mark is just under the camera, or use full screen with a text size small enough that a line spans only the middle of the screen. Reading a narrow column moves your eyes less than reading across the whole display, which is most of what makes reading on camera hard to spot. The guide to reading a script while looking at the camera has the rest of the setup.

Teleprompter for Mac

It runs in Safari, Chrome, Edge or Firefox on any Mac, with nothing to install. A MacBook's camera is at the top centre of the screen, which is where the text column sits, so full screen puts the words directly under the lens. Press F or the Full screen button; Esc comes back.

Teleprompter for a Windows PC or laptop

Use Edge, Chrome or Firefox. On a laptop the webcam is above the screen, as on a Mac; with a separate webcam, clip it to the top centre of the monitor so the reading mark sits just under it. On a large monitor, a smaller text size keeps each line short.

Desktop apps, a phone under the webcam and beam-splitter glass are compared in teleprompter for Mac and PC.

On Zoom, Teams or Google Meet

Put the meeting window at one side and this page, narrowed, at the top centre under the webcam. Pause with Space when someone asks a question, and drag back a line to pick up where you were. The page never touches the meeting itself: it is a window you read from. Leave its camera view off during a call, since some computers let only one app use the webcam at a time.

The full setup for calls is in teleprompter for Zoom, Teams and Google Meet.

Teleprompter with your camera behind the words

Tick Show my camera, or press Camera while it runs, and your webcam or front camera fills the stage behind the script, dimmed so the words stay readable. It is a mirror for rehearsal: you can see your framing, your light and whether your eyes stay near the lens while you read. The browser asks permission the first time.

It is a preview, not a recording. The picture goes from the camera to the screen and nowhere else, and it stops when you press Edit or close the page. To read and record the take at the same time, use the Orate app on a phone, or run this page beside whatever already records your screen or video call.

Mirror mode, for teleprompter glass

A hardware teleprompter reflects the screen off angled glass, which flips the text, so the screen has to show it backwards for it to read the right way round. Tick Mirror when your laptop or tablet sits under a beam-splitter; leave it off when you read the screen directly. Why teleprompters are mirrored explains the optics.

Which setups need the mirror and which do not, with the orientation fixes, is in how to use a mirror teleprompter.

What speed to set

Start at 150 words a minute, the pace the Orate app starts English scripts at, and change it while you read rather than before: you find your pace in the first ten seconds. Slow to about 120 for a talk to a live room, where you pause for reactions, and speed up to 180 for brisk narration. The right teleprompter scroll speed goes further, and teleprompter speed by language explains why scripts in Hindi, Tamil or Vietnamese read at different rates.

When you want to record as well

This page scrolls words; it does not record. On a phone, the hard part is that the camera is a dot at the top of the screen and the words are below it, so a phone teleprompter has to keep the text right under the lens and record at the same time. That is what the Orate app does for iPhone and Android: your script scrolls under the front camera while it records, it keeps the take if the app is interrupted, and exporting carries no watermark.

Questions people ask

Is this teleprompter free?

Yes. There is no sign-up, no limit on script length and no watermark, because nothing is recorded: it scrolls your words and that is all.

Does it work on a Mac, a PC or a laptop?

Yes, in any current browser: Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox. Make the window narrow and drag it to the top of the screen, just under the webcam, so your eyes stay close to the lens while you read.

Is my script saved or uploaded anywhere?

It is kept in this browser's local storage so a reload does not lose it, and it never leaves your device. Clearing the site's data in your browser removes it.

What speed should a teleprompter scroll at?

Start at 150 words a minute, a natural pace for talking to a camera in English, and adjust while you read. 120 suits a careful talk to a live room, and 180 is brisk narration.

Can I see my camera while I read?

Yes. Turn on Show my camera and your webcam or front camera appears behind the script, dimmed so the text stays readable. It is only a preview; nothing is recorded or uploaded.

Can it record video while I read?

No, this one only scrolls. To read and record in the same place, the Orate app for iPhone and Android puts the script under the front camera and records the take.