Guide

Get a Free Azure Speech Key

10xTube's Listen feature can narrate summaries with high-quality Azure neural voices. Azure is Microsoft's cloud-services platform — its Speech service is what turns text into natural-sounding audio, and using it requires your own (free) API key. This guide walks you through getting one on Azure's free tier.

The whole process takes about 10 minutes. You will need a Microsoft account and, for identity verification, a credit or debit card. On the free tier the card is there for verification only, and nothing in this guide should cost money — but please read on:

Please know: 10xTube is not affiliated with Microsoft or Azure, and we don't earn anything if you sign up. We describe this option because, at the time of this extension's release, Azure offered a generous free monthly text-to-speech allowance. Microsoft can change its terms, limits, and pricing at any time, and any charges on your Azure account are strictly between you and Microsoft — always confirm the current terms on Microsoft's own pages.

Step 1 — Create a Free Azure Account

Skip this step if you already have an Azure account.

  1. Go to azure.microsoft.com/free and click Start free (or Try Azure for free).
  2. Sign in with a Microsoft account, or create one if you don't have it (any email address works).
  3. Fill in your profile details: country, name, and phone number for verification by text or call.
  4. Add a credit or debit card. This is only for identity verification — Azure does not charge you unless you later explicitly upgrade to pay-as-you-go and exceed free limits.
  5. Agree to the terms and finish sign-up. You'll land in the Azure Portal at portal.azure.com.

Step 2 — Create a Speech Service Resource (Free F0 Tier)

  1. In the Azure Portal, click Create a resource (the big + icon on the home page).
  2. In the search box, type Speech and select Speech by Microsoft (part of Azure AI services). Click Create.
  3. Fill in the creation form:
    • Subscription — your free subscription (usually "Azure subscription 1" or "Free Trial").
    • Resource group — click Create new and name it anything, e.g. 10xtube.
    • Region — pick a region close to you, e.g. West US 2. Remember your choice — 10xTube needs it in Step 4. The region's short identifier looks like westus2, eastus, or westeurope.
    • Name — anything unique, e.g. 10xtube-speech.
    • Pricing tier — select Free (F0). This is the important one: at the time of writing, F0 costs nothing and includes about 0.5 million characters of neural text-to-speech per month — plenty for narrating summaries. (If F0 isn't listed, you may already have another free Speech resource; each subscription allows one F0 Speech resource.)
  4. Click Review + create, then Create. Deployment takes under a minute.
  5. When it says "Your deployment is complete", click Go to resource.

Step 3 — Copy Your API Key and Region

  1. On your Speech resource page, look in the left menu under Resource Management and click Keys and Endpoint.
  2. You'll see KEY 1, KEY 2, and Location/Region. Click the copy icon next to KEY 1. Either key works — two exist so you can rotate them.
  3. Note the Location/Region value shown on the same page (e.g. westus2). This is exactly what 10xTube needs.

Keep your key private. Anyone with the key can use your Speech quota. Don't share it or paste it into websites other than the Azure Portal and 10xTube's settings, which stores it only in your browser's local extension storage.

Step 4 — Enter the Key in 10xTube

  1. Open 10xTube's settings: summarize any YouTube video, then click the gear icon next to the Listen button.
  2. Set Narration Engine to Azure API.
  3. Paste your key into the Azure Speech Key field.
  4. Enter your region's short identifier (e.g. westus2) in the Region field.
  5. Once the key and region are accepted, the Language and Voice pickers fill with Azure's neural voice catalog. Pick a voice and use the preview button to hear a sample. Settings save automatically.

That's it — press Listen on a summary and it will be narrated with your chosen Azure voice, with the same player controls as the built-in voice: previous, play/pause, and next section.

Troubleshooting