Upgrade Storage**Read Aloud: Limited Premium Voice Time and No Option to Purchase More**
Zotero's Read Aloud feature currently provides approximately one hour of premium voice usage per month. Once that time expires, users are prompted to request additional time or switch to standard voices, which are substantially inferior in quality.
Previously, selecting the option to add more time often opened a brief form asking why additional time was needed. Submitting the form typically granted another hour of premium usage. Although repeatedly completing this form was inconvenient, it at least allowed continued use of Read Aloud.
That option now appears to have disappeared, leaving users with no practical way to extend premium voice access. I would gladly pay a reasonable fee for additional usage, particularly since I recognize that providing premium voices incurs costs for Zotero.
**My suggestion is to offer users the ability to purchase additional premium voice time.** If that isn't feasible, the notification offering additional time should be revised to reflect the actual options available.
Limiting premium voices to approximately one hour per month, without a meaningful way to extend access, substantially undermines the usefulness of an otherwise valuable feature.
Previously, selecting the option to add more time often opened a brief form asking why additional time was needed. Submitting the form typically granted another hour of premium usage. Although repeatedly completing this form was inconvenient, it at least allowed continued use of Read Aloud.
That option now appears to have disappeared, leaving users with no practical way to extend premium voice access. I would gladly pay a reasonable fee for additional usage, particularly since I recognize that providing premium voices incurs costs for Zotero.
**My suggestion is to offer users the ability to purchase additional premium voice time.** If that isn't feasible, the notification offering additional time should be revised to reflect the actual options available.
Limiting premium voices to approximately one hour per month, without a meaningful way to extend access, substantially undermines the usefulness of an otherwise valuable feature.
Thank you for your response, @poettli. However, the article you linked discusses Zotero 9, whereas we're now using Zotero 10.
Perhaps I wasn't sufficiently clear in my original post. My concern isn't simply the limited availability of additional Read Aloud time. It's also that the current version of Zotero explicitly offers a link to add more time, yet provides no apparent way to do so.
Please see the attached screenshot. As shown, the option to add more time is clearly displayed, but users cannot actually obtain any additional time. This is misleading and should be addressed, regardless of whether Zotero intends to offer additional premium voice usage.
As the announcement says, if there's sufficient demand, we'll look into making it possible to purchase additional time for people who exceed the monthly allocation for paid plans.
Thanks also to @poettli for sharing the link to the announcement. I appreciate the assistance and the Zotero team's responsiveness!