Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
Voice input often stumbles not because of the program but because of sound: antiviruses like ESET, Kaspersky and Norton block the microphone, AirPods on Windows do not switch to recording mode, and the cheap Bluetooth codec SBC gives weak sound. Recognition accuracy depends on sound quality: the WER of 2.1% that Potok (potok.now) states on the GolosTest benchmark was measured on a clean recording, not through a weak headset.
Dictation is silent, cuts off or recognizes with errors, and often the cause is not the voice input program at all but that the sound does not reach it or reaches it damaged. The antivirus quietly blocks access to the microphone, a Bluetooth headset switches to a mode with worse sound, and new headphones like AirPods are not seen by the system as a microphone at all. The reviews below show where to look for the cause in each case.
Where problems in this topic come from
Microphone problems during dictation fall into three groups. The first is blocking at the antivirus level: ESET, Kaspersky and Norton build in camera and microphone protection modules that by default block access for unfamiliar programs, including voice input, until the user allows it manually in the protection settings.
The second group is Bluetooth features. A headset usually has two modes: one with good sound but no microphone, and hands-free with a microphone but a worse codec. If the system chose the wrong profile, the sound either does not come at all or comes in low-quality SBC; this is the codec that most often gives a noticeably weaker microphone than a wire.
The third group is drivers and profiles of specific devices: AirPods were designed primarily for the Apple ecosystem, and on Windows the system does not always switch them correctly to recording mode. In most cases the matter is solved by Bluetooth and antivirus settings, and not by replacing the voice input program.
All articles in this section (35): potok.now/oshibki/mic-headset
When the program is not the cause
If the microphone is fine, but recognition still makes mistakes or does not start, the cause may not be the sound. Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet at all, even with a working headset. A weak network signal gives the same symptoms as a bad microphone: drops, delays, missed words, but this is fixed not by replacing headphones but by stable Wi-Fi or mobile internet.
Reviews of individual errors
- AirPods on Windows do not switch to recording mode: WhispeRu is also made only for Windows.
- ESET antivirus blocks the microphone: Potok, like any Windows program, first asks for microphone access.
- Kaspersky antivirus blocks the microphone during voice input: GigaType and Diktuy also work on Windows and ask for the same access.
- A Bluetooth headset shows only hands-free with no sound: Voisty recognizes offline, but it too needs clean sound from the headset.
- Bluetooth in SBC mode gives worse microphone quality: the worse the sound, the more errors in any recognition, including the cloud one in Potok.
Frequently asked questions
Most likely the system switched the headset to hands-free mode with the SBC codec, which gives a noticeably weaker microphone than the music mode or a wired connection. Check the connection profile in the sound settings: if there is a choice of a better codec, recognition will become more accurate at once.
Yes: speech recognition models are trained on a certain corpus of voices, and a noticeable regional or foreign accent can reduce accuracy if it is poorly represented in the training data of a specific model.
In some systems yes, through adaptation to the personal dictionary and the terms the user often uses; in others the system is static and does not adjust to a specific person without manual dictionary setup.
Homophones (words that sound the same but are written differently) are a known limitation of any ASR: the model picks the most probable option from the context of the phrase and can be wrong without enough context; a personal dictionary and spelling out letters aloud reduce the frequency of such errors for specific terms.
Potok states about 900 characters per minute by voice against about 200 when typing, roughly 4 times faster. This is the product's own estimate, not an independent measurement.
Yes: Windows has built-in voice input on Win+H (Russian only in Windows 11, there is no Russian in Windows 10; it does not work without the internet), and on a Mac there is system dictation in the keyboard settings. Both are free.
How to start
Potok is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. For two weeks everything is open for free, after that 2500 words per week without paying. Potok is a cloud service: speech is recognized on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokOne subscription, two tools: dictation in any program on your computer and @potok_now_bot in Telegram, which transcribes voice messages, audio and video.
Related software: terms compared
| Service | Platforms | Free | Price | Payment from Russia | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed | Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly | Russian bank cards, rubles | cloud, servers in Russia; internet required |
| SpeakFlow | Windows, Web | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 690 ₽/mo (Personal (unlimited)) | rubles directly | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
| Diktuy | Windows, macOS | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 239 ₽/mo (Profi (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)); 2870 ₽/yr (Profi (year, billed in full)); 479 ₽/mo (Max (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)) | rubles directly (not confirmed) | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
| Talkpad | macOS, Windows, Android | 2500 words/week on desktop, 1500 words/week on mobile, free forever; plus a 14-day Pro trial | $6/mo (Pro (billed yearly, $72/yr)); $8/mo (Pro (monthly billing)) | unknown (not confirmed) | cloud (the legal entity is registered in Australia; the website is hosted on Cloudflare; the exact location of the ASR servers is not disclosed in the privacy policy) (not confirmed) |
| Voisty | Windows, macOS | 5 minutes of transcription (to judge the quality) | $6.7/mo (Pro); $67/yr (Pro (year)); $99/one-time (Lifetime) | Visa/Mastercard/Amex cards, PayPal; whether Russian cards are accepted is not stated (not confirmed) | device (offline, local models such as Whisper Large V3 Turbo / NVIDIA Parakeet) |
| WhispeRu | Windows | 7-day free trial (no card) | 290 ₽/mo (monthly license); 1990 ₽/yr (yearly license); 4990 ₽/one-time (lifetime license) | rubles directly (payment via YooKassa) | device (offline) |
| GigaType | Windows, macOS | free with no limits: open source under the MIT license (Copyright (c) 2026 Disrupt Builders), all features are available without payment | — | not needed: there are no paid plans | device (offline, Sber's GigaAM neural network) |
| Molvi | Windows, macOS | free forever, no accounts and no payment | — | not needed: the product is free; voluntary donations are accepted via Telegram Tribute or by card on the website, amounts are not fixed | device (offline; best quality on an NVIDIA GPU, otherwise a fast model on the CPU) |
Built-in dictation and Potok
| Tool | Where it works | Russian language | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows voice typing (Win+H) | Windows 10 and 11 | Windows 11 only | Microsoft cloud, does not work offline |
| macOS Dictation | macOS | yes | on the device or on Apple servers |
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | primary language | cloud, servers in Russia, does not work offline |
Primary sources: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru