Free voice input for Windows with no limits: what is truly unlimited

Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.

Free voice input with no word limit in Windows is the built-in Win+H panel: it costs nothing and does not count words, but it recognizes speech in the Microsoft cloud and needs the internet. Among separate programs, Molvi is truly unlimited: offline and free forever. Potok (potok.now) gives 2500 words per week for free, with a personal dictionary and a model for Russian speech.

The word "free" in voice input rarely means "without limits": most services have a ceiling in minutes or words per period, and it comes up fast with daily dictation. Windows has a built-in option with no counter at all, Win+H, but it works only through the Microsoft cloud and does not handle Russian in every version of the system. Among separate programs you will find both kinds: some are truly free forever with no limit, while others only disguise a limit as a generous free plan.

What is in the system without installing anything

Voice input by the Win+H shortcut is built into Windows and needs no installation, no registration and no separate account: press the hotkey, dictate, release, and the text appears in the active field. The panel costs nothing and counts words neither per day nor per week nor per month. In this sense it really has no limits, unlike almost all the separate programs further in this review.

It is turned on the same way in both versions of the system: put the cursor in a text field, press Win+H and, if needed, choose the recognition language in the settings flyout.

An important caveat concerns system versions. The panel understands Russian only in Windows 11: according to Microsoft's help, in Windows 10 the supported languages include English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese, but not Russian. A detailed review of the versions and what a Windows 10 user should do is in the material does Windows 10 support keyboard voice input in Russian.

Win+H recognizes speech not on the computer itself but in the Microsoft cloud: without an internet connection the panel does not work at all. This is the same principle as most paid services: the difference is not whether transcription happens locally or in the cloud, but what they ask for in return. Win+H asks for nothing, while most programs ask either for payment or for a limit on the free plan.

Windows 11 also has "Voice Access", a separate feature for controlling the computer by voice, with commands like "open the browser" or "scroll down". This is not text dictation, and it has no Russian language: for typing text in Russian, Win+H is the relevant one.

The built-in option has no plans and no limits. Even with the limits on language and connection, the panel stays free every month without exceptions, unlike most programs below, where the limit is expressed in minutes or words per period.

Separate programs and how they differ

Among separate programs, the formula "free" most often means a limit in minutes or words per period: you pay not with money but with volume. In the selection below there are few real exceptions.

Molvi is closest to the request "no limits" in the literal sense: the program is free forever, with no account and no payment, and recognition runs offline, with the best quality on an NVIDIA graphics card, and on a processor a faster model that also works. Since a limit on volume or time is simply not built into the product model, you do not have to save words.

Lispr has a similar principle for basic features: push-to-talk, translation, a dictionary and local history stay free always and without registration, and beyond that 60 minutes of dictation per week are also free, but already with a weekly limit. The difference matters here between what is free without bounds and what is free but limited by a period.

The other programs are closer to a trial period than to a free plan without bounds. SpeakFlow and Diktuy give 30 minutes of dictation per month each, and after that a subscription is needed. WhispeRu gives a week without a card and without limits inside it, but after seven days free access ends completely and does not switch to a cut-down plan. Talkpad and v2txt.ru keep a free plan by words per week: Talkpad gives 2500 words on desktop, v2txt.ru gives 2000 words on the Start plan, and both options are meant more for infrequent dictation than for a whole working day. Voisty has the fewest free minutes in the selection, only five, and that is enough more to evaluate the recognition quality than to really use the program for free.

Another parameter is where recognition physically happens. In Molvi, WhispeRu and Voisty, processing runs on the device itself, without sending audio out; in SpeakFlow, Diktuy and Lispr it is in the cloud, and for some of them the country of the data center is not disclosed on the site. v2txt.ru has both modes: cloud, with servers in Russia, and offline for those who need processing on the spot.

The full summary with figures for each program is in the table below, and it is easier to compare with it at once than by listing figures in the text. Payment deserves separate attention: not all services accept rubles directly, and if this is critical, see the material on paying with a Russian card.

Where Potok is not the best option

Potok does not suit every "free and without limits" scenario. The free plan is 2500 words per week, and that is generous for occasional dictation but not about having no bounds at all: for someone who dictates several hours a day, the limit will last a short time and not the whole week, and a paid subscription without limits will be needed.

Potok has no mobile versions for Android and iPhone: there are versions for Windows, macOS and Linux, so look for free voice input for a phone among other programs and not here. Potok also has no voice commands and no editing of text by voice, such as "delete the last word" or "new paragraph" said as commands rather than typed out as words: it inserts what you say and does not edit what was written earlier.

Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work at all without the internet: for dictation without a network, an offline program like Molvi will do, and not a cloud service on any free plan. Companies that ban cloud processing of data need a variant with servers inside the organization's perimeter, which is also not a free plan but a separate agreement on request.

Frequently asked questions

Built-in dictation and Potok

Primary sources: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru · support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com