Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
You can transcribe a voice recorder file into text with the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: forward the file as a document in a private message and the finished text comes back, at once for a short recording and as a file for a long one. It does not matter which recorder or app made the recording. Transcription is free for 60 minutes per month; for big files the bot's mini app is more convenient.
A recording has piled up on the voice recorder, an interview, a lecture, a note to yourself, and transcribing it by hand takes long. There is a faster way: forward the file to the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot, and the text comes by itself. You do not need to install a program for this, only Telegram.
Transcribing a voice recorder file, step by step
- Move the recording from the recorder to a phone or computer, usually with a USB cable or a memory card, like an ordinary file.
- Open the bot @potok_now_bot in Telegram and press “Start” (/start).
- Send the recording file as a document in a private message. You can also forward a voice message or a video note from another chat if the recording is already stored in Telegram. The bot also accepts audio, video and links to YouTube, VK Video and RuTube, if you need to transcribe something besides a voice recorder file.
- Wait for the reply: a short recording comes as text in the chat, a longer one as a separate file; the format (TXT or DOCX) is chosen in the bot settings, /settings.
- Under the text the buttons “Summary”, “Tasks and deadlines”, “Ask” and “Other format” appear: you can get a short retelling or a list of tasks if assignments were mentioned in the recording.
- If you need timecodes and speaker labels (“Speaker 1”, “Speaker 2”), turn them on beforehand in /settings.
- For big files the bot's mini app is more convenient: drag a file up to 2 GB straight into the browser window.
- All versions of the transcript, the text, the summary and the tasks, are saved in the “My recordings” section, and you can open them again at any time.
| Service | Platforms | Free | Price | Payment from Russia | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potok bot and web version | Telegram (@potok_now_bot, mini app inside the bot) | 60 minutes per month | 7 days: 249 ₽, 30 days: 449 ₽, one year: 2 890 ₽; included in the Potok app subscription | Russian bank cards, rubles | cloud, servers in Russia; internet required |
| Otter.ai | Web, iOS, Android, Chrome extension, Desktop (Mac/Windows), integrations with Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet | Basic: 300 minutes of transcription per month, up to 30 minutes per meeting, 3 imported files over the whole lifetime of the account, free forever | $16.99/mo (Pro, monthly billing, 1200 min/mo); $8.33/mo (Pro, billed yearly (the full year is charged at once)); $30/mo (Business, monthly billing) | not directly: dollar billing through international payment processors declines cards issued in Russia and Belarus (confirmed by independent Russian-language guides on dtf.ru and vc.ru; no official Otter.ai statement about blocking Russia was found, this follows from general payment system restrictions) | cloud, US servers (the company is registered in the USA); the exact data center is not disclosed on the pricing page |
| Transkriptor | Web | 10 minutes on sign-up, limited to 2 min/day (according to the localized Russian site transkriptor.ru); the international site transkriptor.com states a free trial (up to 90 minutes according to secondary sources; the official pricing page could not be opened directly because it timed out) | 490 ₽/one-time (Start, 150 minutes (transkriptor.ru)); 790 ₽/one-time (Pro, 700 minutes (transkriptor.ru)); 1900 ₽/one-time (Premium, 2100 minutes (transkriptor.ru)) | yes, on the localized site transkriptor.ru: Visa/Mastercard/Mir bank cards with no fee, SBP via QR code with no fee, YooMoney with a 3% fee; payments are one-off (no subscription) and processed by the KASSA service. The international site transkriptor.com presumably bills in dollars; this is not confirmed directly (the pricing page timed out) | not disclosed |
| SaluteSpeech Bot (Sber) | Telegram | free; voice messages, audio and video notes | — | not disclosed | SaluteSpeech cloud (Sber) |
| Voicy (@voicybot) | Telegram | free; on the Wit.ai engine, recordings of up to 50 seconds | — | not disclosed | Wit.ai, Yandex SpeechKit or Google Speech; the user chooses the engine |
| Voicee (@Voicee_AI_Bot) | Telegram, Web | 45 minutes to start | 500 ₽/hour of recording (without a package; cheaper with packages) | rubles | not disclosed |
| KolerskyAI Whisper Bot | Telegram | the first 5 minutes | 69 ₽/15 minutes; 149 ₽/50 minutes; 490 ₽/200 minutes | rubles | not disclosed |
| Transkribator (@gotranscribeai_bot) | Telegram, Max | 3 transcriptions per month | — | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| Voix (@RecogMyAudioBot) | Telegram | voice messages up to 15 minutes, video up to 6 minutes | — | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| Telegram voice message transcription | Telegram | without Premium, a few transcriptions per week; with Premium, no limit on their number | — | not disclosed | Telegram servers |
| Speech2Text.ru | Web | 3 hours on sign-up | — | not disclosed | not disclosed |
How to check and fix the transcript
The finished text is already partly proofread: the bot adds punctuation and capital letters itself and fixes obvious recognition errors, but it is still worth comparing the result with the original, especially if rare names or terms were spoken in the recording. In the bot's mini app this is more convenient: the player lets you click a phrase in the text and hear that moment of the recording at once, without rewinding by hand. If the meaning of a specific fragment is unclear, the “Ask” button answers a question about the content of the recording, without making you reread all the text again. You can copy the text and finish editing it in any text editor, the same as with any file you receive. If the recording is not a personal note but a work meeting, there is a separate guide on how to build meeting minutes with tasks by participant from the same transcript.
| Task | Characters | Typing (200 chars/min) | Voice (900 chars/min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| chat reply | 300 | 2 min | 0.5 min |
| 1500 | 8 min | 1.7 min | |
| post or meeting minutes | 4000 | 20 min | 4.4 min |
| article | 10000 | 50 min | 11.1 min |
When the bot will not fit
The bot will not fit if the recording is not in Russian: it recognizes only Russian speech and there is no translation; how Otter.ai handles Russian speech is covered in the article Otter.ai in Russian. The bot will not accept an Instagram or TikTok link either: of external sources it understands only YouTube, VK Video and RuTube. Transcription happens after the file has been sent, not during the recording itself. And nothing will work without the internet: the bot is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, for big files the bot's mini app is more convenient: a file up to 2 GB can be dragged straight into the browser window, and if the connection drops, the upload continues from where it broke.
Yes, the transcript together with the original recording stays in the “My recordings” section, and you can open it again at any time, both in the bot and in the Potok bot's web version.
Voice input is real-time dictation: you speak and immediately get text in the active field. Transcription is turning an already finished audio or video recording (for example, a meeting recording) into text after the fact. The Potok app does the first job, live dictation; finished recordings in Russian are transcribed by its Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
With Potok you can dictate the minutes live, saying them during or right after the meeting. Transcribing an already recorded meeting audio file (a finished Zoom or Telemost recording) is a separate transcription task: you can send such a file to the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
Voice input is real-time dictation into the active text field. Transcription is turning an already finished audio or video recording (a lecture, a call, a podcast) into text after the fact, often with diarization (splitting by speaker).
Yes, a number of platforms have built-in meeting transcription: in Zoom for cloud recordings, in Microsoft Teams during the meeting, in Google Meet on Google Workspace plans. The alternative is to record the sound and process it with a separate transcription service after the call. The Potok app does not do this kind of transcription, it is for live dictation; you can send a call recording as a file to the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
Transcribe your own recording
Forward a voice message, or send a file or a YouTube, VK Video or RuTube link to Potok's Telegram bot, and the text arrives in the same chat. 60 minutes per month for free.
Open @potok_now_bot in TelegramPrimary sources: speech2text.ru · audio-2-text.ru · turboscribe.ai · turboscribe.ai
Transcribe a recording in Telegram
Voice messages, video notes, audio and video are transcribed by Potok's Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: forward it a voice message from any chat, or send a file or a YouTube, VK Video or RuTube link. A short recording comes back as text in the chat, a long one as a file; timestamps and speaker labels can be turned on. The buttons give a short summary, tasks and deadlines, an answer to a question about the recording and export to TXT, DOCX, PDF or SRT. Large files, up to 2 GB, are easier to upload in the bot's mini app, via the Upload button next to the input field. The bot recognizes Russian speech; 60 minutes per month are free.