Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
Zoom has built-in transcription, but it appears only for a paid cloud recording: Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise. For an ordinary, free recording on a computer, the text comes from the Potok Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: send a file and it returns text split by speaker. For heavy files the bot's mini app fits; 60 minutes of transcription per month are free.
Zoom can both record a meeting and make a transcript from it itself, but only on a paid plan and from a cloud recording. If the plan is free or the recording is simply on the computer, the text is obtained from it in another way.
Where to get the Zoom recording file
- Recording to the computer works on any account, including a free one: it can be started by the host, a participant to whom the host has given permission, or a co-host.
- Such a recording goes into the Zoom folder inside Documents (on Windows it is Documents\Zoom, on a Mac Documents/Zoom) and consists of two files: an MP4 video and a separate M4A audio track.
- Recording to the cloud can be turned on only by the host and co-hosts, and it is available only on the paid plans Pro, Business, Education and Enterprise.
- A finished cloud recording is stored in the Zoom web portal, on the Recordings and transcripts page.
- Any of these files, the local MP4 or a recording downloaded from the cloud, can be sent to where video or audio is turned into text.
Transcribing a Zoom meeting into text through the bot
- Send the recording file or a separate audio track to the Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: find it and press “Start” if you have not opened it yet.
- Send the file as a document. For a meeting with several participants, turn on speaker labels in the bot settings (/settings) in advance, and the lines will be split by voice.
- A short recording will come back as text right in the chat, a long one as a TXT or DOCX file; the format of the reply is chosen in the same place, in the settings.
- The “Summary” button under the reply will collect the gist of the meeting, and “Tasks and deadlines” shows who took on what.
- For a heavy file it is simpler to use the web version, the bot's mini app: sign in by email or through Telegram, files of up to 2 GB. And for dictating your own text, rather than transcribing someone else's recording, there is the Potok app, including right in Telegram.
Zoom's own transcription
Zoom has built-in transcription, but you can get it only from a cloud recording on a paid account: Pro, Business, Education or Enterprise. It is turned on in the cloud recording settings with the “Create audio transcript” checkbox, after which the text appears next to the recording itself in the web portal. An ordinary local recording on the computer, available on the free plan too, does not get such a transcript. The built-in tool has nothing to offer here, and it is simpler to send the file to the Potok bot or to its web version.
| 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 |
| Service | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Potok bot and web version | 60 minutes per month | 7 days: 249 ₽, 30 days: 449 ₽, one year: 2 890 ₽; included in the Potok app subscription |
| Otter.ai | 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) |
| Transkriptor | 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)) |
| SaluteSpeech Bot (Sber) | free; voice messages, audio and video notes | — |
| Voicy (@voicybot) | free; on the Wit.ai engine, recordings of up to 50 seconds | — |
| Voicee (@Voicee_AI_Bot) | 45 minutes to start | 500 ₽/hour of recording (without a package; cheaper with packages) |
| KolerskyAI Whisper Bot | the first 5 minutes | 69 ₽/15 minutes; 149 ₽/50 minutes; 490 ₽/200 minutes |
| 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 it is better not to trust the bot with a meeting recording
If the conversation was not in Russian, the bot will not help: it does not recognize other languages and there is no translation. There will be no text during the call itself either: the bot accepts only an already finished, complete recording. Participants in the reply will be labeled not by names but by the numbers “Speaker 1”, “Speaker 2”. The bot will not accept a link to Instagram or TikTok: of links it takes only YouTube, VK Video and RuTube, and otherwise files and voice messages. The Potok bot is cloud-based: recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet. Other options for transcribing recordings are collected in the comparison of transcription services.
Frequently asked questions
Yes: by default the host, a participant who has been given permission, or a co-host can start recording to the computer, and this works on any account, including a free one.
Voice input is real-time dictation into the active text field. Transcription turns 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, several platforms have built-in meeting transcription: Zoom for cloud recordings, Microsoft Teams during the meeting, 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; a call recording can be sent as a file to Potok's Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
With Potok you can dictate the minutes live, speaking them during or right after the meeting. Transcribing an already recorded audio file of a meeting (a finished Zoom or Telemost recording) is a separate transcription task: such a file can be sent to Potok's Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
Voice input is real-time dictation: you speak and immediately get text in the active field. Transcription turns an already finished audio or video recording (for example, a meeting recording) into text after the fact. The Potok app handles the first task, live dictation; finished recordings in Russian are transcribed by its Telegram bot @potok_now_bot.
No, there is no Android version of Potok: the product works only on a computer: Windows, macOS and Linux. For Android there is Google's built-in voice input (Gboard) or the Samsung keyboard.
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: yandex.ru · vc.ru · speech2text.ru · audio-2-text.ru
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.