Potok transcribes Russian speech; this site has been translated into English for convenience.
You can turn an audio file into text on a computer for free in the bot's mini app: a file up to 2 GB is uploaded by dragging right in the browser, and you sign in by email or through Telegram. The free limit is 60 minutes of transcription per month; after that a paid subscription is needed, with amounts in the plans block below.
Free transcription of audio on a computer has one number worth checking right away: 60 minutes per month is exactly how much the Potok bot recognizes for free through the web version in the browser, with no program to install and no card.
| 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 |
Audio file to text on a computer for free: what manual typing costs
Transcribing by hand is not only typing. You listen to the recording, stop, rewind if a phrase is unclear, and type while the next one is still sounding in your head. If several people speak, you also have to work out who said what, and with professional terms and names you have to relisten to the same place several times so as not to get the spelling wrong.
All this time goes not on working with the text itself but on preparing a draft that a transcription service hands over already finished for one wait. The difference is especially noticeable on long recordings (lectures, interviews, an hour-long meeting and more), where manual typing stretches over a whole evening, while uploading a file to a service takes a couple of minutes before you get on with other things. How different transcription services compare with each other is shown in the comparison of audio-to-text transcription services.
How to choose a service for your volume of recordings
If you need transcripts from time to time and they fit within an hour per month, the free limit is enough: the 60 minutes of the Potok bot renew every month, with no card linked.
For regular transcription (meetings, lectures, interviews) you will need a paid option, and the amounts for each service are collected in the plans block above. If your work depends on calls in Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet and you need a ready integration with them, it is worth looking at Otter.ai, but keep in mind that it officially recognizes only English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Simplified Chinese, and Russian speech is not in the list. A detailed review of how things stand with Russian at this service is in the material about Otter.ai for Russian. For those who need separate apps besides the browser, on Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, Notta will do: it states support for 58 languages, and on the free plan it gives 120 minutes per month, but no more than 3 minutes per recording.
When the bot will not fit
The Potok bot is a cloud service: it recognizes audio on servers in Russia and does not work without the internet. It transcribes only Russian speech, there is no translation into other languages, and it is not suitable for multilingual recordings.
If the text must have the real names of the speakers and not "Speaker 1" and "Speaker 2", you will have to write them in by hand, since the bot does not tell them apart. It is also not suitable for transcription right during a conversation: it works with an already recorded file or a forwarded message and not with a live call. The service will not accept a link to Instagram or TikTok either.
Frequently asked questions
No, the bot's mini app works right in the browser: the file is uploaded by dragging, and there is nothing to download or install.
60 minutes of transcription are given free every month, and the limit renews on the 1st. For longer recordings a paid subscription is needed, with amounts in the plans block on the page.
2500 words per week is on average about 350 words per day on one device, which is enough for short messaging. For someone who dictates all day (a lot of text, documents), the limit is small, and then it is worth looking at Pro with no word limit.
Not all: several foreign services accept payment only in dollars. For example, Wispr Flow on Windows and Mac has no standard payment by a Russian card. Potok accepts payment in rubles directly from a Russian card, and this is one of the practical selection criteria for a user in Russia.
The text already dictated stays where it was inserted, in your app's field. You can continue dictating beyond the free limit on a paid plan: Potok Pro has no word limit; otherwise you continue after the weekly limit renews.
690 ₽ per month when paid monthly or 499 ₽ per month when paid a year at once (5999 ₽ per year). Pro includes unlimited words, a personal dictionary of terms, voice snippets and priority support.
If you want to compare for yourself
Take one of your own tasks and dictate it in Potok. The first 14 days have no limits and need no card. 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 |
| Notta | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | 120 minutes per month, up to 3 minutes per recording | $13.99/mo (Pro, monthly, 1800 minutes); $27.99/mo (Business, monthly) | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| 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 |
Primary sources: www.notta.ai · www.notta.ai · otter.ai · help.otter.ai