Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
Alternatives to Aqua Voice are sought by those who are not satisfied with payment only in dollars: the service does not confirm that it accepts Russian bank cards, and it has three plan levels at once, from starter to team. 1000 words on the Avalon model are free without linking a card. Among the options are services with payment in rubles and offline programs. Potok (potok.now) gives 2500 words per week for free.
Aqua Voice takes payment only in dollars, and whether the service accepts a Russian bank card is a big question: the website says nothing about it. So before subscribing you will have to either look for a way to pay in foreign currency or switch to a subscription through the iOS App Store with different terms. For those who do not want to solve this puzzle for the sake of dictation, it is more sensible to look right away at services with direct payment in rubles.
Why people look for an Aqua Voice replacement
The first reason is uncertainty about payment. The service lists prices only in dollars, and whether it accepts a Russian bank card directly is not confirmed anywhere. There is a workaround through a subscription in the iOS App Store, but that is a separate story with different terms, not direct payment in rubles on the website.
The second is the structure of the plans itself. Aqua Voice has three of them: Pro, Max and Team, and the price grows noticeably from the lowest to the highest. For a person who simply needs to dictate emails, sorting out this grid and choosing the right level may be harder than the dictation itself.
The third reason is platforms. Aqua Voice works on macOS, Windows and iOS, but not on Android: for those who have an Android phone rather than an iPhone, the service simply does not suit mobile dictation.
The fourth: Russian is stated in a list of forty-nine supported languages, but the developer does not publish separate data on the recognition quality for Russian speech specifically. How the service copes with cases and terms can be judged only from your own experience, not from a figure on the website.
Finally, Aqua Voice recognition is cloud-based, on its own model Avalon, but the country of the data center is not publicly disclosed. Those who want to know in advance where the sound physically goes should look at services with an open policy on this.
| 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 |
| Aqua Voice | macOS, Windows, iOS | Starter: 1000 free words (Avalon model), no card required | $8/mo (Pro, billed yearly); $10/mo (Pro, monthly); $24/mo (Max, billed yearly) | unknown: the website shows payment in USD, and there is a separate purchase through the iOS App Store; acceptance of Russian cards is not confirmed (not confirmed) | cloud (own Avalon model; the country of the data center is not publicly disclosed) (not confirmed) |
| 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) |
| Wispr Flow | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | 2000 words/week on desktop, 1000 words/week on mobile | $15/mo (Pro, monthly payment); $12/mo (Pro, when paid for a year ($144/year)) | there is no standard payment with a Russian card: on Windows/Mac/web payment is only in USD; per earlier data, from Russia it is actually possible to pay through an iOS subscription in the App Store, but the exact amount in rubles is not verified (not confirmed) | cloud (the data center country is not publicly disclosed) (not confirmed) |
| 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) |
| Spokenly | macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS | local models (Whisper/Parakeet) are free forever with no word limit; connecting your own API keys (BYOK) is also free | $9.99/mo (Pro, monthly); $99.99/yr (Pro, yearly (≈$8.33/mo)) | not disclosed | hybrid: locally on the device (Whisper/Parakeet, free) or in the cloud (GPT-4o Transcribe, Deepgram Nova 3, Soniox and others, via BYOK or Pro) |
| SpeechPad (voice notepad) | Web (Chrome), Chrome extension, Android, iOS, integration modules for Windows/Mac/Linux | basic voice input in the notepad is free; transcription of audio/video up to 15 minutes is free | 100 ₽/mo (extended mode (integration of voice input with Windows/Linux OS, removal of the 15-minute transcription limit): the amount appears in user comments/reviews, and no exact official price list was found on the site) | yes: Robokassa and bank cards are accepted (for payment from abroad, an alternative site voicenotebook.com with PayPal is mentioned) | not disclosed |
| v2txt.ru | Windows, macOS | Start plan: 2000 words/week | 0 ₽/n/a (all of Pro is free until the end of 2026 (the regular Pro/Premium price after 2026 is not published on the website)) | rubles directly (Visa, Mastercard, Mir cards and T-Bank are accepted) | cloud (Russia) in online mode; offline mode processes on the device |
| 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) |
| A-Golos | macOS, Windows, Android | 20 minutes of audio per month free, no card attached | 490 ₽/mo (Lite, 120 min/mo); 4900 ₽/yr (Lite, yearly); 950 ₽/mo (Pro, 300 min/mo) | rubles directly (through an external payment provider, card data is not stored by the service) | cloud: the policy states that personal data is stored on servers in Russia, but the speech recognition itself is performed by OpenAI (USA); results and audio are not stored on the company's servers |
| Win+H (Windows voice typing) | Windows | free, built into Windows 10 and Windows 11 | — | not disclosed | cloud (Azure Speech services, Microsoft) — an internet connection is required |
What to check in a replacement
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Payment from Russia. Make sure that rubles are charged directly, not through workaround schemes with a foreign currency card or a subscription in a third-party app store.
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The real price by month. The plan grid may have many steps: compare the price of the level you actually need, not the most prominent one on the plans page.
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Platform. Check support for your particular combination of devices, including Android if dictation from a phone matters, and not only Windows, macOS and iOS.
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Where speech is recognized. Cloud processing needs the internet and implies sending the sound to a server; offline mode works without a network but depends on the power of the computer.
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The free limit. Find out whether it is counted in words, minutes or days of access, so it is easier to understand how long the trial period will really last.
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Personal dictionary. The ability to add rare terms and names by hand reduces the number of repeated recognition errors over time.
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The seller's legal entity. If you need a closing document for an organization rather than for an individual, find out in advance who issues the invoice and in which country the company is registered, since this may affect the payment and refund procedure.
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Response after dictation. The difference in how fast the recognized text appears on the screen is noticeable in long dictation: the shorter the delay, the fewer pauses between speech and the finished text.
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One-time limit or permanent plan. It is not always clear from the first screen of the website whether the free amount resets every week or month, or is given once at registration. Ask the alternative about this separately, otherwise free access may run out faster than it seems at the start.
| 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 |
| Aqua Voice | macOS, Windows, iOS | Starter: 1000 free words (Avalon model), no card required | $8/mo (Pro, billed yearly); $10/mo (Pro, monthly); $24/mo (Max, billed yearly) | unknown: the website shows payment in USD, and there is a separate purchase through the iOS App Store; acceptance of Russian cards is not confirmed (not confirmed) | cloud (own Avalon model; the country of the data center is not publicly disclosed) (not confirmed) |
| 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) |
| Wispr Flow | macOS, Windows, iOS, Android | 2000 words/week on desktop, 1000 words/week on mobile | $15/mo (Pro, monthly payment); $12/mo (Pro, when paid for a year ($144/year)) | there is no standard payment with a Russian card: on Windows/Mac/web payment is only in USD; per earlier data, from Russia it is actually possible to pay through an iOS subscription in the App Store, but the exact amount in rubles is not verified (not confirmed) | cloud (the data center country is not publicly disclosed) (not confirmed) |
Where Potok will not replace Aqua Voice
For those who need dictation from an iPhone, Potok will not do: it has no mobile apps for iOS and Android at all, and there are versions for Windows, macOS and Linux, whereas Aqua Voice has a separate iOS app.
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 you need an offline program, not a cloud service. Aqua Voice will not help with this either, since it works through the cloud itself. A similar look at another service is in the article Molvi voice input, and the general catalog of replacements is in the section Wispr Flow alternative.
The Potok free limit is 2500 words per week, and for those who expect to dictate all working day without stopping it will run out quickly. You will need a paid plan without limits, just as with Aqua Voice after the trial words are used up.
Frequently asked questions
The website does not confirm this: payment is listed only in dollars, and there is no data on accepting Russian cards. There is an option through a subscription in the iOS App Store, but the terms there are separate and are not tied to rubles either.
1000 words on the Avalon model without linking a card. A one-time amount is enough to try it, but not for constant dictation. After that you need one of the paid plans: Pro, Max or Team.
Aqua Voice alternatives. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. Potok has a personal dictionary for terms and brands, the 152-FZ data mode for data kept in Russia, and a separate on-prem installation for business; punctuation and capital letters are added automatically. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For Aqua Voice alternatives you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Aqua Voice alternatives. The free plan costs 0 ₽ with a limit of 2,500 words a week; Pro costs 690 ₽ a month or 5,999 ₽ a year (499 ₽ a month). Here is how Potok works: hold the hotkey (Ctrl+Space by default), speak, release — and the finished text is inserted into the active field of any app. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For Aqua Voice alternatives you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Aqua Voice alternatives. Versions are available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and the default hotkey is Ctrl+Space; there are no mobile versions. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. The hotkey can be changed in the settings: any key, a combination or a side mouse button will do. Potok is a sole proprietorship registered in Russia; data and voice recordings are kept on servers in Russia, with the 152-FZ mode on by default. For Aqua Voice alternatives you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Aqua Voice alternatives. Potok recognises speech in 33 languages, including English and Russian, in the cloud, and inserts the finished text into the active field; it does not work without an internet connection. Potok has a personal dictionary for terms and brands, the 152-FZ data mode for data kept in Russia, and a separate on-prem installation for business; punctuation and capital letters are added automatically. Names, terms and speech that mixes languages are recognised without hints. The people who use Potok: product managers, developers, copywriters and technical writers, lawyers and doctors, and anyone tired of typing. For Aqua Voice alternatives you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Download Potok
Works with a single key in any program. 14 days of full access, then Free with 2500 words per week or Pro at 690 ₽/mo (499 ₽/mo paid yearly). Potok is a cloud service, so it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokA voice message from a messenger or a call recording can be forwarded to the bot @potok_now_bot, and it sends back the text. The bot is part of the same subscription as the Potok app.
Primary sources: aquavoice.com · aquavoice.com · www.crunchbase.com