Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
Voice input errors in Windows are most often connected with microphone access, the language pack or the system version: Russian works in Win+H only in Windows 11, and Windows 10 has none at all. The causes and fixes for specific errors are analyzed on this page. Potok (potok.now) is a separate app with its own recognition model, and these Windows limits do not affect it.
Voice input in Windows fails at the most inconvenient moment: sometimes it does not see the microphone, sometimes it recognizes in English instead of Russian, and sometimes it disappears altogether after an update or after waking from sleep mode. Some of the problems are in the system settings and access rights, and some are in the function itself: the built-in Windows tools have versions and languages that work and ones that do not work at all.
Where voice input errors in Windows come from
The first common cause is microphone access: Windows allows or blocks it separately for each app, and after a system update this permission is sometimes reset. The second is the system version and the language pack: Win+H has Russian only in Windows 11, while Voice Access is built for controlling the computer by voice and does not support Russian at all. The third is the network: Win+H recognizes speech in the Microsoft cloud and does not work without an internet connection, so the error may be not in the program but in the connection. The fourth cause is a conflict of several voice tools at once: if two or three ways of recognition are on together, they start taking the microphone from each other.
- What Windows Speech Recognition is and where it went in new versions
- Voice input does not work in a virtual machine
- Voice input in Word on Win+H does not work
- How to add Russian speech recognition in Windows 10 Home
- Why dictation in Russian is unavailable in Windows 10
All articles in this section, in Russian (51): potok.now/oshibki/windows
When the program is not the reason
Not all errors are solved by replacing the program. If Windows does not see the microphone at all at the driver or device manager level, neither Win+H nor a third-party program, including Potok, will help; first you need to fix the microphone itself in the system. Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without an internet connection: if the cause of the error is exactly the network, switching to another program with cloud recognition will not solve the problem either.
Analyses of individual errors
- What Windows Speech Recognition is and where it went in new versions: the modern replacement, Win+H, works in Russian only in Windows 11.
- Dictation in Office: the “Dictate” button is unavailable or missing (in Russian): Potok inserts text into any active field, including Word, bypassing the Office function itself.
- Dictation in Office (web): “we don't have access to your microphone” (in Russian): a similar network and permission dependence exists for Win+H, which also recognizes in the cloud.
- Dictation in Office: “we can't detect your microphone” (in Russian): what this Office message means and what to check.
- Voice Access dictation recognizes words poorly despite the setup (in Russian): Voice Access is made for controlling the computer by voice, not for dictating text, and it has no Russian.
- Voice Access and another voice tool (Dragon, WSR) conflict when running at the same time (in Russian): Potok starts as one separate app, without running in parallel with other voice tools.
Frequently asked questions
Russian works in Win+H only in Windows 11: Windows 10 has no such support at all, and this is a limit of the system itself, not of a separate app. In Windows 10 you need a third-party program for voice input in Russian.
Yes: if several speech recognition programs are active at the same time, for example Voice Access and a third-party app such as Dragon, they may take the microphone from each other. It is worth keeping only one tool turned on at a time.
Voice input errors. 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 Voice input errors you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input errors. 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 Voice input errors you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input errors. 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 Voice input errors you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input errors. 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 Voice input errors you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Try it on your own texts
Download Potok for Windows, macOS or Linux: full access for the first 14 days, no card needed. After that, 2500 words per week for free or Pro for 690 ₽ per month. Potok is a cloud service, so it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokYou dictate in the app, and recordings and voice messages are transcribed by @potok_now_bot in Telegram. 60 minutes per month are free; the Potok subscription removes the limit in the bot and in the app.
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 |
| 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) |
| Diktuy | Windows, macOS | 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | 239 ₽/mo (Profi (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)); 2870 ₽/yr (Profi (year, billed in full)); 479 ₽/mo (Max (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)) | rubles directly (not confirmed) | cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) |
| Talkpad | macOS, Windows, Android | 2500 words/week on desktop, 1500 words/week on mobile, free forever; plus a 14-day Pro trial | $6/mo (Pro (billed yearly, $72/yr)); $8/mo (Pro (monthly billing)) | unknown (not confirmed) | cloud (the legal entity is registered in Australia; the website is hosted on Cloudflare; the exact location of the ASR servers is not disclosed in the privacy policy) (not confirmed) |
| Voisty | Windows, macOS | 5 minutes of transcription (to judge the quality) | $6.7/mo (Pro); $67/yr (Pro (year)); $99/one-time (Lifetime) | Visa/Mastercard/Amex cards, PayPal; whether Russian cards are accepted is not stated (not confirmed) | device (offline, local models such as Whisper Large V3 Turbo / NVIDIA Parakeet) |
| WhispeRu | Windows | 7-day free trial (no card) | 290 ₽/mo (monthly license); 1990 ₽/yr (yearly license); 4990 ₽/one-time (lifetime license) | rubles directly (payment via YooKassa) | device (offline) |
| 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) |
| 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) |
Built-in dictation and Potok
| Tool | Where it works | Russian language | Where speech is recognized |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows voice typing (Win+H) | Windows 10 and 11 | Windows 11 only | Microsoft cloud, does not work offline |
| Potok | Windows, macOS, Linux | primary language | cloud, servers in Russia, does not work offline |
Primary sources: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru · support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com