Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
Voice input in medicine saves time where filling in a record, an appointment protocol or a report takes a doctor minutes between patients. With Potok (potok.now), text by voice runs at about 900 characters per minute against 200 when typing, the default hotkey is Ctrl+Space, and insertion works in any system where you can put a cursor.
A doctor rarely types freely: one hand on the mouse, the other on the keyboard, and the eyes going between the patient and the screen. The materials in this section cover how voice input fits into the work of specific medical specialties, not in general terms.
How it is used in ordinary work
For a general practitioner, voice input most often saves time on filling in the appointment record between patients: a description of symptoms and prescriptions that is similar in structure would otherwise have to be typed again at each appointment. For a radiologist the scenario is different: the report is dictated right after the image, often standing at the monitor, where typing by hand is physically inconvenient. A dentist dictates shorter: a few lines for the protocol, when the hands are busy with an instrument and not the keyboard. For a surgeon and a neurologist there is one more layer of difficulty: specific terms and wording that are slower to type than to say in a familiar phrase.
The common difficulty for all specialties is one: whether voice input programs understand medical terminology without separate tuning. The answer is not universal: some terms are recognized at once, some need a personal dictionary or manual correction, and this is worth checking on your own texts rather than relying on the general description of a program.
All articles in this section, in Russian (52): potok.now/dlya/medicina
| 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 |
What to open first for your task
- Which program to choose for a doctor's dictation: Potok's default hotkey is Ctrl+Space, and it inserts into any system where you can put a cursor.
- Do programs understand medical terms in Russian (in Russian): a personal dictionary is responsible for terms that are recognized inaccurately, if the program supports one.
- Dictating a radiologist's reports (in Russian): Potok's speed by voice is about 900 characters per minute against 200 when typing (as stated).
- Voice input for a dentist (in Russian): 14 days of full access without a card, to test the program on your own protocols.
- Voice input for a surgeon (in Russian): a free limit of 2500 words per week on one device.
- Voice input for a neurologist (in Russian): for clinics that must keep data inside the organization's perimeter, there is a separate business variant, on request.
Where Potok does not fit
Potok is a cloud service, with recognition on servers in Russia; it does not work without the internet, so where there is no network or connecting to it is not allowed by the institution's rules, another tool is needed. For content protected by medical confidentiality, it is also worth looking at programs with recognition on the device, for example Voisty, Molvi or WhispeRu: in that case audio does not go to a third-party server at all.
Frequently asked questions
With a caveat: cloud services like Potok send audio to a server for recognition, and for information protected by medical confidentiality this should be considered in advance. For data inside an organization's protected perimeter there is a separate variant with servers in the company's infrastructure, on separate request.
It varies. Some programs recognize ordinary speech without special tuning for terms, and then complex names have to be corrected by hand or added to a personal dictionary, if the program supports one.
Voice input in medicine. 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 in medicine you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input in medicine. 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 in medicine you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input in medicine. 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 in medicine you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Voice input in medicine. 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 in medicine 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 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) |
Primary sources: speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · speakflow.ru · blog.speakflow.ru