Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
The deducted minutes are returned: if recognition or speaker labeling did not work in the bot, the minutes for that recording come back. The free limit of the Potok bot @potok_now_bot is 60 minutes per month. Sending several files at once does not get around the limit: the deduction is made as a single transaction. The count is kept only on the free plan.
A transcription uses up the bot's limit in minutes, so the logical question is what happens to those minutes when something goes wrong. There is an answer for a recognition failure and for a speaker labeling failure.
Are minutes deducted if a transcription in the bot fails
When recognition fails and when speaker labeling fails, the deducted minutes are returned. The limit at @potok_now_bot is counted in minutes of recording: 60 minutes free every month, the count refreshes on the first of the month in Moscow, and it is counted only on the free plan — a subscription removes the limit. Speaker labeling can be turned on on request, and its failure also returns the minutes. Timecodes in the form [mm:ss] can be turned on too. A short recording comes as text in the chat, a long one as a file, and all transcripts stay in "My recordings" and can be opened again. Answers to other questions about voice input are collected in a separate section of the site.
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Speech2Text.ru | Web | 3 hours on sign-up | — | not disclosed | not disclosed |
| Video summary in Yandex Browser | Yandex Browser | free | — | not disclosed | Yandex cloud |
| SaluteSpeech Bot (Sber) | Telegram | free; voice messages, audio and video notes | — | not disclosed | SaluteSpeech cloud (Sber) |
| Telegram voice message transcription | Telegram | without Premium, a few transcriptions per week; with Premium, no limit on their number | — | not disclosed | Telegram servers |
| KolerskyAI Whisper Bot | Telegram | the first 5 minutes | 69 ₽/15 minutes; 149 ₽/50 minutes; 490 ₽/200 minutes | rubles | not disclosed |
| Kontur.Tolk | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | not disclosed | — | rubles | servers in Russia |
| TurboScribe | Web | 3 files a day, each up to 30 minutes | $20/mo (Unlimited, 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 |
What happens to the limit if you send several files at once
Several files sent at the same time do not get around the limit: the deduction is made as a single transaction. The bot transcribes 60 minutes per month for free, and this count runs on the free plan only. When the limit is used up, the file is not downloaded, and the bot shows a limit screen with payment buttons: a subscription removes the limit, and how to arrange it is described on the page how to pay for a transcript in the bot (in Russian). A subscription removes the limit both in the bot and in the dictation app. The bot recognizes 100+ languages (the language is detected automatically), and there is no translation. A more general breakdown is on the page about free audio-to-text transcription.
Where Potok is not the answer to this question
Returning minutes applies to the bot, not to the dictation app. In the Potok app itself for Windows, macOS and Linux, the free plan is counted differently: 2500 words per week on one device. The subscription is shared between the app and the bot and removes the limit in both. Potok has no apps for Android and iPhone, no voice commands and no offline mode: recognition is cloud-based, runs on servers in Russia, and Potok does not work without the internet.
Frequently asked questions
No. Parallel files do not get around the limit: the minutes are deducted in a single transaction. The bot transcribes 60 minutes per month for free, and the limit refreshes on the first of the month.
Yes. A refund happens both when recognition fails and when speaker labeling fails: the deducted minutes are returned.
By calendar month in Moscow: 60 minutes of recording for free, the limit refreshes on the first of the month. The count runs on the free plan only — a subscription removes the limit.
The file is not downloaded, and the bot shows a limit screen with payment buttons. A subscription removes the limit — the details are in the answer about paying for a transcript in the bot (in Russian).
Are minutes deducted if a transcription in the bot fails. 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 Are minutes deducted if a transcription in the bot fails you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Are minutes deducted if a transcription in the bot fails. 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 Are minutes deducted if a transcription in the bot fails you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Try it on your own recording
Potok's Telegram bot transcribes a voice message, video note, audio or video, and its buttons make a summary and a task list. 60 minutes per month for free.
Open @potok_now_bot in TelegramPrimary sources: support.microsoft.com · support.apple.com
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, RuTube, Instagram or TikTok 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 100+ languages (the language is detected automatically); 60 minutes per month are free.