Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
Diktuy: price and payment from Russia. The service accepts rubles directly, with no workarounds or foreign-currency cards, and offers two paid plans with a discount for paying by the year instead of by the month. 30 minutes of dictation per month are free. Potok (potok.now) is an alternative with payment in rubles and a free limit of 2500 words per week.
Are you ready to pay every month, or would you rather pay the sum for a year at once with a discount? Diktuy has both options: the Profi and Max plans are sold both monthly and as a yearly subscription at a lower price per month. The difference between them is in features, not only in price, and before paying it is worth understanding what exactly you are paying for.
| Service | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Potok | Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed | Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly |
| Diktuy | 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)) |
How to pay from Russia and where the catch is
Payment at Diktuy is simple: rubles are accepted directly, without foreign-currency cards and without workaround schemes through third-party payment systems. The developer is a sole proprietor registered in Russia, not an offshore structure, which for many simplifies the question of closing documents for business.
There are two plans: Profi and Max. Both are sold in two formats, monthly payment and a yearly subscription paid in full in advance; in the second case the price per month is noticeably lower than with monthly payments. The difference between Profi and Max is described in open sources by price, not by a specific list of features of each plan, so before paying for the more expensive plan it is worth asking the service what exactly it adds beyond the basic one.
The catch, if it can be called that, is in the very structure of yearly payment: the sum looks impressive as one payment, even if per month it comes out cheaper than the monthly plan. For those who are not sure they will use the service all year, it is wiser to try monthly payment first or to stay longer on the free plan, and to move to a yearly subscription when the habit has formed.
Diktuy's free plan, 30 minutes of dictation per month, is not a trial period with a limit on time of use but free access with no time limit and a limit on volume. The difference matters: a trial period in many services ends by itself, while Diktuy's free plan can be used as long as you like, just within the limit. A general overview of similar conditions in other services is in the section voice input programs.
| Diktuy | Potok | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Diktuy: Windows, macOS | Potok: Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Free | Diktuy: 30 minutes of dictation per month, free forever | Potok: Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed |
| Price | Diktuy: 239 ₽/mo (Profi (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)); 2870 ₽/yr (Profi (year, billed in full)); 479 ₽/mo (Max (monthly equivalent when billed yearly)) | Potok: Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly |
| Payment from Russia | Diktuy: rubles directly (not confirmed) | Potok: Russian bank cards, rubles |
| Where speech is recognized | Diktuy: cloud (the data center country is not disclosed on the website) (not confirmed) | Potok: cloud; internet required |
| Russian language | Diktuy: stated accuracy of 95–98% on clean Russian speech, support for 50+ languages | Potok: primary language |
| Company | Diktuy: Sole proprietor M. O. Voinsky, INN 784806461759, OGRNIP 326508100099405 | Potok: Sole proprietor, Russia |
Sources: diktuy.ru · diktuy.ru
How much it comes to per year
The exact figures for a year are in the table above and in the service's fact card, not in the text: prices change, and duplicating them here would mean keeping two versions of the same figure, one of which will sooner or later become outdated.
The general principle of yearly payment at Diktuy is the same as in most similar services: the bigger the payment at once, the lower the price per month. The saving is noticeable over a year, not over a couple of months: if you are not sure you will stay with the service that long, monthly payment costs more per month, but it does not require a large sum at once and is easier to cancel without losses.
Comparison with Potok's own free plan, 2500 words per week with no payments at all, and 14 days of full access without a card at the start, gives a third point of reference: before paying for a yearly subscription to any service, it is worth checking whether the free option already covers the task. A similar review of a free limit is in the article molvi voice input.
When the overpayment is justified
Overpaying for a more expensive Diktuy plan is justified if the volume of dictation regularly exceeds the free limit and accuracy on professional terms matters more to you than saving a few hundred rubles per month: for a lawyer or a doctor who dictates documents daily, the difference in time lost on corrections quickly outweighs the difference in price.
Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work without the internet, just like Diktuy. For those who need to work offline, neither of these two options will fit.
The overpayment is not justified for those who dictate rarely and briefly: the free plan, both at Diktuy and at Potok, is more than enough for one-off notes, and a yearly subscription in this case is an expense without real need.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, according to the service's website payment is accepted in rubles directly, without foreign-currency cards and workaround payment schemes.
30 minutes of dictation per month, available with no time limit, not within a limited trial period. For more active dictation you need one of the paid plans, Profi or Max.
Diktuy. 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 Diktuy you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Diktuy. 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 Diktuy you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Diktuy. 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 Diktuy you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Diktuy. 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 Diktuy you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
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, so it does not work without the internet.
Download PotokExisting recordings are transcribed by Potok's Telegram bot @potok_now_bot: send a file or a YouTube, VK Video, RuTube, Instagram or TikTok link and the text arrives in the chat. The Potok subscription removes the limit in the bot too.