Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
WhisperU is a paid voice input program for Windows with a 7-day free trial without a card. After that there are three payment schemes: a monthly subscription, an annual license and a lifetime purchase, and the exact amounts are in the table on the page. You can pay directly in rubles through YooKassa, without a foreign card. Potok (potok.now) is a cloud alternative with payment by a Russian card and 14 days of full access for free.
WhisperU is a paid voice input program for Windows, and the question of price comes up right after installation: the trial period is short, just a week. After that the developer offers a choice of three payment schemes, and the final overpayment for a year often depends on this choice.
| 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 |
| WhispeRu | 7-day free trial (no card) | 290 ₽/mo (monthly license); 1990 ₽/yr (yearly license); 4990 ₽/one-time (lifetime license) |
How to pay from Russia and where the catch is
WhisperU is sold in three ways: a monthly subscription, an annual license and a one-time purchase of a lifetime license, with the exact amounts in the table above. All three options open the same functionality; only the term and the amount you can save with long-term use differ. Payment goes directly in rubles through the YooKassa payment service: a Russian bank card goes through without problems, and no tricks with foreign cards or intermediaries are required. This sets WhisperU apart from many foreign voice input programs, where payment is tied to a foreign payment system and a Russian card simply does not work.
Before buying, a seven-day free trial is available, and you do not need to enter a card to activate it: you can check the program on your own tasks and decide which of the three payment schemes is more profitable for your case.
The catch here is not in the currency or the payment method but in the legal entity on the other side: the seller is a self-employed person, not a company. For a private user this makes no difference, but if payment has to be made from a legal entity and closing documents obtained for accounting, it is worth clarifying this before paying, not after: with a self-employed person the same document flow as with an LLC is not always possible.
| WhispeRu | Potok | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | WhispeRu: Windows | Potok: Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Free | WhispeRu: 7-day free trial (no card) | Potok: Free: 2500 words per week; full access for the first 14 days, no card needed |
| Price | WhispeRu: 290 ₽/mo (monthly license); 1990 ₽/yr (yearly license); 4990 ₽/one-time (lifetime license) | Potok: Pro 690 ₽/mo, 499 ₽/mo when paid yearly |
| Payment from Russia | WhispeRu: rubles directly (payment via YooKassa) | Potok: Russian bank cards, rubles |
| Where speech is recognized | WhispeRu: device (offline) | Potok: cloud; internet required |
| Russian language | WhispeRu: not disclosed | Potok: primary language |
| Company | WhispeRu: Nikita Aleksandrovich Okulov, self-employed, INN 591606057897 | Potok: Sole proprietor, Russia |
Sources: whispe.ru · whispe.ru · whispe.ru
How much it comes to per year
If you pay WhisperU monthly, over a year the sum grows noticeably larger than the price of the annual license: multiplying the monthly payment by twelve months always comes out more expensive than buying a license for the year at once. The monthly scheme is therefore convenient if you need the program for a couple of months rather than permanently, and the overpayment in that case is not critical.
The lifetime license pays off compared with the annual license over several years of use: the sum of annual payments over such a period already exceeds the one-time price. For those who plan to use WhisperU for longer than a couple of years, the one-time purchase is more profitable than both subscriptions and removes the question of renewal altogether. The difference between the payment schemes in this sense is not about convenience but about economics: the longer the horizon of use, the more profitable it is to move from a subscription to a one-time purchase. The features of WhisperU are covered in more detail in the comparison of WhisperU and Potok.
When the overpayment for Potok is justified
WhisperU recognizes speech right on the device, offline, and costs noticeably less than most paid alternatives: for basic dictation on one Windows computer this is enough, and there is no point in paying extra for Potok. Potok is a cloud service, recognition runs on servers in Russia, and it does not work at all without an internet connection. So where the network is unstable or unavailable, WhisperU keeps recognizing speech and Potok does not.
The overpayment is justified if you need a personal dictionary for your terms and names, voice snippets or work on macOS: WhisperU exists only for Windows. Other options are collected in the section voice input programs.
Frequently asked questions
WhisperU has three payment schemes: a monthly subscription, an annual license and a one-time lifetime purchase, with the exact amounts in the price table on the page. With long use the monthly subscription costs more than the annual license.
Yes. Payment goes directly in rubles through the YooKassa payment service, and a Russian bank card is accepted without restrictions and without intermediaries.
WhisperU. 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 WhisperU you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
WhisperU. 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 WhisperU you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
WhisperU. 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 WhisperU you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
WhisperU. 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 WhisperU you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
How to start
Potok is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. For two weeks everything is open for free, after that 2500 words per week without paying. 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.