Potok turns speech into text in 33 languages, including English and Russian.
You can transcribe audio to text for free, but with a limit: for the Potok bot (potok.now) @potok_now_bot it is 60 minutes per month, for Speech2Text.ru 3 hours on registration, for TurboScribe 3 files per day of up to half an hour each. The catch is usually not money but minutes, file size and recognition language: not all services work equally well with Russian speech.
There are at least seven free ways to transcribe audio to text, from 15 minutes per month at Audio2Text to 300 minutes per month at Otter.ai, only Otter.ai does not recognize Russian speech.
| 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 manual transcription costs
Transcribing audio by hand means listening to the recording, stopping it, rewinding and typing what you heard yourself. This time is not billed in money, but quite a lot of it goes, especially if there are several speakers in the recording and you have to relisten to the same spot several times. Automatic services and bots appeared precisely to hand over a draft text at once, without manual listening: after that it only needs to be proofread, not typed from scratch. Almost every service on this list has a free limit; the question is how many minutes fit into it and in which language it works at all. For example, from the free 60 minutes per month of the Potok bot you can transcribe a couple of short meetings, while Audio2Text's free limit is enough for one short recording.
| Service | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Potok bot and web version | 60 minutes per month | 7 days: 249 ₽, 30 days: 449 ₽, one year: 2 890 ₽; included in the Potok app subscription |
| Transkriptor | 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)) |
| Transkribator (@gotranscribeai_bot) | 3 transcriptions per month | — |
| SaluteSpeech Bot (Sber) | free; voice messages, audio and video notes | — |
| Otter.ai | 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) |
| Kontur.Tolk | not disclosed | — |
| Fireflies.ai | limited storage and AI credits | — |
What to choose for free audio-to-text transcription
For one short recording a month, the free limit of most services is enough: 60 minutes at the Potok bot, 3 hours on registration at Speech2Text.ru or 3 files a day of up to half an hour at TurboScribe. For regular transcription in Russian, when counting on a free limit you should consider not only minutes but also the limit on the length of a single recording: at Notta it is only 3 minutes per file at 120 minutes per month, at Transkriptor on the Russian site 2 minutes a day. If you need Russian specifically, Otter.ai will not fit at all: with 300 free minutes per month it does not recognize it. Voice messages, audio and video notes in Telegram are also accepted for free by SaluteSpeech Bot from Sber, an option next to the Potok bot for the same short recordings. A detailed comparison of transcription services sets them all side by side by price and terms.
When the bot does not fit
The Potok bot will not fit if the recording is not in Russian: it recognizes 100+ languages (the language is detected automatically), and there is no translation into another language. Transcription during a call is not available either: the bot works with an already finished recording and does not join the conversation itself. Why transcribing a meeting is harder than ordinary dictation of one voice is explained in a separate article (in Russian). The bot accepts links to Instagram (Reels and posts with video) and TikTok, as well as YouTube, VK Video and RuTube. And it does not work without the internet: recognition is in the cloud, on the Potok servers in Russia.
Frequently asked questions
Among the services reviewed, no: each has its own free limit, from 15 minutes per month at Audio2Text to 300 minutes per month at Otter.ai (but Otter.ai does not recognize Russian speech). Unlimited plans are paid everywhere.
Free audio-to-text transcription. 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 Free audio-to-text transcription you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Free audio-to-text transcription. 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 Free audio-to-text transcription you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Free audio-to-text transcription. 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 Free audio-to-text transcription you dictate into the same field where you normally type, so there is no need to switch between apps.
Free audio-to-text transcription. 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 Free audio-to-text transcription 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: speech2text.ru · audio-2-text.ru · turboscribe.ai · turboscribe.ai
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.