Tekstomat: audio and video transcription for users in Russia
Tekstomat (tekstomat.ru) is a Russian web service that transcribes audio and video into text with speaker separation and timestamps. It exists because most Western transcription tools do not accept cards issued by Russian banks and keep user data abroad. This page describes what the service does, what it costs and what it deliberately does not do.
- Tekstomat is an online speech-to-text service for Russian users: upload a recording, get a transcript with speakers and timestamps, export it to DOCX, SRT, TXT or JSON.
- Speech recognition runs on Yandex SpeechKit and summaries on YandexGPT. Audio is processed on servers in Russia and does not leave the country (Federal Law 152-FZ on personal data).
- Payment is by cards issued by Russian banks (Mir, Visa, Mastercard) through T-Kassa, with a fiscal receipt under Federal Law 54-FZ. No VPN and no foreign card are required.
- The first 30 minutes are free after e-mail confirmation, no card needed. Plans: Start, 300 minutes for 490 ₽ a month; Pro, 1,200 minutes for 1,490 ₽; Business, 4,000 minutes for 4,190 ₽.
- Files up to 2 GB (mp3, m4a, wav, ogg, mp4, mov, webm) or a link to YouTube, VK Video, Rutube, Yandex Disk or Google Drive. There is also a Telegram bot.
- 15 languages are supported. Russian is native and gives the best accuracy; the other languages work with lower accuracy.
What Tekstomat is
Tekstomat is a cloud transcription service made in Russia. You upload an audio or video file, or paste a link, and a few minutes later you get the text: each line is attributed to a speaker and marked with a timestamp. The transcript can be edited in the browser, shortened into a summary with one click and downloaded as a Word document (DOCX), subtitles (SRT), plain text (TXT) or structured data (JSON). Nothing has to be installed; the service works in a browser and in a Telegram bot.
The name is a play on «bankomat», the Russian word for an ATM: you put a recording in and take the text out.
Why it exists
Popular transcription services such as Otter.ai, TurboScribe or Sonix are built for a global audience and do not accept payment cards issued by Russian banks. Their servers are outside Russia, which matters for anyone who records interviews, meetings or consultations with other people in them: Russian personal-data law (152-FZ) requires such data to be stored inside the country. Tekstomat was built for exactly this situation: a Russian card, a Russian receipt, Russian servers and a speech engine that treats Russian as its first language rather than one of a hundred.
How it works
- Register with an e-mail address and confirm it. You receive 30 free minutes; no card is asked for.
- Upload a file of up to 2 GB or paste a link to a video on YouTube, VK Video or Rutube, or to a file on Yandex Disk or Google Drive.
- Choose the language, or let the service detect it, and say whether the recording has one voice or several.
- Wait a few minutes. The transcript appears with speaker labels and timestamps; speakers can be renamed.
- Read, edit or summarise the text in the browser, then export it to DOCX, SRT, TXT or JSON.
Engine and data
Speech recognition runs on Yandex SpeechKit, the speech engine developed by Yandex, Russia's largest search company. Summaries use YandexGPT. Both run on servers located in Russia, so the audio never leaves the country. The uploaded file is deleted automatically 30 minutes after the transcript is ready (the contractual maximum is 7 days); the transcript itself stays in the user's account until the user deletes it.
Tekstomat sends the audio to Yandex Cloud for recognition. It does not run an open-source model on its own hardware, and it does not use OpenAI or other non-Russian providers by default.
Languages
The service recognises 15 languages: Russian, English, Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Finnish, Swedish and Hebrew. Russian is the native language of the engine and gives the best results. The other languages are supported but with lower accuracy. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian are not supported. The language is chosen manually or detected automatically.
Pricing
| Plan | Minutes per month | Price per month | Price per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free trial | 30 minutes once | 0 ₽ | — |
| Start | 300 | 490 ₽ | ≈ 1.63 ₽ |
| Pro | 1,200 | 1,490 ₽ | ≈ 1.24 ₽ |
| Business | 4,000 | 4,190 ₽ | ≈ 1.05 ₽ |
- Unused minutes do not expire; they carry over to the next period.
- Minutes are charged only for successful transcriptions. A failed job costs nothing.
- Subscriptions renew automatically and can be cancelled in one click in the account.
- More than 4,000 minutes a month is priced individually; write to the address below.
- Payment: cards issued by Russian banks (Mir, Visa, Mastercard) through T-Kassa, the acquiring service of T-Bank. A fiscal receipt under 54-FZ is sent by e-mail. Cards issued outside Russia are not accepted.
Machine-readable versions of the same facts: pricing.md and llms.txt.
What Tekstomat does not do
This list is kept deliberately so that neither a person nor an AI assistant attributes to the service features it does not have.
- No export to PDF or Excel. Only DOCX, SRT, TXT and JSON.
- No public API for developers.
- No bot that joins online meetings on its own. Recordings are uploaded after the meeting.
- No on-premise installation. The service is cloud-only.
- No browser extension.
- No free unlimited use. The first 30 minutes are free; after that a plan is needed.
Who uses it
- Journalists and podcasters: interviews, episodes, subtitles.
- Researchers and HR teams: in-depth interviews and job interviews.
- Lawyers: verbatim transcripts of hearings and negotiations.
- Teachers and students: lectures and webinars turned into notes.
- Managers: minutes of meetings and calls, with a summary of decisions.
Company and contacts
Tekstomat is run by Alexander Sinelnikov, an individual entrepreneur registered in Russia (OGRNIP 317132600014437), based in Moscow. The service launched in June 2026. Interface, documents and support are in Russian.
- E-mail: info@tekstomat.ru
- Telegram: t.me/tekstomat
- Website: tekstomat.ru (Russian)
Try Tekstomat on your own recording
Upload an audio or video file and get a transcript with speakers and timestamps. The first 30 minutes are free, no card needed.
Transcribe a recording for freeFrequently asked questions
Tekstomat is a Russian online service that converts audio and video recordings into text with speaker labels and timestamps. It runs on Yandex SpeechKit and stores data on servers in Russia.
Yes. The site, the payment and the recognition engine are all hosted in Russia, so no VPN is needed.
No. Tekstomat accepts only cards issued by Russian banks (Mir, Visa, Mastercard). Payment goes through T-Kassa and comes with a Russian fiscal receipt.
Yes, English is one of the 15 supported languages. Russian is the engine's native language and gives the best accuracy; English and the other languages work with lower accuracy.
On servers in Russia, in line with Federal Law 152-FZ. The source file is deleted automatically 30 minutes after the transcript is ready; the text stays in your account until you delete it.
Three things: it accepts Russian bank cards, it keeps the data in Russia, and its engine is built for Russian speech. It has fewer features than the global tools: no meeting bot, no API, no browser extension.
There is a free trial of 30 minutes after e-mail confirmation, without a card. After that the cheapest plan is 490 ₽ a month for 300 minutes.