You can charge for a Telegram channel in two ways: Telegram's own Star subscriptions, paid monthly in Telegram Stars, or a bot that lets members in after they pay by card on a web page. Telegram requires Stars for anything digital sold inside the app, so card payments always happen outside Telegram.
Telegram has paid channels built in. You create an invite link that requires a monthly fee in Stars, and Telegram handles the payment: the member pays when they join and again every 30 days to stay in the channel.
So the most a member can pay you through a Star subscription works out to about $130 a month (10,000 × $0.013), paid out in crypto three weeks later.
Good for: small monthly prices, broadcast channels, sellers who want zero setup and are fine with Toncoin.
The other way is a payment page outside Telegram and a bot that runs the door. The member pays by card on the web, gets an invite link, and the bot approves them. When the subscription ends, the bot removes them.
What the bot needs:
Telegram requires Stars for digital goods and services sold through bots and mini apps. Card payments through other providers aren't allowed there, and Telegram has suspended bots that kept taking them after a warning. It also asks that anything you sell on your own website can be bought with Stars inside the bot too.
In practice, card-paying bots keep the card checkout on their own web page and show only Stars inside Telegram. InviteMember, for example, has an "Only Stars in bot" setting for this.
Good for: higher prices, payment in your own currency, groups as well as channels, sellers who already take card payments.
| Star subscriptions | Bot + web checkout | |
|---|---|---|
| Works in | Channels | Channels and groups |
| Member pays with | Stars (bought through Apple/Google) | Card, on a web page |
| You're paid in | Toncoin, via Fragment | Your own currency, to your bank |
| Price | Up to 10,000 Stars a month | Whatever you set |
| Billing period | 30 days | Whatever you set |
| Setup | An invite link | A bot, a checkout, and the door logic |
| Inside Telegram | The whole purchase | Stars only, by Telegram's rule |
Telegram's rule is about selling inside Telegram. On Discord, flatpass sells access to your server's roles with card payments on your own Stripe account. Members pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, the bot gives the role, and it takes the role back when they stop paying.
flatpass works only with Discord today.
Price: free up to 15 paid members, then a flat monthly fee from $29, and 0% of your sales. Stripe's card fee is the same either way.
If you'd use flatpass for a Telegram channel or group, leave your email and we'll write once if it adds Telegram.
Not with Star subscriptions, which are for channels. A bot that approves join requests works for groups.
For physical goods, yes. For digital goods and services, like access to a channel, Telegram requires Stars inside the app. Card payments have to happen on a web page outside Telegram.
Telegram's creator terms value a Star at $0.013 when you withdraw, through Fragment in Toncoin, 21 days after you earned it.
A Telegram channel is a one-way feed, which suits signals and alerts. A Discord server has channels, roles, voice and threads, which suits courses and communities where members talk to each other. Many trading sellers run a free group on one and the paid community on the other.