Question 1

Does Telegram take a commission on Stars earned by my channel?

Accepted Answer

No commission on Stars earned via sendPaidMedia or gifts to the channel — you keep 100%. The minimum withdrawal threshold is 500 Stars and you withdraw to TON. Telegram does take a cut on the App Store/Google Play side when users buy Stars, but that is invisible to you as a creator.

Question 2

Do I need 1,000 subscribers to monetize with Stars?

Accepted Answer

No. The 1,000-subscriber minimum applies to Telegram's official ads program. There is no subscriber minimum for Stars monetization — a 50-subscriber expert channel can charge for paid media on day one.

Question 3

What is the maximum I can charge for one paid post?

Accepted Answer

10,000 Stars per sendPaidMedia call as of Bot API 9.0 (May 2025); raised to 25,000 Stars later in 2026 for some chat types. At ~$0.013 per Star, 10,000 Stars is roughly a $130 paywall — enough to gate a real digital product.

Question 4

Can I charge subscribers a recurring monthly fee in Stars?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but not through sendPaidMedia. Use Star Subscriptions: call createInvoiceLink with the subscription_period parameter (Bot API 8.0). Subscribers pay a fixed monthly Stars amount; you can edit the subscription with editUserStarSubscription.

Question 5

How are paid messages different from paid media?

Accepted Answer

sendPaidMedia is one paywalled post for many subscribers. Paid messages charge a per-message Stars price for messages sent into a specific chat — useful when a bot fronts a 1:1 access channel (coaching, support). The paid_message_price_changed update is the bot's notification that the chat's price changed; you do not set the price through it.

Question 6

Does `sendGift` cost the bot money?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Gifts are paid in Stars from the bot's wallet at send time. getAvailableGifts returns the current catalog with each gift's star_count. Always check the balance and apply a daily-spend cap before calling sendGift from a webhook handler.