How Can I Make a Paid Telegram Channel?
Telegram has built paid channel access into the app itself. No bot, no outside payment page: an invite link with a monthly price in Stars. Here is how it works, and what it means for the subscriber count.
How can I make a paid Telegram channel? Open the channel's settings, go to Channel Type, then Manage Invite Links, create a new link and switch on Require Monthly Fee. Set a price in Telegram Stars and share the link; anyone joining through it pays that amount monthly to keep access. No third-party bot is needed.
Telegram introduced these Star subscriptions in August 2024. Payment happens in Stars, Telegram's in-app currency, which members buy inside Telegram. The Stars you earn collect in the channel's balance, and Telegram lets channel owners convert them into Toncoin rewards or spend them on Telegram ads. As of September 2026, subscriptions run in one-month periods and renew automatically.
Before Star subscriptions, a paid Telegram channel meant a private channel plus a separate bot or website that took payment and handed out invite links, then removed people who stopped paying. It worked, but it sat outside Telegram, and every member had to trust a third party with their payment.
The native version moves all of it into the invite link. The link itself carries the price. A person who opens it sees what it costs per month, pays in Stars and joins. Telegram's developer documentation describes the subscription period as one month, renewed automatically by debiting the member's Stars balance. It also gives admins the tools to see when each member's current period ends and to list every member whose subscription has expired.
That last point is what changes how you read the channel's numbers. A free channel's subscriber count only rises and falls with joins and leaves. A paid channel's count also moves with renewals: members whose subscription lapses stop being paying members. So the count on a paid channel is closer to a count of people currently paying than to a running total of everyone who was ever interested. On a free public channel, by contrast, the count is the first thing a newcomer reads, which is where Telegram subscribers come in.
What are Telegram Stars?
Telegram Stars are Telegram's in-app currency. Users buy them inside the Telegram app and spend them on digital goods and services: channel subscriptions, paid posts, reactions and purchases in bots and mini apps. For a channel owner, Stars are the unit everything is priced in, and the channel's Stars balance is where subscription income collects before you convert or spend it.
How to create a paid Telegram channel
These steps follow Telegram's own instructions, current as of September 2026. The channel should be private, since a public channel can be joined for free through its username.
- Create a channel, or open one you own, and make sure its type is Private.
- Open Channel Settings and tap Channel Type.
- Tap Manage Invite Links, then Create a New Link.
- Switch on Require Monthly Fee.
- Enter the monthly price in Stars. Telegram caps how high the monthly price can go.
- Save the link and share it wherever your audience is: your other channels, social profiles, website or a public teaser channel.
- Watch the Stars balance and member list in the channel's settings as people join and renew.
How to set up a paid Telegram channel alongside a free one
Many creators run two channels: a public one that anyone can find, with previews and announcements, and a private one behind the paid link. The public channel is where new people discover you; the private one is what they pay for. Telegram group vs channel is worth reading first if you're deciding whether the paid space should be a channel, where only admins post, or a group, where members talk.
What happens when a Telegram subscription renews or expires?
Each month, Telegram renews the subscription automatically by taking the price from the member's Stars balance. If a member leaves the channel during a period they've already paid for, Telegram lets them rejoin with the existing subscription without paying again.
If the member cancels, or doesn't have the Stars to renew, the subscription expires at the end of the paid period. Admins can see each member's subscription end date and filter for everyone whose subscription has expired. For a creator, that means the paid channel's member count is a live measure: it tells you who is still paying, and the first renewal cycles tell you more about the channel's future than the first week of joins.
Can you change the price later?
The price belongs to the invite link. To offer a different price, create a new paid link. Keeping one link per offer also lets you see which of your promotion channels brought paying members, because each invite link shows who joined through it.
Do you get paid for a Telegram channel?
Telegram offers channel owners several ways to earn inside the app, as of September 2026:
- Star subscriptions: the monthly paid access described above.
- Paid posts: channels can publish photos and videos that members unlock with Stars, on a paid or free channel.
- Star reactions: members can send Stars as reactions to posts, and Telegram says creators receive all of those Stars.
- Ad revenue sharing: Telegram announced in March 2024 that owners of public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers receive 50% of the revenue from Telegram ads shown in their channels, paid in Toncoin.
How do you withdraw earnings from Telegram?
Telegram describes two uses for Stars you earn: converting them into Toncoin rewards, which is done through Fragment, and spending them on Telegram ads to promote the channel, which Telegram has offered at a discount. Ad revenue share is paid in Toncoin directly. Because Toncoin is a cryptocurrency, the value of what you withdraw moves with its market price; check the current terms in your channel's monetization settings before you plan around a figure.
How to price and grow a paid Telegram channel
Price for the value a member gets each month, not for the size of the channel. The channels that keep paying members are the ones that deliver something specific on a schedule: analysis every morning, early access, lessons, a community of peers. Tell people exactly what they get before they pay, in the public channel or the link's description.
Growth works in two stages. The free public channel has to be found, which is where Telegram's search and outside promotion come in; how to find Telegram channels explains how people actually discover them. Then a share of those readers converts to the paid link. Both stages depend on the public channel looking alive, and the subscriber count and view counts on posts are what a newcomer reads first.
That first impression is what Telegram subscribers change on the public channel, and what Telegram post views change on each post. Be clear about the limits: they change the numbers a newcomer sees on the free channel; they don't pay for the paid link, don't renew anything and don't read your posts. Keep them off the paid channel entirely, where the member count should reflect people who pay.
Who can see a paid Telegram channel?
Only its members. As a private channel, its posts aren't visible to people outside it, and it doesn't appear in search. Members' identities are visible to admins, as in any channel, but not to other members. Who can see Telegram channels you joined covers the privacy side in detail, which is worth knowing if your subscribers care about discretion.
For everything Telegram on this site, see the Telegram hub. For the public channel's visible count, see Telegram subscribers.
Can members forward or save paid posts?
By default, yes. Telegram's channel settings include an option to restrict saving content, which stops members from forwarding posts and saving media from the channel. It's worth switching on for a paid channel, since otherwise any member can pass a post to people who haven't paid. It can't stop someone from photographing the screen with another device.
Questions people ask about paid Telegram channels
How do I create a paid Telegram channel?
In your channel's settings, open Channel Type, then Manage Invite Links, create a new link and switch on Require Monthly Fee. Set the price in Stars and share the link.
Do I need a bot to run a paid Telegram channel?
No. Since August 2024 Telegram supports paid subscriptions natively through invite links priced in Stars. Bots are only needed if you want features the native system doesn't offer.
How do Telegram channel subscriptions renew?
Automatically every month, by taking the price from the member's Stars balance. If the member cancels or lacks Stars, the subscription expires at the end of the paid period.
Do you get paid for having a Telegram channel?
You can earn from Star subscriptions, paid posts and Star reactions. Telegram also shares 50% of ad revenue with public channels that have at least 1,000 subscribers, paid in Toncoin.
How do I withdraw Telegram Stars?
Telegram lets creators convert earned Stars into Toncoin rewards through Fragment, or spend them on Telegram ads. Toncoin's value moves with its market price.
Should a paid Telegram channel be public or private?
Private. A public channel can be joined for free through its username, so the paid invite link only controls access to a private channel.
Keep reading
- Telegram subscribers — The count a newcomer reads on your free public channel is what Telegram subscribers change; the paid channel's count should stay paying members.
- Telegram group vs channel — Which format the paid space should be before you set a price.
- How to find Telegram channels — How people discover the free channel that feeds the paid one.