Telegram Stars explained for bot owners

What Telegram Stars are

Telegram Stars are a currency that lives inside Telegram. Users buy Stars, keep them in their account, and spend them in bots and Mini Apps (small web apps that open inside Telegram). In the Bot API, Stars have the currency code XTR, which is what developers see when they create an invoice.

For a user, paying with Stars feels like an in-app purchase. The bot sends an invoice, the user taps Pay, confirms, and the Stars move from their balance to your bot. They don't type a card number into your bot, and you never see their payment details.

For you, Stars mean a single payment system that works the same way for every user, in every country where they can buy Stars. You don't need to sign up with a payment company or build a checkout page.

Why digital goods must use Stars

Telegram requires bots and Mini Apps to use Stars when they sell digital goods and services inside Telegram. "Digital" covers most of what a bot can sell:

• Files: e-books, templates, presets, sticker or wallpaper packs
• Access: private content, a members-only section, a course
• Features: extra uses of a tool, longer AI answers, removing a daily limit
• Subscriptions to any of the above

The short answer to "why" is that it's Telegram's rule. The upside for you is a single checkout that every user already has: Stars are bought through the same app store account people use for everything else on their phone, so you don't have to persuade anyone to type a card number into a bot they met five minutes ago.

If you sell something that isn't digital, like a haircut or a parcel of coffee, different payment rules may apply. Check Telegram's current payment rules for your case before you start taking money.

How users get Stars

Users buy Stars in two ways:

• Inside the Telegram app, through Apple or Google in-app purchase, using whatever payment method is saved in their app store account.
• Through @PremiumBot, Telegram's official bot for Premium and Stars.

Many users have never bought Stars before, so the first purchase is a moment where people drop off. Help them through it:

1. Say the price in Stars before the invoice appears, so it isn't a surprise.
2. Explain in one line that Stars are Telegram's own currency and are bought in the app.
3. Make the first purchase small. Once someone has bought Stars, the next purchase is one tap.

Setting a price in Stars

You choose the price of each product, in whole Stars. There's no perfect formula, but a few things help:

• Compare with what users already pay for. If people can get something similar elsewhere for free, your price has to be justified by convenience or quality.
• Offer one cheap entry option. A small pack or a single lesson lets people test you before they commit.
• Change one thing at a time. If you raise a price, leave everything else the same for a while, so you can see what the change did in your statistics.

Keep the free part of the bot genuinely useful. People pay for more of something they already like, not to find out whether a bot works at all.

What bot owners can do with Stars

The Stars your bot collects build up in its balance. You have two main options:

Spending Stars on ads is a natural loop for a growing bot: sales pay for promotion, which brings more users, some of whom buy. Very large bots can also spend Stars on paid broadcasts, which raise the sending limit from about 30 to 1,000 messages per second at 0.1 Stars per message above the free rate. That option needs at least 100,000 monthly active users and a balance of at least 100,000 Stars, so it's not something a new bot will use.

Telegram sets the terms for rewards, including how and when you can withdraw and what a Star is worth, and it can change them. Don't plan your income on numbers you read in a forum post. Check Telegram's current rules for Stars before you count on a payout.

Refunds

Refunds for Stars payments go through the Bot API: the bot sends a refund request for a specific payment, and the Stars go back to the buyer.

Decide your refund policy before your first sale, and write it in your terms. Some reasonable rules:

• Refund when the product didn't arrive or didn't work, without arguing.
• Refund accidental double purchases.
• Say clearly what you don't refund, for example a file that was already downloaded and works.

Generous refunds cost little, because a digital product costs you almost nothing to deliver again. Unhappy buyers who can't get a refund cost a lot more: they complain in public, report the bot, and tell friends not to pay.

/paysupport, /terms and support: the required basics

Bots that take payments have a few obligations. They must:

1. Respond to /paysupport. This is where buyers go when a payment goes wrong. The reply should say how to reach you and what to include, such as the date and what they bought.
2. Offer terms, for example with a /terms command. Say what you sell, what buyers get, how delivery works and when you refund.
3. Provide customer support. Someone has to read and answer payment questions, in a reasonable time.

Add both commands to the bot's command list in @BotFather with /setcommands, so buyers can find them in the menu. If you're not sure how command lists work, see Telegram bot commands and how to customize your bot.

A support inbox makes the third point much easier. A contact bot gives buyers a place to write without seeing your personal account, and can share messages between several admins. For a full setup, see how to run customer support on Telegram with a bot.

Accepting Stars without writing code

Building Stars payments yourself means creating invoices, confirming payments, delivering the product and handling refunds through the Bot API. If you'd rather not code that, Echo Maker lets owners accept payments in Stars and sell paid subscriptions from the bot's admin panel. You still own the bot, and you're still responsible for support, terms and fair refunds.

Before you switch payments on, ask whether people would actually pay for what your bot offers. Stars make paying easy, but they don't create demand. How to make money with a Telegram bot covers which models tend to work and why most bots need an audience first.