How to get Telegram Stars: 3 routes, and what each one costs

TL;DR. “How to get Telegram Stars” is really two questions wearing one search box. If you want to spend them, you buy them — $19.99 per 1,000 as a store pack or $14.10 at Telegram’s own rate — instantly, inside Telegram. If you want to earn them, you sell something or take commission, and you receive $0.013 per Star on the way out. Bought Stars can never be withdrawn; earned Stars can. Everything else is detail.

There’s a fork in this question that almost no guide names out loud, and picking the wrong branch wastes an afternoon.

Someone searching “how to get Telegram Stars” is either a reader who wants to send a gift and unlock paid posts, or a channel owner who wants Stars to start arriving. Those two people need opposite instructions. Here are all three routes, sorted by which side of the transaction you’re standing on. If you are the second one and the product isn’t decided yet, the routes into an income — and the three that only look like routes — are sorted out in how to make money on Telegram.

Route 1 — Buy them (instant, costs money)

The straightforward one. Inside Telegram, open Settings and top up your balance, or buy them at the moment a paid post or bot asks for them. Payment goes through your card or, on iOS and Android, through the app store.

The price is published twice. In the App Store or Play Store, Stars come in packs, and Telegram’s own pricing table puts a 1,000-Star pack at $19.99 — for a USD purchase with 0% VAT; local tax and the payment provider can move it. At Telegram’s own sell rate, stars_usd_sell_rate_x1000 = 1410 in the client configuration, 1,000 Stars are $14.10.

What you get is spendable, not cashable. Stars bought this way can pay for gifts, paid posts, subscriptions, and bot purchases — but they cannot be turned back into money. That door only opens one way, by design, and it’s what keeps Stars from becoming an informal currency exchange. Gifts are the first item on that spending list and have a life of their own — what upgrades into a tradable collectible, and why a channel’s bot might send one back to a subscriber, is in Telegram Gifts explained.

Route 2 — Earn them by selling (the only route that pays out)

This is the one people actually mean when they’re looking to get Stars rather than spend them.

You sell something to your audience, they pay in Stars, and the Stars land on your bot’s balance. What you can sell inside Telegram is broader than most people assume:

• a digital product — a guide, a template pack, a preset, a file that gets delivered on payment;
• access to a paid channel — recurring, so it compounds instead of resetting every month;
• a bookable service — a consultation, a session, a slot in your calendar;
• a course with lessons and drip content.

Three things are worth knowing before you plan around this.

The rate is not the price your buyer saw. Telegram’s terms for bot developers state that a developer receives an equivalent of 0.013 USD per Star. Your buyer paid $19.99 per 1,000 for those Stars as a store pack, or $14.10 at Telegram’s sell rate. Telegram sets the two numbers separately, and the same terms state that the reward value has no connection to what Stars cost to buy in any region — so nothing is withheld at withdrawal, by Telegram or by AdminHub: we charge for the Pro plan, not for your transactions.

You need a bot. Stars arrive on a bot’s balance, and it has to be yours. That’s a genuine step — a few minutes inside Telegram, no code involved, but not optional.

Withdrawal has a floor and a delay. 1,000 Stars minimum, and each payment sits for up to 21 days after arrival before it can move. The full arithmetic, including a worked example of why “I’ll cash out at month end” disappoints the first time, is in how to withdraw Telegram Stars.

Route 3 — Earn them from someone else’s purchase

You don’t have to sell anything yourself. If you recommend a product that charges in Stars and someone buys through your link, the commission arrives as Stars on your own balance — earned Stars, with the same withdrawal rights as Route 2.

Our own version pays 50% for the lifetime of the customer, which suits anyone whose audience is other creators and sellers rather than end consumers.

The comparison that decides your route

	Buy	Earn by selling	Earn as commission
Speed	Instant	After you set up and sell	After someone buys
Cost to you	$19.99 per 1,000★ in the stores, $14.10 at Telegram’s rate	A bot and a product	A share of your audience’s attention
Can withdraw?	No	Yes	Yes
Value per Star	—	$0.013 out	$0.013 out

The row that matters is the third one. Bought Stars and earned Stars look identical in your balance and behave completely differently at the exit.

What doesn’t work

“Free Telegram Stars” generators. There is no mechanism that creates Stars outside Telegram’s own purchase and reward flows, so any site offering to mint them is after your account, not your gratitude. The honest version of “free Stars” is earning them.

Expecting a bank transfer. Fragment pays out in cryptocurrency — Gram, formerly Toncoin — to a connected TON wallet. Getting from there to your local currency is a separate step with its own fees and timing, and Telegram’s terms note that Fragment may be unable to issue rewards in certain countries. Check yours before revenue depends on it.

Assuming every product may charge in Stars. Telegram’s rules differ for digital and physical goods, and picking the wrong rail means a checkout that doesn’t work. Which is which is covered in Stars vs card payments.

Where to start, by who you are

• You want to spend — buy inside Telegram. Nothing else on this page applies to you.
• You have an audience and nothing to sell yet — the fastest first product is a digital one: it needs no shipping, no stock, and it can be live in an afternoon. Start with selling on Telegram.
• You have an audience of creators — the affiliate route earns without you building a product at all.
• You already earn Stars — the thing worth reading next is the withdrawal arithmetic, because the payout rate is 35% below a store pack’s price and 7.8% below Telegram’s own sell rate.
• You want the wider picture — Stars are one of six ways a channel earns, and Telegram itself pays for one of them: Telegram channel monetization.

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Figures here come from Telegram’s terms for bot developers, section 6.2.4, for the $0.013 reward rate and the 21-day hold, and Telegram’s client configuration reference for the 1,000-Star withdrawal minimum.