Telegram Stars Fees Explained: What You Really Earn per Star

The four layers of Telegram Stars fees

When someone pays you 100 Stars, the money has already travelled through several layers before it reaches your TON wallet. Understanding each one helps you price correctly.

1. Buyer-side purchase price: what the user paid to acquire the Stars. Depends on where they bought them (App Store, Google Play, @PremiumBot or Fragment) and the pack size.
2. Store commission: Apple and Google take their usual in-app purchase cut on Stars bought through the apps. This is baked into the Stars price; it does not appear on your side.
3. Stars-to-TON conversion: when you withdraw, Fragment converts Stars to TON at a rate set by Telegram. This rate effectively defines your gross revenue per Star.
4. Platform fee (optional): if you use a payment platform instead of running your own bot, its fee applies. On Telegram Stars Payment Platform it is a flat 3%.

How much does a Telegram Star cost the buyer?

Stars are sold in packs, and bigger packs are cheaper per Star. In-app prices are roughly in the range of $0.015 to $0.025 per Star. On Fragment, where Stars are bought with TON and no store commission applies, the effective price is lower. Prices also vary by country because the app stores localise them.

How much does the seller receive per Star?

Telegram has historically converted Stars to TON at a rate equivalent to about $0.013 per Star, adjusted for the TON price at the time of withdrawal. This number is the key figure for your business: it means that, roughly, a product priced at 100 Stars brings in around $1.30 before any platform fee.

Worked example: a 500 Stars course

Say you sell an online course for 500 Stars through a payment link on Telegram Stars Payment Platform.

The gap between what the buyer paid and what you receive is mostly the app store commission and Telegram's share, not the platform. For comparison, selling the same course as a $10 in-app purchase in your own iOS app would leave you about $7 after the 30% store cut, but you would also have to build and maintain the app, the checkout and the payout logic.

Telegram Stars Payment Platform pricing

• 3% per transaction, applied once at withdrawal. No fee if you do not get paid.
• No setup fee, no monthly fee, no minimum volume.
• Minimum payout: 100 Stars to any TON wallet (Fragment requires 1,000).
• Included: unlimited payment links, redirect links with tracking, real-time ledger, dashboard, REST API and webhooks, 13 interface languages.

See the pricing section on our home page or why merchants choose us.

Fees compared with other ways to get paid on Telegram

A fuller comparison is in Telegram Stars vs Stripe, PayPal and crypto.

How to price your products in Stars

• Start from the net revenue you want per sale, divide by roughly $0.013, then add the platform fee and round up to a pack-friendly number (50, 100, 150, 250, 500, 1,000).
• Remember that buyers who already hold Stars perceive the price in Stars, not in dollars. Round numbers convert better.
• For recurring content, a Stars subscription at a lower monthly price often outperforms a one-off higher price.
• Test two price points with two payment links and compare conversions in the dashboard.

Hidden costs to watch

• Refunds: when you refund a buyer, the Stars go back to them in full; you lose the sale but there is no additional fee.
• TON volatility: your revenue is denominated in TON once withdrawn. Convert to stablecoins or fiat quickly if you want predictable income.
• Exchange withdrawal fees: converting TON to fiat on an exchange has its own small fees.