Telegram payments for sellers: how to take payment in a bot
In Telegram, payment goes through a bot, and what you sell decides the payment route. Physical goods are paid through a payment provider, while digital goods are paid only in Telegram Stars. With a provider, money passes through the provider and banks, and Telegram stays out of refunds. With Stars, Telegram holds the balance and the bot itself makes refunds.
Which payment route fits what you sell
The same split applies to services: digital services sold in a bot or Mini App require Stars, and other services go through Bot Payments and a provider. The reason is app-store rules: Telegram cannot show a bot or Mini App to mobile users if it sells digital goods for other currencies or through a provider.
Apple and Google decide what counts as digital, and their definitions change over time. For borderline cases such as a consultation, a booking or an event ticket, Telegram gives no ruling of its own, so check the current store rules before you choose.
A provider is chosen by its availability in the regions where you sell. Telegram publishes no list of providers by country, so ask the provider whether it works in yours. Either way you need a bot, built by a developer or run by a third party. Telegram advises extreme caution with bots that process payments for you.
How an order is paid and delivered
The bot sends an invoice in a chat or creates a link to it, which a Mini App can open. For physical goods, the bot can also price delivery: once the buyer enters an address, it answers with delivery options and their prices. The shipping details the buyer enters go from Telegram straight to the seller's bot.
Before any money moves, Telegram sends the bot a pre-checkout query. The bot must answer within 10 seconds, or the transaction is cancelled, so its server has to respond even when it is busy.
Answering that query does not mean the order is paid. Deliver only after the bot has received the successful payment. A Stars checkout asks the buyer for no personal details. If the order needs a phone number or an email, the bot has to ask for it in the chat.
Who holds the money and who handles refunds
| Payment provider (physical goods) | Telegram Stars (digital goods) | |
|---|---|---|
| What the seller receives | The payment minus the provider's fees; Telegram takes no commission | Stars on the bot's balance; Telegram owns them and sets the reward the seller can receive for them |
| After payment | The provider and the banks handle the money; Telegram holds no buyer funds | Stars belong to Telegram. Rewards through Fragment may be unavailable to some sellers |
| Refunds | Telegram does not handle complaints or refunds; the seller, the provider and the banks do | The bot refunds the Stars itself; the amount comes off its balance |
| Chargebacks | A buyer's chargeback with the provider may be debited from the seller | A chargeback with the app store is deducted from the bot's balance in Stars |
| Extra fee | None from Telegram | A non-refundable 15% of Stars purchases is withheld while the bot has topics in private chats switched on |
On the Stars route the seller answers for disputes alone. If a buyer's legitimate dispute stays unresolved, Telegram can debit Stars from the balance or remove the bot from the platform or from store versions of the app. Telegram can also show a public SCAM label on the bot. Taxes on sales income are the seller's on both routes.
What the seller's bot must offer
The bot must answer a /terms command, or give an equally easy way to read the terms, and buyers must confirm that they agree before they pay. It must also offer support, through a /support command or another clearly stated way, and answer requests in good time. On the Stars route the bot must also answer /paysupport for payment issues.
On the Stars route, the bot must tell buyers that Telegram support cannot help with purchases made through this bot, and deliver digital goods as advertised and on time. Telegram discourages instant sales of digital items with real value if they cannot be taken back after a successful dispute.
If you advertise the bot, the terms of purchase must be explicit and easy to understand in the ad or where it leads. For shopping bots advertised through Adstat, we also ask the seller to show the payment methods and delivery options. No separate approval from Telegram is needed to start taking payments, but the provider's own rules apply.
How to keep the order record
Each invoice carries a payload that the seller sets and the buyer never sees, for example an order number. For a Stars payment, store telegram_payment_charge_id with the order: it may be needed for a refund.
In the bot's list of Stars transactions, the ID of an incoming payment matches that charge ID. The order number and the charge ID together tie an order to its payment and, if it comes to that, to its refund.
How to match ad spend with orders in Adstat
To see which ads brought orders, the order record has to meet the ad data. A Telegram ad that leads to a bot can carry start parameters in its link, and the ad statistics count the starts that followed a view of the ad.
Adstat's Telegram Ads management service works inside an agency or reseller ad account, and its statistics show each ad's spend, actions, cost per action and type of action. The report downloads in Excel or CSV, with times in UTC.
If an order has a saved ad source, keep it alongside the payment status and the charge ID. Track bot orders and revenue in your own analytics: the Telegram Ads pixel works only for websites, so it cannot see purchases inside Telegram.
Questions and answers
Can we sell subscriptions in a bot?
For digital access, yes: an invoice link can bill the buyer again every 30 days in Stars. For now, 30 days is the only period Telegram allows.
Can several people pay the same invoice?
A forwarded or reusable invoice can be paid more than once. Accept extra payments only if you can fulfil each of those orders.
Can an agency set up payments for us?
It can build or run the bot, but keep the provider token and the bot's owner account in the company. The live token should not go to third parties, and if the owner account is lost, the bot and its Stars can be lost with it.
What to do first
- Check whether what you sell is physical or digital under Apple's and Google's current definitions, and choose the route.
- For physical goods, pick a payment provider that works in the regions where you sell and keep its live token inside the company.
- Make the bot answer /terms and /support, and on the Stars route /paysupport, with a note that Telegram support cannot help with purchases.
- Deliver only after the successful payment arrives, and store the order number in the payload and, for Stars, the charge ID.
- Keep the bot under an account the company controls.
- If an order has a saved ad source, keep it with the payment status and the charge ID.