The delivery logic for Telegram bots receiving Stars is straightforward: users complete payment inside Telegram, and the Stars are credited to the bot's balance. You need to wait until 21 days have passed and your balance exceeds 1000 Stars before you can convert them to TON through Fragment and then handle cashing out on your own.
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How Bots Receive Stars
Telegram bots can receive Stars through two paths. Which one you choose depends on what you are selling and whether you need to track each order.
Path 1: Paid Media
If you are selling a single image or video, you can attach paid media directly in a message. In the bot's message editing interface, select Paid Media, set the number of Stars required to unlock it, and then upload the file or enter an external direct link. Users can see the content after paying.
The obvious limitation of this path is that payment notifications are not processed, the flow does not continue automatically, and there are no CRM records. If you only do one-time content delivery and do not need follow-up logic, you can use it. If you need to know who paid or want to trigger the next action based on payment, this path is not suitable.
Path 2: Payment Button
This is a more complete solution. In the bot's payment settings, choose Telegram Stars as the payment method, and set the price and product name in XTR (the currency code for Stars). After users click the payment button, the payment interface pops up directly inside Telegram without redirecting to an external page.
Orders made through the payment button appear in your payment list, can be refunded, and can trigger follow-up flows. If you offer subscriptions, need to verify payment before granting access, or want to track sales data, you should use this path.
From a technical implementation perspective, no matter what framework or library you use, the core logic is the same: the bot generates an invoice priced in XTR. After the user confirms payment, Telegram sends an update containing the payment information to the bot. The bot must confirm this order within 10 seconds, otherwise the transaction will be cancelled. This is the easiest place to make mistakes during development — if the bot times out and does not respond, the user pays but the bot does not confirm, and the order fails.
Hard Requirements for Revenue Withdrawal
The Stars received by the bot do not immediately become assets you can control. You need to meet two conditions at the same time before you can initiate a withdrawal:
Your balance exceeds 1000 Stars. Below this amount, the withdrawal button is unavailable.
It has been 21 days since you received the Stars. This is Telegram's anti-fraud window period. Newly received Stars are in an "immature" state and cannot be withdrawn immediately.
Once the conditions are met, find the Stars entry on the bot's Telegram profile page and click Withdraw. The system will redirect you to Fragment, where you need to connect a TON wallet to receive the converted assets.
The conversion rate is not fixed. The exchange rate from Stars to TON fluctuates, and Fragment also charges a spread of about 2–3%. Combined with the roughly 30% commission Telegram deducts during withdrawal, the actual amount you receive will be noticeably lower than the number of Stars you see. Some estimates show that 1000 Stars ultimately convert to around 13 TON, depending on the market price of TON at the time.
Bot Receiving Stars and Users Buying Stars Are Two Different Prices
This point is easy to overlook. When users buy Stars through Telegram in-app purchases (Apple Pay / Google Pay), the price includes about 30% app store fees, with a unit price of about $0.020. If they buy with TON through Fragment, there is no such fee, and the unit price is about $0.014, which is about 30% cheaper.
But the number of Stars the bot receives is not affected by the user's purchase channel. If a user pays 100 Stars, your bot balance increases by 100 Stars, regardless of whether they bought them for $2.0 or $1.4. Your revenue is fixed at the level of Stars quantity. The variability happens later in the Stars → TON → fiat currency chain.
From TON to Fiat Currency
After Stars are converted to TON, the TON enters the wallet you specified. To turn it into fiat currency, you still need to transfer the TON to an exchange that supports it (Binance, OKX, Bybit, etc.), sell it for USDT or another stablecoin, and then withdraw.
Telegram does not provide a direct fiat off-ramp. The entire chain is: Stars → Fragment → TON → Exchange → Fiat. Every step has costs: Fragment's conversion spread, the exchange's trading fees, and withdrawal fees. If your Stars quantity is not large, these fixed costs will eat up a significant portion of your earnings.
Refunds and Disputes
For orders made through the payment button path, you can find the corresponding order in the payment list and choose to refund it. For orders made through the paid content path, the official documentation does not clearly explain how refunds are handled.
The refund window for Stars is 21 days. After this period, you can no longer process a refund. If you sell a service that requires ongoing delivery (such as a monthly subscription) and a user requests a refund on day 22, you cannot return the Stars through the original channel. In this case, refunds can only be negotiated through other means.
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References
- SendPulse·Accept payments with Telegram Stars, page updated: 2026-07-03; verified: 2026-10-16.
- def:studio docs·Payments | Telegraph, page updated: 2026-10-06; verified: 2026-10-16.
- Bybit·Вывод звезд из Telegram: полное руководство для авторов, page published: 2026-03-17; verified: 2026-10-16.
- xRocket·How to exchange stars for TON quickly and profitably: step-by-step guide, page updated: 2026-08-07; verified: 2026-10-16.
- TON Adoption·Telegram Stars vs TON payments: what's the difference, page published: 2026-03-05; verified: 2026-10-16.
- incrypted·Telegram Stars: How to Buy, Earn, and Withdraw "Stars" in 2026, page published: 2026-07-08; verified: 2026-10-16.
