Paying with Telegram Stars
Telegram does not let a website charge a card directly. Stars are the way round it: you buy them from Telegram with your card, then spend them here. Two purchases, a minute apart.
Why two steps
Stars are Telegram's own currency. Telegram sells them for money; we only ever take Stars. That means nobody here sees your card — the card details go to Telegram, or to Apple or Google, and never to us.
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Step 1 — buy Stars
Open Telegram and message @PremiumBot, the official Stars bot. Choose an amount and pay with your card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. If you already have enough Stars, skip straight to step 2.
Cheaper on a computer. Buying Stars in the iPhone or iPad app goes through Apple's in-app purchase, and Apple's cut is added to the price. The same Stars bought in Telegram Desktop or Telegram Web usually cost noticeably less.
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Step 2 — spend them here
Back on our site, pick your plan and press the payment button. Telegram opens with an invoice from our bot. Confirm it, and the plan is on your account before you have switched back.
This is the step people miss. Buying Stars is not paying us — the Stars sit in your Telegram account until you spend them. If your balance here has not changed, this is almost always why.
What happens next
The page you left open notices the payment by itself, usually within a couple of seconds, and your balance updates without a refresh. Nothing renews: when the period ends, it ends, and you will not be charged again.