Monetizing a Telegram channel: 50% of ad revenue from 1,000 subscribers
Only the platform’s ads pay: half the revenue to public channels from 1,000 subscribers, in Toncoin, no fees. Users in Russia and elsewhere don’t see them.
- Social media and AI
- Mechanics breakdown
- ≈ 8 minutes
“Monetizing a Telegram channel” sounds in blogs like a button that pays for subscribers or for views from anywhere. At the platform it is one specific program: 50% of the revenue from ads that Telegram itself shows in public channels with 1,000 or more subscribers. The reward arrives in Toncoin and is withdrawn with no fees. And the Russian version of the announcement carries a line the English one lacks: users from a number of countries, including Russia, are not shown these ads.
The program’s threshold and share. Which ads pay and where they are shown. How the money arrives and where it can go. Who is not shown the ads and what that means for a channel with an audience from those countries. What the platform does not publish. Eight minutes of reading.
The 1,000 threshold and the 50% share
One sentence of the announcement that names both numbers.
Let us start with the program’s announcement. It came out on 31.03.2024 and remains its main description to this day.
Telegram users generate over 1 trillion views in channels every month. Starting today, owners of public channels with at least 1000 subscribers can be rewarded with 50% of the revenue from ads displayed in their channels.
Telegram Blog · “Sharing Revenue with Channel Owners”, 31.03.2024
Three conditions in one sentence. The channel is public. Subscribers number at least 1,000. What is paid is a share of the ads displayed in that channel, and the share equals a half.
The first condition cuts off private channels entirely: they have no platform ads, and so no reward either. What else a private channel loses, the platform describes separately.
The second condition is an entry threshold; there is no revenue formula in it. How much exactly is paid per thousand impressions is not in the announcement, and this rate is not published on any page of the platform.
Which ads pay
Telegram ads are built differently from other platforms, and that affects revenue.
What pays is the platform’s specific ad messages. The announcement describes them like this.
Telegram ads are very different from ads on other apps. They are shown only in large public channels. They never appear in your chats, chat list or other interfaces.
Telegram Blog · the same post
Here the word “large” appears, and what it means in numbers the post does not explain. The 1,000 threshold sets who can take part in the program; where exactly the ads are shown is described by that one word.
Telegram ads are not based on user data. They depend only on the channel in which you see them – and they directly benefit channel owners.
Telegram Blog · the same post
The last words matter more than the first: channel owners benefit from impressions. What is paid for is neither subscribers nor reactions, but the fact that an ad was displayed in the channel. A view on Telegram is counted in its own way, and the number under a post does not equal the number of subscribers.
The channel’s revenue depends on how many times an ad was shown to its readers. Ads are matched to the channel, so the channel’s topic affects which ads appear in it.
Toncoin, Fragment and zero fees
How the reward arrives and where it can be spent without withdrawing.
Next, the money itself.
Channel owners can withdraw their rewards with no fees – or reinvest them into Telegram ads, collectible usernames or Premium giveaways.
Telegram Blog · the same post
Three options: withdraw, buy ads for your own channel, buy a collectible username or subscriptions for a giveaway. The last option closes the loop: a subscription giveaway brings the channel boosts, and it can be paid for out of the reward.
Where to see the revenue and how to withdraw is named in the same post.
Go to Channel Settings > Statistics > Monetization to see your channel's monetization stats. Withdrawals for channel owners will be via Fragment.
Telegram Blog · the same post
The reward arrives in Toncoin, the cryptocurrency of the TON network, and is withdrawn via Fragment. The exchange rate to ordinary money and the withdrawal timing are not named in the post, so they are not here either.
The “Monetization” screen in the channel statistics is the only place where the platform shows your revenue. If the section is missing, the channel does not meet the program’s conditions.
Who is not shown the ads
A line that exists only in the Russian version of the announcement.
The most important line for channels with a Russian-speaking audience stands in the Russian version of the post and is absent from the English one. Here it is, in our translation: “At the moment, TON-based ads are not displayed to users from a number of countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Palestine and Israel.”
Put this together with the mechanics from the previous sections. Impressions are what is paid for. Users from the named countries are not shown the ads. So views by readers from those countries do not turn into ad impressions, and the channel’s revenue is made up of views by the rest of the audience.
A channel with 1,000 subscribers and an audience from Russia passes the program’s threshold, but its readers are not shown the ads. The “Monetization” section may still be in place. Before building a revenue plan on the platform’s ads, look at the audience geography in the channel statistics.
Platform ads aren't shown to such readers, and the channel's income is built on its own sales. We'll look at the channel and tell you what to build a funnel from without the ad programme.
The list of countries in the post is open-ended: “a number of countries, including”. The platform publishes no complete list there or anywhere else, nor a list of countries where the ads are shown.
The line begins with the words “at the moment”, that is, the list may change. Before counting revenue, re-read the Russian version of the post: the English one does not contain this line.
Stars as the second source
Reactions, paid subscriptions and paid posts, described in another post.
Half a year after the monetization program, the platform described a second source of income: Stars. Subscribers send them as a reaction under a post, they pay for a subscription via a special link and for paid photos and videos. The channel owner converts them into Toncoin.
Telegram charges next to zero commission when developers or channel owners use their stars to receive rewards in Toncoin.
Telegram Blog · “Super Channels, Star Reactions and Subscriptions”, 14.08.2024
The difference from ads is fundamental: Stars are paid by the reader, not the advertiser, and the Stars post has no geographic exceptions. It is a separate mechanic with its own settings, and it has a breakdown of its own.
On Meta’s platforms money from the platform works differently: Instagram has thresholds and countries of its own, while Threads has no payout program at all.
Set-up order and three mistakes
What to check before counting revenue.
First: make sure the channel is public and has at least 1,000 subscribers.
Second: look at the audience geography in the statistics. Readers from Russia, Ukraine, Palestine and Israel are not shown the ads.
Third: open the channel settings, “Statistics”, “Monetization” and watch the revenue there; it cannot be calculated from views.
Fourth: decide what to do with the reward. Withdraw via Fragment or put it into ads, a username or a subscription giveaway.
Open the channel statistics and find the “Monetization” section. If it is missing, the channel does not meet the program’s conditions. If it is there, compare the revenue with the audience geography: the number of subscribers does not explain it.
