Telegram Ads Stars Cabinet in 2026: Promoting Your Own Channel or Bot with Stars

The Stars cabinet is the narrowest of the three ways to buy Telegram Ads. It lets a channel or bot spend the Stars on its balance on ads for itself — and only for itself. This guide explains how it works and when it is worth it, as of September 2026.

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What the Stars cabinet is#

Telegram's API documentation describes it this way: channel and bot owners may advertise the channels and bots they own on the Telegram Ad platform, paying with the Stars on the channel's or bot's balance "at a special rate with a 30% discount". To start, open the channel's or bot's Balance or Monetization section and tap Buy Ads (Telegram API: Stars).

What a Star is worth (Content Creator Rewards):

• $0.02 of ad credit when spent on promoting your own channel or bot;
• $0.013 when withdrawn as a reward through Fragment.

So spending a Star on your own ads gives about 1.5 times more value than withdrawing it. The terms make earned Stars withdrawable 21 days after they are accrued, and practitioners report the same 21-day wait before they can be spent on ads (aksanov.digital).

How it compares with the other cabinets#

	Euro cabinet	Gram cabinet	Stars cabinet
Access	Through a reseller or agency	Self-serve at ads.telegram.org	From your channel's or bot's balance
Payment	Euro invoice	Gram via Fragment	Stars
What you can promote	Any allowed channel, bot, account or website	Channels and bots you list	Only the channel or bot that holds the Stars
Targeting	Country, city, language, interests, channels, bots, search, retargeting	Explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords	Not described in Telegram's public docs
Entry, per practitioners	€250–500 first top-up	About 20 Gram	About 1,000 Stars; about 25,000 for a meaningful test

Sources: aksanov.digital, eLama, Click.ru. The ad policies are the same in every cabinet (ad policies).

Where the Stars come from#

A channel or bot earns Stars from:

• its share of ad revenue, paid in Gram or Stars (Content Creator Rewards);
• paid posts that readers unlock with Stars;
• paid messages — since March 2025, Stars earned from paid messages can be withdrawn via Fragment or spent on Telegram Ads (Telegram blog);
• Suggested Posts paid in Stars, where the channel keeps 85% (Telegram API config).

More on these in our monetization guide and Suggested Posts guide.

When the Stars cabinet makes sense#

Use it if your channel or bot already earns Stars and you want to grow that same channel or bot. You get more for each Star than by withdrawing it, and you need no reseller, bank transfer or crypto wallet.

Use the euro cabinet if you need country, language or interest targeting, formal invoices, or to promote something other than the channel or bot that holds the Stars. See the euro cabinet guide.

Use the Gram cabinet for a self-serve campaign in chosen channels without a reseller. See Toncoin is now Gram.

A note for Russia#

According to one practitioner, ads bought through the Stars cabinet are not subject to Russian ad-marking rules (aksanov.digital). This is one practitioner's reading, not a legal opinion; check with your lawyer before relying on it.

What our archive shows#

Our archive splits creatives by a technical flag Telegram attaches to each sponsored message: euro-cabinet campaigns on one side and the self-serve rail (stored as source=ton) on the other. A single flag cannot separate Stars-paid ads from Gram-paid ones, so Stars-cabinet ads are counted inside the self-serve rail. On 23 September 2026 that rail held 470,871 of 585,770 creatives (80.4%), and the euro cabinets 114,818 (19.6%) (public API). These are shares of creatives we recorded, not of money spent.

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FAQ#

Can I promote another channel with my Stars? No. Stars can pay only for ads of the channel or bot whose balance they are on.

How much is a Star worth in ads? $0.02 of ad credit, against $0.013 when withdrawn — Telegram calls it a special rate with a 30% discount.

Where do I find the Stars cabinet? In your channel's or bot's Balance or Monetization section, under Buy Ads.

Do I need a reseller or a crypto wallet? No. The Stars cabinet opens from your channel's or bot's balance and is paid with the Stars already there.

When can I spend Stars my channel has earned? The terms make earned Stars withdrawable after 21 days; practitioners report the same wait before spending them on ads.

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Related guides#

• How to advertise on Telegram
• Euro cabinet guide
• How channels earn in 2026
• Suggested Posts
• Toncoin is now Gram

Sources: Telegram API: Stars, Telegram API config, Content Creator Rewards, ad policies, Telegram blog, aksanov.digital, eLama, Click.ru. Checked on 24 September 2026.

telemetr.com Research (2026). Telegram Ads Stars Cabinet in 2026: Promoting Your Own Channel or Bot with Stars. telemetr.com. Retrieved from: https://telemetr.com/blog/en-stars-cabinet-telegram-ads-guide-2026