Short answer: to sell digital products inside Telegram — courses, guides, recordings, online consultations or access to a private group — your bot has to accept Telegram Stars. Create a bot that lists your products, sends an invoice in Stars and delivers access right after payment. With GramForge you describe what you sell and the bot is built for you; Stars payments work without connecting a payment provider.
Why Stars and not cards
Telegram requires digital goods and services sold in bots to be paid in Stars, its in-app currency, to comply with app store rules. Physical goods and offline services can still be paid by card through a payment provider. Buyers get Stars through in-app purchases or the official @PremiumBot, so paying feels like any other purchase on their phone.
How you get paid
Stars earned by your bot accumulate on its balance. You can withdraw them to TON through Fragment after a holding period, or spend them on Telegram Ads. Check Telegram's current terms for the exact rate and holding time before you set prices.
What to sell
- One-off products: a PDF guide, a recorded workshop, a template pack.
- Courses with lessons delivered after payment.
- Paid consultations booked into your free time slots.
- Monthly access to a private channel or group as a Stars subscription (Telegram caps subscriptions at 10,000 Stars a month).
Setting it up with GramForge
- Sign up at gramforge.io and describe your products: “Three guides on sourdough baking, 250 Stars each, and a 30-minute online consultation for 1,000 Stars, weekdays 6–9 pm.”
- GramForge builds the bot: catalog, Stars invoices, delivery of the file or link after payment, and booking for consultations.
- Create the bot on your account in one tap and share its link in your channel and bio.
- Announce new products in your channel — GramForge can plan and publish posts with a button that opens the bot.
Tips that increase sales
- Give a free sample in the bot before the paid product.
- Show the price in Stars and roughly in local currency in the product description.
- Answer common questions automatically so buyers do not wait for you.