How to Sell Access to a Telegram Group (and Remove People Who Stop Paying)

To sell access to a Telegram group, you need three things: a private group that nobody can join without an invite, a way to take payment, and something that gives each payer an invite and takes them out again when they stop paying. Telegram's own paid invite links only work for channels, so for a group that third piece is a membership bot made admin of the group, connected to a payment account in your name. Below: the setup step by step, the group settings that matter, and a new Telegram feature that can let people in for free.

Why a paid group is set up differently from a paid channel

Telegram has a built-in way to charge for access: invite links that require a monthly fee in Telegram Stars. Telegram's announcement describes them as links that allow joining a channel in exchange for a monthly payment in Telegram Stars, and the Bot API method for creating them is for a channel chat. Telegram's subscription documentation also covers channels only. A group needs a different route.

A group is also a different product. Telegram describes channels as a tool for broadcasting messages to large audiences. In a group, members talk to you and to each other, a group can grow to communities of up to 200,000 members, and you choose whether new members can read what was said before they joined.

If you sell mostly broadcast content and a channel fits, our guide to creating a paid Telegram channel covers the Stars option in full. The rest of this page is about groups.

What you need before you start

• A private group. Telegram's FAQ says public groups let anybody view the group's entire chat history and join to post messages. The paid group must not have a public link.
• A free place where people meet you first. Nobody can see inside a private group, so a free channel, a free group or your social accounts do the selling. If that audience is still small, start with growing real Telegram subscribers.
• A payment account in your name. With MyMembers that is your own Stripe account. Check that Stripe supports your type of business before you build anything.
• A clear offer. Write down what members get that the free audience does not. People cancel when the group is not what they pictured.

Step-by-step setup

The Telegram steps are the same with any membership bot. The bot steps use MyMembers as the example.

1. Create the group and keep it private. In Telegram, choose New Group from the new message or menu button. Do not give the group a public username or post its main invite link anywhere.
2. Decide what new members can read. Telegram lets admins toggle persistent history, which controls whether new members see earlier messages. Visible history gives a new member the whole archive on day one; hidden history keeps old discussions among those who were there. Say on your sales page which you chose.
3. Turn on Restrict Saving Content. Under Group Info > Group Type, this setting restricts message forwarding, prevents screenshots and limits saving media.
4. Set member permissions. Telegram lets you set default permissions that stop all members from posting certain kinds of content. Decide now what members may post, so the rules are in place before the first payer arrives.
5. Add a welcome message. Groups now support welcome messages that only the person who joins can see. Open the group's profile and select Edit > Welcome Message. Use it for the rules and where to start.
6. Connect your Stripe account. In MyMembers you connect a Stripe account that belongs to you. You are the seller: subscribers pay you directly, Stripe pays out to your bank on the schedule set in your account, and the money never passes through MyMembers.
7. Make the bot an admin with the right permissions. Telegram's Bot API requires the invite users right to create invite links and approve join requests, and the right to restrict, ban or unban members to take people out. Note that bot admins always receive all messages in the group, so only make a bot admin if you trust the tool behind it.
8. Create your plans. Set a price and choose one-time, monthly or yearly billing. You can add a free trial, a first-month discount or several tiers, and one plan can unlock more than one group or channel.
9. Share the sales page, not the group. MyMembers gives you a page at mymembers.io/yourname with your own colours, images and text. Pin that link in your free channel and your bios.
10. Buy it yourself. From a second Telegram account, buy the cheapest plan. Check that it gets into the group and the payment appears in Stripe. Then cancel and confirm it is removed when the period ends.

How payment turns into access

The weak point of a paid group is the invite link. A plain link works for anyone who has it, and Telegram's FAQ is blunt about it: anyone who has Telegram installed will be able to join your group by following this link.

Telegram gives admins, and bots acting as admins, better tools:

• Links with a member limit. A bot can create a link that admits a set number of people, from 1 to 99,999. A link limited to one person cannot bring in a second member while the buyer is in the group.
• Links with an expiry date. Additional links can have a limited duration, a limited number of uses, or both.
• Join requests. A link can require admin approval: the person taps a button to send a join request, and an admin, or a bot, approves or dismisses it. The Bot API's approveChatJoinRequest is how a bot lets in someone who has paid. A link that requires approval cannot also have a member limit, so a bot uses one or the other.
• Revoking. If a link leaks, revoke it and it stops working immediately.

With a Telegram membership bot you do not handle any of this by hand. The buyer pays on the checkout page, and the bot invites them the moment the payment goes through.

Removing people who stop paying

This is the part that breaks manual setups. Selling ten memberships by hand is easy. Remembering in month four who renewed, who cancelled and whose card was declined is not.

A bot does this through the Bot API. It can ban a user, and in a supergroup a banned user cannot come back through invite links until they are unbanned. To remove someone without locking them out for good, a bot can call unbanChatMember, which takes them out of the group if they are a member but leaves them free to join again through a link.

MyMembers handles both sides. It invites members when they pay and removes them when their subscription ends. Renewals happen on their own, the bot sends payment reminders, and recovery of failed card payments is automatic.

A new Telegram feature to check: Communities

In July 2026, Telegram added Communities, which link several groups, channels and bots together around one topic. Telegram says community members can see its other chats and join them instantly, without an invite link.

If you link your free channel and your paid group into one community, check how the paid group is listed. Telegram lets each chat in a community be Visible to all members or Hidden from everyone except community admins and members of that chat. A visible paid group could let any member of the community walk in without paying. Communities are also collaborative by default, so any member can add chats unless you restrict this in the community settings. If you use a community at all, make the paid group hidden, limit who can add chats, and test with an account that has not paid.

Keeping people in the group

A few habits keep members paying:

• Answer quickly in the first week. A new member who asks a question and gets no reply decides early that the group is not worth it.
• Use topics once it grows. Telegram lets you split group discussions into topics, each with its own chat history, so new members can find their way.
• Look at who leaves. MyMembers includes analytics on earnings, subscriber count, and who joins and leaves.

For more on this, read our guide to membership retention strategies.

Who is responsible for what

When members pay through your own Stripe account, you are the seller. Tax on your sales, refunds, disputes and any rules that apply to what you sell are yours to handle. If you are unsure what applies to you, ask an accountant before you launch.

On cost: MyMembers charges a 5% commission on each sale and no monthly fee, so a month without sales costs nothing. Sellers with high volume can agree a lower rate. Stripe's processing fees are separate and are charged by Stripe on your account.

FAQ

Can I use Telegram Stars to charge for a group?

Telegram's documentation describes paid Stars links for channels only. For a group, use a membership bot with your own payment account.

Can I turn my existing free group into a paid one?

You can, but the people already in it have not paid. The cleaner route is a new private group for paying members, with your free group kept as the front door.

What if a member shares the invite link?

If the bot approves join requests only from people who paid, or gives each payer a link limited to one person, a forwarded link does not let a stranger in while the buyer is a member. If a general link leaks, revoke it.