Telegram Ads pricing 2026 — what it actually costs

Telegram Ads pricing varies more than most digital channels — by a factor of 10× depending on niche, geo and cabinet. This guide gives you the honest 2026 numbers.

#Headline numbers

Wide ranges because pricing is auction-based with niche × geo modifiers.

#EUR cabinet — niche modifiers

Working from the live distribution in our tgmetrics.net benchmarks:

• **Crypto / trading** — €2.5–3.5 CPM (highest, fierce auction)
• **iGaming / casino** — €2.0–3.0 (regulated geo restrictions)
• **VPN / privacy** — €1.5–2.5
• **Finance / fintech** — €1.5–2.2
• **Tech / SaaS** — €1.0–1.8
• **News / media** — €0.4–0.8 (lowest, abundant inventory)
• **Local / regional** — €0.3–0.7

These are the typical observed CPMs in 2026. Niche premiums fluctuate with advertiser demand cycles.

#EUR cabinet — geo modifiers

Multiplier on niche CPM baseline:

• **DE / FR / IT** — 1.0× (baseline)
• **US / UK** — 1.3–1.5× (highest competition)
• **MENA (UAE / SA)** — 1.1–1.4× (rising)
• **CIS (RU / BY / KZ)** — 0.6–0.9× (depends on niche)
• **LATAM** — 0.7–1.0×
• **SEA / India** — 0.5–0.9× (cheapest broad-reach)

A €2 CPM crypto creative in Germany is €1.4 in Russia, €0.9 in India, €3 in the US.

#TON cabinet pricing

TON cabinet is harder to benchmark publicly because:

1. Crypto-channel inventory varies wildly by niche

2. CPM depends on which crypto / DeFi / NFT channels you target

3. Most spend is opaque (settled in TON, not USD)

Observed ranges:

• **Broad crypto-curious** — $2–5 CPM
• **DeFi-active wallets** — $5–10 CPM
• **Specific token holders** — $10–25 CPM (e.g. PEPE-holders, NOT-holders)
• **High-value whales** ($100K+ portfolio) — $20–50 CPM

Premium because the audience is small but highest-intent in the entire ad ecosystem.

#Stars Promotions pricing

Stars Promotions are bought in Telegram Stars (XTR), Telegram's native digital currency. 1 Star = ≈$0.013. Spent on:

• **App Center category boost** — boost your mini-app's ranking in a category for N days
• **Gift drop targeting** — surface gift offers to users with matching interest signals
• **Sponsored mini-app cards** — paid placement in App Center category list

Typical mini-app launch spend: 100K–500K Stars over 30 days ($1.3K–6.5K). High-burn launches (Hamster Kombat scale) spend millions of Stars.

#Hidden costs nobody mentions

Things you only learn after burning budget:

1. **Verification fee** — first-time advertiser KYC can require €500 escrow that takes 6 weeks to refund if you don't proceed

2. **Currency conversion losses** — Telegram billing in EUR while you spend in USD = 1.5–2 % spread cost

3. **Refund timing** — unspent EUR balance takes 4–8 weeks to refund; budget your top-ups accordingly

4. **Cabinet-specific creative costs** — same campaign needs 3 different creative formats for EUR / TON / Stars

5. **Moderation rework** — 20–30 % of creatives get rejected on first submission; expect ≈2 hour rework cycle

#How to budget realistically

For a **B2C launch test** (validate creative + targeting):

• EUR cabinet: €5K–10K over 30 days, 3 creative variants, single geo
• Will produce: 2–5M impressions, useful CTR + CR signals

For a **mini-app launch** (Catizen-class):

• Pilot: €30K–80K across EUR + TON + Stars over 60 days
• Scale: €100K–500K/month once unit economics proven

For a **brand awareness sweep** (already proven product):

• EUR cabinet: €20K–100K/month, 5+ creative variants, multi-geo
• Optimise for reach, not direct response

#Live benchmarks

See current CPM percentiles per niche × geo at tgmetrics.net/api/v1/analytics/niche-pricing. Refreshed nightly from observed impressions in the public archive.