The first month is easy and the sixth is not
Anyone can run a paid channel for a month. You take payment, you add people, you post. The trouble starts when a hundred memberships renew on a hundred different dates and somebody has to check.
Done by hand this becomes a spreadsheet, then a mistake, then a member who paid and got removed. Automating it is the whole feature.
What has to happen automatically
Three things: a paying member gets in, an expiring member gets reminded, and a lapsed member comes out. Each is small; together they are a job. Paid memberships are part of the Business plan at $99 a month, which is the tier where a channel is a business rather than a project.
Your own bot, your own brand
The Business plan also lets you connect your own bot, so members join through your name rather than ours. For a paid community that matters more than it does for a shop.
Where the money goes
Card payments inside Telegram run through a Telegram provider token tied to your own Stripe account, so subscription money settles with you. We are not in the payment path and take no percentage.
Before you build a paid channel
Run the free channel first and watch which posts people actually come back for. A paid tier works when there is something specific behind it. The moderation modules on the free plan keep that channel clean while you find out.