Stars in one paragraph
Stars are Telegram's own unit of payment. A user buys a pack of Stars inside the Telegram app, and then spends them in bots and Mini Apps on digital things: a file, access to content, a subscription to a private channel, a feature inside an app. The buyer never types a card number into the seller's shop, because the purchase happens through Telegram itself.
Why digital sellers care
Selling digital goods usually means setting up a payment provider, a checkout form and a way to deliver the file. Stars remove most of that. The payment happens in the chat in a couple of taps, the seller needs no card processing, and buyers who already hold Stars can pay instantly.
Stars are meant for digital goods and services. A sofa, a cake or a pair of trainers is a physical product, and those are paid by card or arranged with the buyer directly.
How Stars work in a BotLaunch shop
A seller on a paid App plan who runs the shop on their own bot can mark digital products as payable in Stars. The buyer pays inside the chat, and the Stars land on the seller's own bot balance. BotLaunch is never in the payment path and takes no cut. There is no payment provider to connect and no card processing to set up.
Card payments are a separate option for the same shops: a Telegram Stripe provider token sends card payments to the seller's own Stripe account.
Stars or card: a quick way to decide
- Selling a file, a pack, a guide or access: offer Stars, and cards if your buyers ask.
- Selling physical goods: use card payments, or agree payment in chat.
- Selling to people who rarely use bots: cards are more familiar to them.
Words you will see next to Stars
Bot balance: where the Stars a bot earns are held. Digital goods: anything delivered on screen rather than by post. Provider token: the key that connects a bot to a card payment provider, which Stars do not need.