How to sell locked media on Telegram with Stars

To sell content on Telegram, you send the fan a blurred photo or video and set a price in Telegram Stars. The fan taps it, pays inside Telegram, and the media unlocks. The Stars land on the balance of the bot linked to the creator's account.

This is the cleanest way to sell Telegram paid media because the fan never leaves the chat. No external checkout, no card form, no link to a payment page. Below is how it works, what to prepare, and where agencies lose sales.

How does locked media work on Telegram?

A locked (paid) media is a photo, video or voice note that reaches the fan blurred. Under it, the fan sees the price in Stars. One tap on the unlock button and Telegram asks for the payment. Once paid, the full file shows in the same conversation.

Three things make this work well for a conversation-based sale:

• The offer lives in the chat, right after the moment that made the fan want it.
• The fan pays with a balance he already holds in Telegram.
• Every purchase is tied to one conversation, so you know who bought what.

In LanaChat a paid item can cost from 1 to 25,000 Stars. Telegram decides how much a Star is worth in real money, so check the current rate in Telegram before you build a price list.

What do you need before you sell videos on Telegram?

How to sell videos on Telegram is mostly a preparation question. Before the first offer goes out, you need four things.

1. A bot linked to the creator's account. Fans pay through it, and the Stars are credited to its balance.
2. A library of media. Photos, videos and voice notes, sorted in folders.
3. A price on every item. Free, teaser or paid, with a Stars amount on the paid ones.
4. A description on every item. What it shows, when to send it, the mood, the time of day.

The fourth point is the one agencies skip. A chatter, human or AI, can only pick the right media if it knows what each one is. A folder of 400 unnamed files forces everyone to guess.

How do you set it up in LanaChat?

In LanaChat the library is the Vault. Each creator has her own, with nested folders such as "Selfies/Beach". You can read the details on Vault and paid media and in the Vault guide.

Here is the short version:

1. Upload her photos, videos and voice notes. Files go up to 2 GB each, and a dropped upload can be resumed.
2. Open each item and choose Free, Teaser or Paid. Paid items are sent blurred and unlock with Stars.
3. Fill in the description, when to send it, the mood and the time of day. Describe with AI drafts the empty fields for you. It marks its text as an AI draft, so your team reviews it before trusting it.
4. Attach the right media to the steps of a script, or let the AI pick from the Vault.

Each item keeps its own price. The AI never changes it and never gives a discount. Only a person on your team can do that.

How do you decide what to lock?

Not everything should be paid. A simple split works for most creators:

• Free: a selfie or a short voice note. It starts and warms the conversation.
• Teaser: a preview that shows enough to create interest.
• Paid: the sets and videos that are the actual product.

Keep the entry price low enough that almost any fan buys once. The second purchase is where the revenue is. We wrote about this in how we price media so fans actually buy.

One rule matters more than the price itself: do not sell the same item twice to the same fan. In LanaChat, media a fan already received is marked as sent or bought in the conversation, so nobody offers it again by mistake.

What goes wrong when you sell content on Telegram?

These are the mistakes we see most often in setups.

• Prices that move. If the same video costs different amounts depending on who chats, fans notice and wait for the cheap version.
• No descriptions. The wrong media goes out at the wrong moment, and the offer feels random.
• Offers with no context. A locked media sent cold, with no conversation before it, rarely sells. Warm the chat first.
• No follow-up. A fan who opened the preview and left is not a lost fan. He is a fan to message again. Our post on follow-up scripts for silent fans covers this.
• Counting gross sales. Telegram takes its share and refunds happen. Judge your numbers on net sales.

Is selling on Telegram always the right choice?

No. Be honest about the limits.

Telegram is a good place for the paid conversation, but it is not a discovery platform. Fans usually arrive from somewhere else: ads, stories, a bio link. If you have no traffic source, a perfect Vault will sell nothing.

Stars are also tied to Telegram's own payment rules. If your fans prefer to pay another way, payment links exist, but they follow a different flow. And locked media suits adult audiences only when the creator and the content fit your rules and Telegram's. Stay inside both.

Where does LanaChat fit?

LanaChat is the layer around the sale. The AI chats in the creator's voice and language, picks the right media from the Vault, and sends it at the price you set. Your team can take over any conversation at any moment, and every sale shows in your numbers.

On billing, the commission is calculated on net sales, after Telegram's share and refunds. LanaChat is in private beta right now. We announce each onboarding wave and how to apply on our Telegram channel.

FAQ

How do I sell content on Telegram without an external payment page?

Send the media as a paid, blurred item priced in Stars. The fan unlocks it inside the chat and pays with Stars, so no outside checkout is needed.

What is the price range for a paid media in LanaChat?

From 1 to 25,000 Stars per item. You set the price on the item itself, or on the script step that sends it.

Can the AI change the price of a media?

No. The AI sells at the price set in the Vault or in the script. Only a teammate can change a price.

Which files can I upload to the Vault?

Images, videos and audio files, up to 2 GB per file. Videos can be trimmed and split in the browser, and the original never changes.

Where do the Stars go after a fan pays?

They are credited to the balance of the bot linked to the creator's account. Withdrawals and the Stars rate are set by Telegram.