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Creator Desk

Can you put affiliate links on Telegram?

Telegram's core rulebook is four prohibitions long and never mentions affiliate links, so the rules that actually bind a creator sit in its spam FAQ, its ad guidelines and the terms of an affiliate scheme Telegram runs itself.

Part of: For creators

What Telegram’s documents say

Seven of the nine documents we read carry something an affiliate creator needs: six are in the table below (the Premium terms sit on the Terms of Service page but get their own row), and the Telegram FAQ adds one line, noted under the table. None carries a date; Telegram publishes its terms without one, so every quotation below is as read on 29 September 2026.

Also read: the Telegram FAQ, which says some mini apps “offer affiliate programs” that pay Stars for sharing them, and the Terms of Service for Telegram Stars and for Mini Apps, which do not mention affiliate links.

Affiliate links in your own channel

A channel is Telegram’s broadcast format: you post, subscribers read. Nothing in the Terms of Service limits what you link in it beyond spam, scams and illegal content, and Telegram’s Premium terms go further than any rule would. Explaining why Premium subscribers still see some ads, they say channel admins “may publish their own content featuring third-party promotions or sponsorships”, which are “not part of the Telegram advertisement platform”. Telegram describes admin-published promotion as a normal part of channels.

• No label. Telegram has no paid-partnership toggle of the kind TikTok, Instagram and X require. Write the disclosure at the top of the post, before the link: “Ad · Affiliate link: I earn a commission if you buy.”
• Disclosure is still yours. Telegram’s affiliate programme terms say participants are responsible for disclosing affiliate relationships where local law requires it. In the US, the FTC’s endorsement rules apply to a Telegram post as to any other. In the UK, the ASA’s advice on affiliate marketing, read 12 October 2026, says social posts with affiliate links should be obviously identifiable as advertising up front, and gives “Ad” at the start of a post as an example; more in disclosure rules outside the US.
• Link previews are not disclosures. A preview card under a link shows the destination page, not your commercial relationship with it.

Direct messages and groups

This is where Telegram does draw a line. Its channel FAQ says: “Please do not send channel links (or other unsolicited messages) to strangers.” It adds that if recipients report spam, you may be banned from contacting other people “however good your intentions”. Telegram’s affiliate programme terms bar any use of a referral link that breaks the Terms of Service or the law, and list the same behaviour among four examples, in a list they say is not exhaustive:

1. spamming or flooding chats with the link;
2. posting it alongside media or messages that break the Terms of Service;
3. artificially inflating engagement, by hand or by automation;
4. “initiating private chats with random users for the sole purpose of sharing your link”.

Those four are written for Telegram’s own scheme, but they read as Telegram’s view of affiliate spam generally, and we would treat a retailer affiliate link the same way. In groups you do not run, the group’s own admins decide; check the group description and pinned message for its rules before posting a link.

Telegram’s own affiliate programme

Telegram runs an affiliate scheme of its own, and it is narrower than the name suggests. It pays for referrals to bots and mini apps that sell digital goods for Telegram Stars, not for physical products and not for purchases on outside websites.

• Who can join. Channel owners, ordinary users and other bot owners. Each gets a unique referral link.
• What it pays. A percentage of the Stars that referred users spend inside the mini app, for a period the app owner chooses. The API documentation expresses the rate in thousandths, between a minimum and maximum Telegram sets, and a programme may run with no end date.
• A one-way ratchet. Once live, the owner can raise the rate or lengthen the period but cannot lower or shorten either. Ending a programme disables its links after about 24 hours, and affiliates keep earning on users they already referred until the original period runs out.
• Holds and clawbacks. Commission Stars cannot be used, converted or withdrawn for 21 days. If a purchase is refunded, Telegram may take the Stars back. Stars earned this way expire after three years.
• Tax. Commissions are treated as tax-inclusive, and Telegram will not calculate or pay tax for you.

Our view: the scheme suits a channel whose audience already uses Telegram mini apps, typically games and tools. For a fashion, beauty or home creator linking retail products, it is not a substitute for a retailer or network programme, because it only pays on Star purchases inside Telegram.

Promoting a channel with Telegram Ads

Telegram’s ad guidelines limit ad text to 160 characters and an ad to one destination: the button link, plus at most one @ or t.me link in the text that leads to the same place. They also ban two things that matter here: URL shorteners, “even if it ultimately leads to a valid destination”, and websites that automatically redirect to a different page or domain. An affiliate tracking link typically works by redirecting, so on our reading it cannot be an ad’s destination. Point the ad at your channel and put the affiliate links in the channel. Telegram also requires a promoted channel to have posted within the two weeks before review.

How Telegram pays channels, in its own numbers

Terms of Service for Content Creators, Premium and Affiliate Programs, read 29 September 2026. Sponsored messages appear, in certain countries, in channels with over 1,000 subscribers (Premium terms, 7.6).

Two things in these terms deserve a creator’s attention before any money arrives. Rewards are processed by Fragment, a separate company, and Telegram says it will not compensate you if Fragment cannot pay you in your country. And a channel owner who loses access to the account forfeits any balance in it, so turn on two-step verification before the balance matters.

How Telegram compares

What we could not verify

• The commission range. The minimum and maximum affiliate rates live in Telegram’s client configuration. Its documentation lists defaults of 1 and 800 thousandths, which apps use when they cannot fetch the live setting; we did not read a live configuration, so the range in force may differ.
• When the affiliate scheme began. The terms page carries no date, and Telegram’s blog did not answer on the address we tried.
• Enforcement. How Telegram detects link spam is not published. We did not post, message or run a channel.
• Whether a given affiliate link redirects. Most network links do; some retailer programmes use direct URLs with a tag. Check yours before assuming it is barred from ads.

What to do this week

• Add a written disclosure to every channel post that carries an affiliate link, at the top of the post itself, before the link, rather than in the channel description.
• Stop sending links by DM to anyone who did not ask; answer requests in the channel or a group instead.
• If you run Telegram Ads, point them at your channel, not at an affiliate or shortened link.
• If your audience uses Telegram mini apps, check whether the mini apps they use run an affiliate programme before you recommend them.
• Turn on two-step verification if your channel earns Stars or ad revenue.

Frequently asked

Are affiliate links allowed on Telegram?

Yes. Telegram's Terms of Service forbid spam, scams, promoting violence, illegal pornography and illegal goods, and say nothing about affiliate links. Telegram's own Premium terms acknowledge that channel admins publish third-party promotions and sponsorships in their channels.

Can I send my affiliate link to people by direct message on Telegram?

Not to strangers. Telegram's channel FAQ asks users not to send channel links or other unsolicited messages to strangers and warns that spam reports can stop you contacting people. Its affiliate programme terms ban starting private chats with random users to share a referral link.

What is Telegram's affiliate program?

It lets owners of Telegram bots and mini apps pay a commission, in Telegram Stars, to channels and users who refer buyers. The owner sets the rate and the period and can only raise the rate or lengthen the period once it is live. Commission Stars are locked for 21 days.

Does Telegram have a paid partnership label?

We found none in the nine Telegram documents we read on 29 September 2026. The affiliate programme terms say you are responsible for disclosing affiliate relationships where local law requires it, so the disclosure goes in your post.

Can I use Telegram Ads to promote an affiliate link?

Probably not directly. Telegram's ad guidelines ban URL shorteners and websites that automatically redirect to another page, and affiliate tracking links usually redirect. The ads can point at your channel instead.

Method and sources

• Nine Telegram documents fetched and read in full on 29 September 2026: the Terms of Service (with the Premium terms on the same page), Terms of Service for Affiliate Programs, Content Creators, Telegram Stars and Mini Apps, the Channels FAQ, the Telegram FAQ, the Ad Policies and Guidelines, and the affiliate-programme API documentation.
• Corrections made on 12 October 2026 (the ad-link rule, the withdrawal waits, the open-ended list of banned uses and the default commission range) rest on the Internet Archive’s latest copies of those Telegram pages, captured between 17 June and 28 September 2026, because Telegram’s sites did not load from our connection that day. The client-configuration documentation is not one of the nine.
• We did not sign in, post, message or join a programme. This page is not legal advice.

Last verified 29 September 2026 against nine Telegram policy and documentation pages

How this page was made. Drafted with AI (Claude); not yet independently re-checked. How we work