Is the Telegram Bot API free? Pricing and limits in 2026

The Telegram Bot API is free of charge. See the real limits (messages per second, per chat, per group), optional paid broadcasts in Telegram Stars, hosting costs and how bots earn money with Adsun.

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Building a Telegram bot — Telegram Bot API pricing and limits

Content owner: Adsun Editorial & Ad Operations Team · Last verified: 2026-10-18

Quick answer

Yes — the Telegram Bot API is free of charge. Creating a bot with @BotFather and sending messages costs nothing; you pay only for your own hosting. The limits are rate limits: roughly 1 message per second per chat, about 20 messages per minute in a group and around 30 messages per second for broadcasts. Bots that need faster broadcasts can opt into paid broadcasts billed in Telegram Stars. To earn from a bot, add sponsored bot messages from an ad network such as Adsun.

Key takeaways

The Bot API itself has no per-message price.
Rate limits, not fees, cap how fast a bot can message users.
Paid broadcasts in Stars allow higher throughput when enabled.
Your costs are servers, databases and development time.

What is free

Creating bots with @BotFather.
Sending and receiving messages, media and inline keyboards.
Webhooks or long polling (getUpdates).
Running your own open-source Bot API server.

Limits to plan around

About 1 message per second in a single chat.
About 20 messages per minute in one group.
Around 30 messages per second for bulk notifications.
Exceeding limits returns 429 errors with a retry_after value.

Optional paid features

Paid broadcasts in Telegram Stars for higher message throughput (allow_paid_broadcast).
Selling digital goods to users with Telegram Stars (Telegram keeps its share).

Make the bot pay for itself

Add Adsun sponsored bot messages to earn USDT per delivery, and promote the bot with Adsun campaigns to grow users. Create a free publisher account at adsun.io, add your Mini App or bot, create Reward, Interstitial or Task blocks, paste the SDK or bot snippet and follow earnings per block and country. Payouts are in USDT.

Metric definitions and formulas

CPM: Cost per mille: what an advertiser pays for 1,000 ad impressions.CPM = (Ad spend ÷ Impressions) × 1,000
CPC: Cost per click: average price an advertiser pays for one click.CPC = Ad spend ÷ Clicks
CTR: Click-through rate: the share of impressions that produced a click.CTR = (Clicks ÷ Impressions) × 100%
eCPM: Effective CPM: what a publisher earns per 1,000 impressions, whatever the pricing model.eCPM = (Publisher earnings ÷ Impressions) × 1,000
Fill rate: The share of ad requests that returned an ad.Fill rate = (Filled ad requests ÷ Total ad requests) × 100%

More terms in the glossary and the advertising metrics guide.

Worked example

Hypothetical example — not real Telegram or Adsun data

A new channel owner spends $50 on an Adsun CPC campaign at $0.05 per click = 1,000 clicks. 35% join the channel = 350 subscribers, so cost per subscriber = 50 ÷ 350 ≈ $0.14. Use your own campaign reports for real numbers.

Adsun measurement methodology

Adsun counts an impression when an ad is rendered in a publisher block, a click when the user opens the ad destination, and a reward only after the server-to-server Reward URL confirms completion. Debug-mode traffic is excluded from billing and reports. Metrics are shown per platform, block and country in the partner and advertiser dashboards. Adsun does not publish aggregate network benchmarks in this guide; any number below marked “Hypothetical” is illustrative only. See the SDK documentation for integration details.

About Adsun

Adsun is a Telegram advertising network operated by Adsun. Products: Rewarded ads, Interstitial ads, Task ads, Native ads. Platforms: Telegram Mini Apps, Telegram bots, Telegram channels. Learn more about Adsun.

Start earning or growing with Adsun

Publishers earn USDT from Mini Apps, bots and channels. Advertisers reach Telegram users with CPM or CPC campaigns.

Become a publisher — sign up free Start advertising

Frequently asked questions

Does Telegram charge for bots?

No. Bots and the Bot API are free; you only pay your hosting.

How many messages can a Telegram bot send per second?

Around 30 per second in total for broadcasts and about 1 per second per chat; check the Bots FAQ for current limits.

Are there paid Telegram bot features?

Yes, optional paid broadcasts billed in Stars and Stars payments for digital goods.

Sources

Update log

2026-10-22: First published. Telegram features are described generally; check telegram.org and core.telegram.org for current rules.

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