Telegram Stars and Telegram Premium cost noticeably more when you buy them inside the app, and the reason has nothing to do with Telegram. Apple and Google take a cut of every in-app purchase, and that cut is priced in before you ever see a number.
Buying outside the app avoids it. Here is what the two actually cost side by side, and how to get Stars for nothing if you would rather spend time than money.
What Telegram Stars and Premium actually cost
In-app pricing varies a little by country and platform, so treat that column as the approximate figure it is.
| What you are buying | Inside the app | Buying with crypto | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 Stars | about $23.00 | $16.50 | around $6.50 |
| Premium, 3 months | about $17.97 | $13.19 | around $4.78 |
| Premium, 6 months | about $29.94 | $17.59 | around $12.35 |
| Premium, 12 months | about $49.99 | $31.89 | around $18.10 |
Crypto prices are StarNinja's published rates at the time of writing, which come out at $0.0165 per Star. They advertise up to 40 percent below official pricing, and the annual Premium subscription is roughly where that holds. On Stars alone the saving is closer to a third.
1,000 Stars at $16.50. Presets run from 100 to 2,000, and orders go up to 100,000.
The saving scales with order size, which is why this matters to people topping up regularly for gifts, reactions or a mini app economy rather than someone buying 50 Stars once.
How buying works
Four steps, and no account anywhere in them.
- Open the app and pick Stars or Premium.
- Enter the username that should receive them, or tap Buy for myself.
- Choose a coin and send the exact amount shown.
- The order delivers automatically once the payment confirms.
Every coin in the picker is marked no fee. The order holds for 30 minutes while you pay.
No signup, no email, no KYC. The only thing the service needs is a username to deliver to, which is also what lets you send Stars or a Premium subscription to somebody else as a gift.
How to get Stars without paying
This is the part most people miss, and there are two mechanisms. One scales and one does not.
Tasks pay in Gram and xNinja
StarNinja Earn pays you for simple actions: joining a channel, starting a bot, upvoting an app. Each task pays two things at once. A small amount of Gram, which you can withdraw whenever you like, and xNinja coins, which build up from both tasks and orders.
Tasks pay Gram and xNinja together. The Gram balance withdraws on demand.
Be honest with yourself about the rate. Tasks pay in thousandths of a Gram, so this tops up a balance rather than funding a large purchase. It costs nothing but time, which is the right trade for some people and a wasted afternoon for others.
Referrals pay 40 percent, and that does scale
Every order placed by somebody you invited pays 40 percent commission, credited to your balance instantly. There is no cap on how many people you can refer.
40 percent of every order your referrals place, added to your balance instantly.
The difference between the two is worth understanding. A task pays you once for an action. A referral pays you every time that person buys again, for as long as they keep buying. If you run a channel or a group where people already purchase Stars, the referral side is the only one worth your attention, because you are not persuading anybody to do something new.
Whichever way the Stars arrive, they are ordinary Telegram Stars. Tip with them, buy gifts, pay for mini app subscriptions, or convert them to TON through something like StarLedger.
Is it safe
Yes, with one rule that applies to every service in this category rather than just this one.
Nobody legitimate needs your login. A Stars purchase requires a username and a payment. That is the entire list. If anything asks for your password, your Telegram login code, or a wallet seed phrase, close it and walk away. Asking is itself the scam.
Two smaller things worth knowing before you buy:
- Read the receiving username back to yourself before confirming. Delivery goes to whatever handle you typed, and a typo sends your Stars to a stranger. This is the most common way people lose money here, and no service can reverse it.
- Send the right coin on the right network. The order screen names both. Sending a different asset, or the right asset on the wrong chain, loses it permanently. That is true of every crypto payment anywhere.
What this does not fix
Being straight about the limits, because a guide with none reads as an advert:
- It is not free. Stars still cost money. This is a discount, not a hack.
- You need crypto. If you have never held any, the first purchase is more work than opening the App Store. From the second one it is faster.
- Refunds are whatever Telegram's policy says. Buying outside the app does not create a new refund route.
- Small orders save small amounts. A third off 50 Stars is a few cents. The maths only gets interesting at volume.
- Earning is slow. Tasks pay in fractions. Treat free Stars as a bonus rather than a plan.
Where to start
Buy the smallest amount that is useful to you first, and watch the whole flow work before ordering anything large. That is sensible with any service that takes crypto.
StarNinja is the one we have listed and verified. They post price comparisons and deals in @StarNinjaCommunity, which is worth joining before a large order rather than after, since crypto pricing moves.
Going the other way and want to turn a Star balance into TON instead? That is a separate guide.