How to Send Stars on Telegram and Gift Them to Friends
You can't move Stars from your balance to a friend's the way you'd send money: Telegram's Stars terms don't allow transfers from a personal balance. Instead, you can buy Stars as a gift, spend your Stars on a Telegram gift your friend can keep or convert, or support a channel with Star reactions. This guide covers how to send stars on Telegram from iPhone, Android and Desktop, with the button names the apps use in September 2026.
On this page
Can you send Telegram Stars to someone?
Yes, but not as a direct transfer. Section 4 of the Terms of Service for Telegram Stars says the Stars in your personal balance can't be sold, withdrawn or transferred. They can only be spent on things Telegram allows, and gifts are one of them.
That leaves five practical routes:
| Route | You pay with | The recipient gets |
|---|---|---|
| Gift Stars to Friends | Money, like a regular Stars purchase | The full number of Stars, added to their balance |
| Telegram gift | Stars from your balance | A gift for their profile that they can convert into fewer Stars for a limited time |
| Premium gift | Money or Stars from your balance | A Telegram Premium subscription |
| Fragment top-up | Crypto | Stars on the balance of the username you enter |
| Star reactions, paid posts, channel gifts | Stars from your balance | Stars on a channel's balance |
How to gift Stars to a friend in the Telegram app
This option buys new Stars for someone else. It doesn't touch your current balance, and your friend receives exactly the package you pay for.
- Open Settings and tap Your Stars. On Telegram Desktop the same page is called My Stars.
- Tap Gift Stars to Friends.
- Pick the recipient. Contacts who are celebrating a birthday appear at the top of the list.
- Choose a Stars package. The price is shown before you pay.
- Pay. On iPhone, iPad and Android it is a regular in-app purchase through the App Store or Google Play. On Telegram Desktop, Telegram Web and the direct-download Android version, Stars are sold through @PremiumBot.
- Once the payment goes through, your friend gets a message in your chat with an animated gift box and the number of Stars.
Alternative: buy Stars for a username on Fragment
Fragment tops up a Stars balance "for yourself or your friends and colleagues." You type the recipient's username, choose an amount from 50 to 10,000,000 Stars and pay with crypto. As of September 23, 2026, the checkout lists GRAM on the TON network, plus USDT and USDC on several networks. Our Fragment walkthrough covers wallets and payment step by step.
How to send a Telegram gift paid with your Stars
If you already have Stars, you can't hand them over, but you can spend them on a gift. Your friend then decides whether to keep it on their profile or convert it into Stars.
iPhone and Android: open your friend's profile, tap ⋯ (iOS) or ⋮ (Android) and choose Send a Gift. You can also go to Settings > Send a Gift and pick a contact. Depending on the Show Gift Icon in Chats privacy setting, a gift icon may also appear in the chat's message field.
Telegram Desktop: open the person's profile and click Gift.
Then:
- Pick a gift. Prices are shown in Stars, and limited-edition gifts show how many are left.
- Type a note in Enter Message if you like.
- Turn on Hide My Name if you don't want visitors to their profile to see who sent it.
- Optionally enable Make Unique. This prepays the upgrade, so your friend can turn the gift into a collectible for free.
- Tap Send a Gift for the listed price. The Stars come off your balance right away.
The same screen lets you gift Telegram Premium and pay for it with Stars instead of money, an option Telegram added in March 2025. To buy a rare collectible from another user, pick the Collectible filter; since August 2026 you can add a signature and a comment to those gifts too.
Gift Stars or send a gift: which one to choose
- Your friend wants Stars to spend on a bot, a paid post or their own gifts: use Gift Stars to Friends. They get every Star you paid for.
- You want to use Stars you already have: send a gift. If your friend converts it, they get fewer Stars than you spent. The gift message in your chat shows the exact conversion amount.
- You want something that stays visible: a gift can sit on the Gifts tab of their profile, and a gift upgraded to a collectible can later be transferred or sold.
- You want to pay with crypto: use Fragment, which delivers Stars straight to your friend's username.
Sending Stars to channels, creators and bots
Stars sent to a channel go to the channel's own balance, separate from the owner's personal Stars. The main ways to support channels and creators:
- Star reactions. Under a post that accepts them, open the Star reaction (⭐), choose how many Stars to send, pick Show me in Top Senders or Anonymous, and tap Send. When Telegram launched Star reactions in August 2024, it said channel owners receive 100% of these Stars. You can also react as one of your own channels.
- Paid posts. Some channels lock photos or videos behind a Stars price. Unlocking one moves the Stars to the channel's balance.
- Gifts to channels. Tap the gift icon in the bottom corner of the channel and choose a gift. Admins can show it in the channel's Gifts tab or convert it into Stars.
- Suggested posts and Live Stories. You can offer Stars to a channel owner for publishing your post, and donate Stars to a creator during a Live Story stream.
- Paid messages. Some users and groups charge Stars for messages from people outside their contacts. Telegram shows the fee before you send, and a user who charges it keeps 85%.
Bots and mini apps work differently. There, Stars pay for digital goods and services: the bot shows a price, and nothing is charged until you confirm the purchase. If a bot doesn't deliver, send it /paysupport. The Stars terms let developers refund Stars at no penalty.
What the recipient sees
- Gifted Stars appear in your chat as an animated gift box with the number of Stars. They land on the recipient's balance and show up as a received gift in their Stars history, ready to spend.
- A Telegram gift arrives as a message saying they can display it on their page or convert it to a set number of Stars, together with your note.
Recipients control what they accept. Under Settings > Privacy and Security > Gifts, they choose who may display gifts on their profile and which gift types they accept: Premium Subscriptions, Unlimited, Limited-Edition, Unique and From Channels. If you try to send a type they've switched off, Telegram tells you the user doesn't accept that kind of gift.
How to convert a gift into Stars
- Open the gift from the chat message or from the Gifts tab on your profile.
- Tap Convert to followed by the number of Stars.
- Read the Convert Gift to Stars prompt and confirm with Convert. The prompt also tells you how many days conversion is still available.
Conversion can't be undone: Telegram permanently destroys the gift. You get fewer Stars than the sender paid, and only within a limited period after receiving it. Gifts bought at collectible gift auctions can't be converted, and neither can gifts whose payment was refunded. Converting also lowers your Profile Rating, the badge that reflects your history of Stars transactions.
Limits and common problems
- No Gift Stars option. Update Telegram first. Telegram controls whether Star gifting is switched on for your account, and the Stars terms note that purchases may be restricted in certain jurisdictions.
- A gift can't be selected. Limited-edition gifts have a fixed supply, some can be sent only a set number of times per person, and some require your own Premium subscription.
- Not enough Stars. The gift screen shows your balance with a Get More Stars link. See how to buy Telegram Stars for every option.
- Your note was rejected. Some users don't accept gifts with comments. Remove the message and try again.
Nobody needs your Telegram login code to send you Stars or a gift. Telegram says login codes should never be shared with anyone, including other services or apps. Fragment, for example, asks only for the recipient's username.
Frequently asked questions
Can I cancel a gift or get my Stars back after sending?
Usually not. Stars purchases are final, and Telegram doesn't refund them when unwanted or accidental. Right after a Star reaction, the Stars sent! notice offers Undo, so use it at once if you tapped by mistake. If a bot won't process a legitimate refund, copy the transaction ID from Settings > Your Stars and report it to Telegram. Users who charge for messages can refund the fee themselves.
Can my friend cash out the Stars I send?
Not from a personal balance: the Stars terms don't allow selling or withdrawing purchased Stars, so treat a gift of Stars as something to spend inside Telegram. Earned Stars follow different rules. Channel and bot owners, and users who charge for messages, can withdraw earnings through Fragment, and Telegram's creator terms say Star rewards become available for withdrawal 21 days after they're earned.
How much are 100 or 1,000 Telegram Stars worth?
It depends on where they're bought. As of September 23, 2026, Fragment sells 100 Stars for $1.50 and 1,000 Stars for $15.00, paid in crypto. Inside the Telegram apps, the price appears in your local currency and can differ by platform and region, because payment providers apply their own conversion rates and some regions add local taxes. Our Telegram Stars guide covers pricing in more detail.
Can I send Stars anonymously?
Only partly. With a Telegram gift, Hide My Name keeps your name off the recipient's public profile, but the recipient still sees who sent it. Star reactions can be sent as Anonymous, which keeps you off the post's Top Senders list. Stars bought through Gift Stars to Friends arrive as a message in your chat, so the recipient knows they came from you.
What can my friend do with the Stars I send?
Stars pay for digital goods and services in bots and mini apps, unlock paid photos and videos in channels and support creators through Star reactions. Your friend can also spend them on Telegram gifts, pay for a Premium gift for someone else, cover message fees that other users set and offer Stars for suggested posts in channels. They can also join channels that charge a monthly subscription in Stars.
Sources
Facts and prices in this guide were checked against these sources. Last review: September 23, 2026.
- Terms of Service for Telegram Stars telegram.org
- Telegram Browser, Gifting Stars and More (Telegram blog, July 31, 2024) telegram.org
- Gifts, Verification Platform and More (Telegram blog, October 5, 2024) telegram.org
- Super Channels, Star Reactions and Subscriptions (Telegram blog, August 14, 2024) telegram.org
- Wear Collectible Gifts, Move Gifts to the Blockchain, Send Gifts to Channels (Telegram blog, January 24, 2025) telegram.org
- Telegram Gifts: API documentation core.telegram.org
- Telegram FAQ telegram.org
- Fragment: Buy Telegram Stars fragment.com