What is Telegram Ads — complete 2026 guide

Telegram Ads is the only official advertising platform inside the Telegram messenger. Launched by Telegram FZ-LLC in 2021 and gradually expanded over five years, the platform now ships in three parallel cabinets (EUR, TON, Stars/XTR) that all serve ads through the same delivery infrastructure but differ in payment rail, audience and creative format.

#Who runs Telegram Ads

The platform is operated directly by Telegram. Advertisers create campaigns at **ads.telegram.org** (EUR cabinet) or via the Telegram client itself (TON, Stars). Every creative is reviewed by Telegram moderation before going live — typical wait is 1–4 hours, longer for first-time advertisers awaiting verification.

#The three official cabinets

Each cabinet targets a different buyer type:

• **EUR cabinet** — the classic, original cabinet. Sponsored messages serve in public channels with 1,000+ subscribers. Billed in euros, €2 minimum per campaign (standard CPM ≈€1, floor 0.1 TON ≈ $0.36 per 1,000). Accounts for roughly a third of creatives in the Telegram Ads Spy archive — the TON cabinet carries the larger share. Use for: B2C launches, mass-market apps, regional campaigns.
• **TON cabinet** — specialised for crypto / web3. Billed in TON (Telegram's native crypto). Same channel / topic / language targeting as EUR — you reach crypto audiences by targeting crypto / DeFi / NFT channels, not by reading wallets. Use for: token launches, DEX promotions, NFT drops.
• **Stars Promotions** — for mini-apps and the "cashier" vertical. Billed per-Star (≈$0.013). Used to boost mini-apps inside the App Center and run Stars-denominated gift campaigns. Use for: mini-app launches, paid-media offers, Premium giveaways.

See the long-form comparison at /wiki/eur-vs-ton-vs-stars for when to pick each.

#What an ad looks like

A Telegram sponsored message is a short text (up to ≈160 characters), an optional banner image, and a CTA button pointing to a channel, bot, mini-app or external URL. Ads serve at the bottom of qualifying channels — they are clearly labelled and separated from organic content. Unlike traditional digital ads, **Telegram does not show user-level demographic targeting** — privacy-first stance is baked into the platform.

#How much it costs

EUR-cabinet CPM lands in €0.5–3 depending on niche × geo (web3/crypto = top, news = floor). TON varies $5–15 CPM for crypto audiences. Stars are per-Star priced for fixed-CPI mini-app installs. Detailed percentile distributions and live benchmarks ship at tgmetrics.net.

#Where to see what's running

The Telegram Ads Spy archive indexes every creative across all three cabinets — searchable by niche, geo, advertiser and time. Updated every 30 seconds. Free, CC-BY-4.0.

#What's next

If you are planning to launch: see /wiki/how-to-launch-telegram-ads. If you are researching the market: see /wiki/top-niches-2026. If you want G.Media to run campaigns for you: g.media.