Telegram gifts: send, sell, upgrade or convert to Stars.

A Telegram gift is a small animated item bought with Telegram Stars. The person or channel that receives it can display it on their profile. Since 2025 many gifts can also be upgraded into collectibles that can be traded and sold.

1. What Telegram gifts are

• Gifts are bought with Telegram Stars and sent to a person or, if the channel allows it, to a channel.
• Some gifts are limited: only a fixed number are sold, and they can sell out. Others are always available.
• You can add a short message to a gift (up to 128 characters in Telegram's documented app configuration) and choose to hide your name on the recipient's profile.
• The recipient decides whether the gift is shown on their profile.

2. How to send a gift

1. Open the person's profile and tap Send a Gift. For a channel, tap the gift icon in the bottom corner of the channel.
2. Pick a gift and check its price in Stars. Not enough Stars? See what they cost with the Telegram Stars calculator.
3. Optionally add a message, hide your name, or pay for the upgrade in advance so the recipient can turn it into a collectible for free.

3. Keep the gift or convert it to Stars

A gift you receive can stay on your profile, or you can convert it into Telegram Stars. Converting has three conditions worth knowing before you tap the button:

• Deadline: a gift can be converted only for a limited time after you receive it. Telegram's documented app configuration sets this to 7 days.
• Value: you get fewer Stars than the sender paid, and the gift is destroyed for good.
• Profile rating: according to the Telegram FAQ, converting gifts to Stars lowers your profile rating, while buying gifts raises it.

Gifts won at a collectible gift auction cannot be converted back to Stars.

4. Upgrading to a collectible gift

Since January 2025 many gifts can be upgraded. An upgrade costs a small amount of Stars, which Telegram says covers blockchain fees, and reveals one of many designs made by Telegram artists. Each collectible also gets random traits, such as a background, a symbol and a number, so some are rarer than others. The sender can include the upgrade when buying the gift.

New collectible releases can also be sold through Stars auctions held over several rounds.

5. Wear, share and transfer collectibles

• Wear it: go to My Profile, then Gifts, tap a collectible and choose Wear to use it as your emoji status. Your profile takes on the gift's colors.
• Share it: every collectible has its own t.me/nft link and can be posted to your story.
• Transfer it: collectibles can be sent to another user or channel.
• Move it to the blockchain: choose Transfer, then Send via Blockchain, to move it to a TON wallet. Telegram notes that this keeps the gift under your control even if you lose access to your Telegram account.

6. Selling gifts on the marketplace

Since May 2025 collectible gifts can be bought and sold inside Telegram. To sell one, open it on your profile, tap Sell and set a price in Stars; buyers find it with the Resale filter when they send a gift.

These values come from Telegram's developer documentation and can change; the app shows the current numbers before you confirm. Stars you earn this way follow the usual withdrawal rules in how to withdraw Telegram Stars.

7. Avoid gift scams

• Buy and sell inside Telegram's own marketplace or on the blockchain, never through a stranger who asks you to send a gift first.
• No real buyer needs you to "send the gift to check it". A sent gift belongs to the receiver.
• Never share your login code, two-step password or wallet recovery phrase to "verify" a gift trade.
• Check usernames carefully: fake bots and accounts copy the names of real ones. Similar tricks are described in Telegram username offer scams.

Frequently asked questions