Paid Telegram groups, without the admin work

How paid access actually works on Telegram

Telegram does not let a bot add someone to a chat. That single constraint shapes everything else. Access is granted by an invite link the bot creates for one person at a time, which is why the bot needs the Invite users via link permission before it can sell anything.

Each link works once and expires after 48 hours. A member who does not join in time sends /start to the bot and gets a fresh one, so a missed link is never a support ticket.

Removal works the same way in reverse. When a subscription lapses the bot bans the member rather than simply removing them, because a plain removal leaves every other invite link in the chat working. The ban is lifted the moment a new or renewed subscription starts, and a fresh link follows.

• Invite users via linkLets the bot create the single-use link that grants access. Without it, nothing can be sold.
• Ban usersLets the bot remove a lapsed member in a way that also closes the back door of an older invite link.
• Post messagesChannels only, and only if you want the bot to publish the subscribe message or announcements.

Why the store is the private chat, not the group

The bot never sells inside the group. Running /subscribe in a group replies with a button that opens the private chat, and the plan list, checkout, receipts and cancellation all happen there.

This is a deliberate choice rather than a limitation. Billing details in a group are visible to everyone in it, and a member cancelling a subscription should not have to do it in front of the community. Telegram offers no equivalent to an ephemeral reply, so the private chat is the only surface where those exchanges stay private.

It also means every subscriber has pressed Start on the bot before they pay, which is what lets it reach them later with a payment reminder or a save offer. A bot cannot message someone who has never opened a chat with it.

Tiers, and the one thing Telegram cannot do

Telegram has no roles. On Discord a single server can hold a dozen paid tiers as roles, and a member moves between them without leaving. On Telegram the chat itself is the access boundary, so each tier needs its own group or channel.

In practice that means a three-tier community runs three chats, and an upgrade moves the member from one to another. Arcalotl handles the move, but it is worth knowing before you design the tiers, because five tiers means five chats to keep alive.

If you already run Arcalotl on Discord, a member who links the two identities with /link holds one subscription that opens both. You are not selling the same access twice.

What happens when a payment fails

A failed renewal does not remove anyone immediately. The bot messages the member with a link to update their card and access stays active through the grace period, because the most common cause is an expired card rather than a decision to leave.

If the member cancels deliberately, /cancel asks why and then offers a save matched to the reason and how long they have been subscribed: a discount, a pause, or a smaller tier. Only after that does it confirm.

Members who have been paying monthly for a while and are still active get an annual offer at a discount. That is the whole retention stack, and it runs on Telegram the same way it runs on Discord.

Your members buy in their own language

Three in four online buyers prefer to buy with information in their own language, and four in ten will not buy from a page in another language at all (CSA Research, Can't Read, Won't Buy, 2020). Most checkouts still ignore this: Stripe found 74% of European checkouts untranslated in 2022.

Arcalotl sets one default language per community and then follows each member. Announcements and the pinned subscribe view use the community default. Replies to a member, their checkout, and their receipt use the language their client reports, when you let it.