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Telegram Stars vs rewarded ads: how you actually get paid

Published 2026-08-18 · Solo dev · 5 Telegram mini games live, both monetization paths wired up

Short version: if you're a solo dev who wants nothing to do with crypto, rewarded ads are the practical default — not because they earn more, but because of how the money reaches you.

Telegram Stars are lovely to integrate and awkward to cash out. Ads are fiddlier to integrate and boring to cash out. Boring wins.

The comparison that matters

	Telegram Stars	Rewarded ads
What the player does	Pays you directly	Watches, pays nothing
How you get paid	Stars → Fragment → TON → exchange → your currency	Straight to PayPal / Payoneer, in dollars
Crypto in the loop	Yes, unavoidably	None
Setup effort	Native. No payment provider needed	SDK, plus one config value that's easy to get wrong
Where it bites	A minimum, a holding period and a conversion fee before you see cash	Revenue scales with traffic you may not have yet

1. The cash-out path is the real decision

Every article about Telegram monetization compares the earning side. Almost none of them walk you to the end of the pipe, which is where I got surprised.

Stars

Stars are Telegram's native currency, and integrating them is genuinely pleasant — no payment provider to register, no card processing, you just enable payments on your bot. A Star is worth somewhere around a cent and a half at the time of writing.

Getting that value out is the part to plan for. The route runs through Fragment, converts into TON, and then you are holding a cryptocurrency that you still have to sell somewhere to end up with money in a bank account. There is a minimum withdrawal, a holding period measured in weeks before earnings unlock, and a conversion fee along the way.

None of that is unreasonable. But notice what it means: the moment you take Stars seriously, crypto is in your business — a wallet to manage, an exchange account, a price that moves while you wait out the hold, and a tax situation meaningfully more complicated than "a company paid me dollars."

With an ad network the pipe is short and dull. Money accrues in your publisher account and you withdraw it in ordinary currency. With the network I use, the minimum is $5 via PayPal and payouts run twice a month. Bank wire exists but carries a $500 floor, which is not a realistic threshold for a solo dev starting out.

why I chose this

I keep crypto out of the loop entirely. It isn't an ideological position — it's that a $5 PayPal threshold and a fixed payout date are things I can reason about, and a token price during a three-week hold is not. That single consideration decided my primary revenue line before I had any performance data at all.

2. Integration effort runs the other way

Stars win here, clearly. Enabling payments is a toggle and a handful of API calls, with no third party in between.

Ads are more work, and there's one specific trap that cost me real money: the SDK needs a zone ID, while the ID displayed most prominently in the dashboard is an app ID. Use the wrong one and ads silently serve zero — no error, no warning. I shipped four games that way.

▶ The full write-up, with the code: Monetag ads showing zero in your Telegram Mini App?

3. Rules I hold myself to

Ads are opt-in, never interruptions. The player taps a button because they want the reward. Nothing plays mid-gameplay.
Stars buy cosmetics, not power. Once purchases move a leaderboard you're selling rank, and the game stops being fun for everyone who didn't pay.
The reward is time, not advantage. A doubled payout for a while is fine. Reviving on the run that decides your score is not.
Every game gets its own ad zone. Reuse one across titles and you can never tell which game is actually working.

4. What I actually run

Both, with rewarded ads as the primary line and Stars as a thin secondary. Ads ask nothing of the player, which suits idle and merge games where the audience came to relax — and the payout path stays boring.

An honest caveat: I don't have revenue-per-thousand numbers of my own to publish yet. When I do, they'll go here rather than someone else's. Anything you read about Telegram ad RPM right now — including from the networks themselves — is a vendor's number, not yours.

5. Which should you pick

You want zero crypto exposure → rewarded ads, and treat Stars as optional.
You already hold and manage crypto comfortably → Stars are the better deal per engaged player, and the integration is easier.
Your game is casual or idle → ads fit the mood. Asking a relaxed player for a payment is a bigger ask than asking for fifteen seconds.
You have almost no players yet → neither will pay you. Fix that first. An ad network converts traffic; it does not create it.

FAQ

Can I run both?

Yes, and I do. They don't conflict — one is a purchase, the other is an opt-in reward.

Do I need a company to sign up for an ad network?

Not with the one I use. An individual account was accepted, with no company registration.

Is the ad money really ordinary currency?

Yes. That was the point for me. Withdrawals come out in dollars through ordinary payment services.

The network I use

For the reasons above — individual signup, dollar payouts, a $5 floor, and no crypto anywhere in the chain — this is where my ad revenue runs:

Affiliate link — I earn a commission if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

Free to join · individual accounts accepted · $5 minimum payout via PayPal

Read the integration gotcha first: the App ID vs Zone ID trap.

The tools I actually use · Games

Payout terms, fees and Star values change. Figures here reflect the publish date — check current terms with Telegram, Fragment and your ad network before deciding.