How to make money on Telegram in Kenya

Start by being clear about what your channel is. A large public channel earns differently from a small private group where every member pays. Most creators end up mixing two or three of these.

Paid channel or group

You make the channel or supergroup private and only let in fans who have paid for a plan. You set the price, choose who gets in and keep a direct relationship with every member. It also takes the most admin: confirming payments, sending invite links and removing people when their time is up. Most of this guide is about doing that well.

Sponsored posts

Brands, shops and other channel owners pay you to post about them. Keep a short rate card in shillings with your subscriber count and typical views per post, and agree each deal in writing. Tell your members clearly when a post is paid, because their trust is what the brand is paying for.

Affiliate links

Many online shops, apps and services pay a commission when someone buys through your link. Read each programme's rules before you post links on Telegram. Affiliate income tends to be small and uneven unless your channel is built around recommending products.

Telegram Stars

Stars are Telegram's in-app currency. Channel owners can turn on paid Star reactions, post paid photos and videos, and create invite links that charge a monthly fee in Stars, as Telegram announced in August 2024. Fans buy Stars through in-app purchases, and Telegram's terms for Stars say buying and using them may be restricted in some countries. The next sections cover what that means for Kenyan fans and for your payout.

Telegram's ad revenue share

Telegram shares 50% of the revenue from ads shown in public channels with at least 1,000 subscribers. Owners withdraw it through Fragment, and the ads themselves are bought in Gram, the cryptocurrency formerly called Toncoin. Telegram's announcement has the details. This only works for public channels, so it suits a large free channel, not a paid private one.

In Kenya, the question is rarely whether a fan will pay with M-Pesa. It is which kind of M-Pesa number you give them. Safaricom's Lipa na M-PESA offers three ways to get paid as a seller, and many creators also start with their personal number.

Pochi la Biashara has become the most common way for small sellers to get paid. In the year to March 2026, Pochi merchants overtook Till holders, at about 2.1 million against about 1 million, Business Daily reported.

Not every fan is on Safaricom. Airtel Money users can pay an M-Pesa Buy Goods Till through interoperability, so a Till lets you take money from both networks.

Whichever you choose, every M-Pesa payment is one the fan starts or approves with their PIN. Nothing renews by itself. For the step-by-step on Tills, Paybills, payment links and reminders, read how to accept M-Pesa for a Telegram group.

Stars look simple: turn on a Star subscription and let Telegram take the money. The problem is getting that money into your M-Pesa.

• Fans need to buy Stars in the app. A fan who pays for everything with M-Pesa may never make an in-app purchase.
• You earn little per Star. InviteMember's guide to Stars puts what creators receive at about $0.013 per Star, while fans can pay 50% to 100% more per Star because of app store and Telegram commissions.
• Payouts wait and go through Fragment. The same guide says earnings can be held for up to 21 days before you withdraw them on Fragment. Telegram's terms for bot developers add that Fragment may be unable to issue rewards for certain users or in certain countries, and that Stars expire if you hold them too long.
• You are paid in crypto. Fragment pays in Gram (formerly Toncoin), which you then have to sell for shillings yourself. Kenya's Virtual Asset Service Providers Act was signed in October 2025, and as of late 2025 no crypto provider had been licensed under it yet.

Stars can still work if your fans already buy them. But for most Kenyan groups, a price in shillings that fans pay with M-Pesa will reach more people and land in your account with fewer steps. For a full comparison, read Telegram Stars vs mobile money.

Checking payments yourself is fine for your first few fans. As you grow, the same problems come up again and again.

• Fake M-Pesa messages. A forwarded or edited message can look exactly like a real confirmation. Only money in your own statement counts.
• Matching payments to people. A payment from a name does not tell you which Telegram account to let in.
• Missed expiries. Every fan has a different end date. Fall behind and expired fans keep reading for free.
• Leaked invite links. A link you send one fan can be forwarded to a whole group of friends.
• Chasing renewals. You end up messaging fans from your own number to ask for money.

The M-Pesa guide goes through each of these and the Telegram settings that stop most leaks.

Price in shillings, always. A fan should see one number they understand, with no conversion and no surprise at the end.

Offer more than one plan. A short plan is an easy first yes for a new fan. A longer plan rewards fans who already trust you and means fewer renewals to chase, which matters with M-Pesa because every renewal is a new payment the fan has to make.

These are examples, not advice for your group. What you can charge depends on how often you post, how hard your content is to find elsewhere and how much your audience already trusts you. A few rules hold for most Kenyan groups:

• Use round numbers. KSh 1,000 is easier to send and remember than KSh 970.
• Make the longer plan clearly cheaper per month. If 90 days costs the same as three 30-day plans, few fans will choose it.
• Start a little lower and raise prices for new fans later. It is easier than cutting a price that did not sell.
• Count the costs before you set the price, whichever way fans pay.

On VIPpass, starting is free and a service fee is taken on each payment, which already includes payment provider costs. On a $10 plan with a 5% fee, you either add the fee so the fan pays $10.50, or take it from your earnings so you receive $9.50. See pricing for both plans, and how much to charge for a VIP group for a full method.

Most of your fans find you on Instagram, TikTok or X, so the link in your bio is where most sales start. If that link leads to a page of ten buttons, or to a Till number and a request to send a screenshot, many fans give up before they pay.

A bio link that sells shows your paid group first, with its price in shillings, and takes the fan straight to a payment they can approve on their phone. Your free VIPpass link in bio page does that: each paid space is a card with its platform, price and plan length, and a Join button that opens checkout, next to up to 20 of your own links.

• Put the paid group above your socials, with a name that says what fans get.
• Mention the price in your stories, so the fans who tap are already ready to pay.
• Use one link everywhere, so all your views, taps and joins are counted in one place.

For what to write around your link and how to read your numbers, see how to sell group access from your link in bio.

First, choose your space. Use a private channel if only you post, or a supergroup if members should talk to each other. Never use a public @username channel for paid content, because anyone can read it without joining. If you run a basic group, convert it to a supergroup before you add any bot.

Then set it up with VIPpass:

1. Create your space. Give it a name, a short description and a non-explicit cover image, and add your 7, 30 or 90-day plans in shillings.
2. Add the VIPpass Bot as an admin. It needs the rights to invite users and ban members. VIPpass checks those rights and that the channel is yours.
3. Set your invite link to ask for approval. Turn on Request admin approval, so the link only sends a join request and the VIPpass Bot decides who gets in.
4. Get verified. VIPpass is for creators aged 18 or older. You upload a government ID, take a live selfie and record a short video, and a real person reviews it, with the aim of deciding within 24 hours. You can set everything up while you wait.
5. Add your payout account. One mobile money wallet or bank account in your own name. The name must match your verified ID.
6. Share one link. Put your VIPpass page in your bio, your stories and your free preview channel.

When a fan opens your link, they pick a plan and pay, usually in under two minutes. Once the payment is confirmed, the VIPpass Bot approves their join request. When the plan ends, it removes them within minutes. Your earnings show in your dashboard straight away and can be withdrawn in Kenyan shillings after a short holding period.

If your group has adult content, mark its space 18+: fans then confirm they are 18 or older before checkout, and everyone who appears in it must be a verified, consenting adult. Follow our Content Rules and the law where you live.

A paid group lives on renewals. Most of the money you lose will come from fans who forget to renew, not from fans who leave on purpose.

• Run a free preview channel. Post a sample of what members get and pin your link. On VIPpass you can link a free Telegram channel to your paid space, and fans see a “Free preview” button at checkout.
• Remind fans before their plan ends. VIPpass reminds fans 3 days and 1 day before their plan ends, and on the day. On Telegram they can renew with /renew and check their date with /status. Mobile money is never charged automatically, so reminders matter.
• Turn on “Restrict saving content”. In your channel settings, it blocks forwarding, saving and copying in most Telegram apps.
• Remove re-sharers. If someone leaks your content or your link, remove them. On VIPpass you can report them with evidence and they can be banned from every space on the platform.
• Add other income where it fits. A sponsored post in your free channel or a relevant affiliate link does not compete with your paid plans.

The full playbook for turning free followers into paying fans is in the free-to-VIP funnel.