Gram vs EUR vs Stars: Three Ways to Pay for Telegram Ads in 2026

Until recently this question was framed as "TON or EUR". In 2026 that framing is out of date for two reasons. First, the coin itself changed its name: since 15 June 2026 Toncoin is called Gram (GRAM), and ads.telegram.org now says you can "pay for your ad with Gram" (announcement, ads.telegram.org). Second, there are really three cabinets, not two: a euro cabinet sold through resellers, a self-serve Gram cabinet and a Stars cabinet for promoting your own channel or bot.

What exactly changed with the rename — for advertisers, channel owners and in our data — is covered in Toncoin is now Gram.

This guide explains what each one is, what it costs to get in, what targeting you actually get, and which one fits which job.

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What changed in 2026, in one minute#

• Toncoin → Gram. The native coin of the TON network was renamed Gram, ticker GRAM, effective 15 June 2026 12:00 UTC, after an 81.22% vote. There was no swap or migration; balances simply carry the new name. The blockchain is still called TON, and so are TON wallets and the "Connect TON" button (@gram, Pavel Durov).
• Official pages were renamed unevenly. The ads.telegram.org landing switched to Gram in August 2026, while the getting-started page still quotes a minimum CPM of "0.1 Toncoin". Same coin, old name.
• Minimum CPM in the euro cabinet moved twice. For advertisers from Russia it was cut from €1.00 to €0.70 on 17 February 2026, and since 28 August 2026 resellers quote €0.60 for country or language targeting, €0.30 for Politics & Incidents and €0.75 for targeting channels, bots and search (ppc.world, eLama).

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The three cabinets at a glance#

	Euro cabinet	Gram cabinet (formerly TON)	Stars cabinet
How you get in	Through an authorised reseller or agency	Self-serve at ads.telegram.org	From the balance of a channel or bot you own
Entry budget	From €250–500 at resellers	~20 Gram deposit, per practitioners	Stars on your channel's or bot's balance
Pay with	EUR (bank transfer to the reseller)	Gram, topped up via Fragment	Telegram Stars
Targeting	Country, language, interests, channels, bots, search, retargeting	Explicit lists of channels, bots and search keywords only	Minimal
What you can promote	Channels, bots, accounts, websites (per ad policy)	Same ad policy	Only your own channel or bot
Reporting for Russian marking (erid)	Yes, via the reseller	No	No

The rows on entry budget and targeting are based on how practitioners and resellers describe the cabinets (aksanov.digital, 14.09.2026); Telegram does not publish a comparison table of its own.

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Euro cabinet: through resellers#

The euro cabinet is what most brands and agencies mean by "Telegram Ads". You do not sign up for it directly unless you are a very large advertiser. Resellers say a direct contract with Telegram starts at around €2 million, of which €1 million is a deposit — Telegram itself does not publish these numbers (eLama). Everyone else goes through a reseller:

• Entry. Click.ru has accepted a first top-up from €250 (before commission and VAT) since 9 February 2026 (Click.ru); other resellers ask for €500. eLama lets you start with no upfront payment and pay monthly for actual spend.
• Fees. Reseller commission is typically 15–20% on top of spend, plus local taxes.
• Targeting. The richest of the three: country, city, language, interests, specific channels, bots, search keywords and retargeting of your own subscribers.
• Formats. Media ads (image, video) are sold through resellers with a CPM mark-up.

Choose it when you need geo or interest targeting, invoices and closing documents, or Russian ad marking with an erid token.

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Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet): self-serve#

This is the account you open yourself at ads.telegram.org and fund with Gram. The ads it produces are ordinary sponsored messages — the same format as in the euro cabinet, not a separate "direct deal" with a channel.

• Funding. You top up through Fragment from a TON wallet such as Tonkeeper or MyTonWallet. Fragment may ask for identity verification.
• Entry. Practitioners cite a deposit of about 20 Gram and recommend 150–200 Gram for a meaningful test.
• Minimum CPM. 0.1 per the official getting-started page (it still says "0.1 Toncoin" — that is now Gram).
• Targeting. Only explicit lists: channels, bots and search keywords. No geo, no interests, no retargeting.
• Availability. Search ads bought with TON/Gram are not shown to users in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine, while search ads bought with Stars are shown everywhere (tginfo). Practitioners also report that Gram-cabinet ads in general are not shown to users from Russia.

Choose it for fast, cheap tests of Telegram-native products (a channel, a bot, a mini app) when you know exactly which channels your audience reads.

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Stars cabinet: promote your own channel or bot#

If your channel or bot earns Telegram Stars, you can spend them on ads for that same channel or bot — and only for it. Telegram gives a 30% discount here: in advertising credit one Star is worth $0.02, while withdrawing it pays $0.013 (Telegram API, Content Creator Rewards ToS). Stars earned by a channel become available 21 days after they are accrued.

Choose it if you already have a Stars balance and want to grow the property that earned it. It is not a way to advertise a third-party product.

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The rules are the same in every cabinet#

A common myth says the crypto cabinet is where "anything goes". It is not. Telegram's ad policies apply regardless of how you pay: gambling, sexual content, drugs, weapons, political and religious ads and deceptive financial services are banned for everyone. Since 2026 the policies also require the promoted channel to have published at least one post in the two weeks before review, and the language of the ad, the destination and the targeted channels must match.

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Which one to choose#

• You need a country, a language or an interest segment → euro cabinet via a reseller.
• You advertise to Russian users and need marking and closing documents → euro cabinet via a reseller; Gram and Stars cabinets do not give you erid reporting.
• You are testing a Telegram-native product on a small budget and know the channels → Gram cabinet.
• You already earn Stars on a channel or bot → Stars cabinet to grow that same property.
• You run at scale across markets → euro cabinet as the core, Gram cabinet for fast channel-level tests.

For a step-by-step picker see the which-cabinet guide on tgads.net.

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Common mistakes#

1. Looking for "TON" in the cabinet and not finding it. The coin is Gram now; exchanges and wallets list it as GRAM.
2. Budgeting against a €2 million "official threshold". That figure comes from resellers and applies only to a direct contract; real entry through resellers starts at €250–500.
3. Expecting geo targeting in the Gram cabinet. It only targets the channels, bots and keywords you list.
4. Planning to advertise someone else's product with Stars. Stars only promote your own channel or bot.
5. Assuming a looser ad policy for crypto payments. Moderation is identical.

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How we see the two rails in our archive#

Our archive splits every captured ad into two rails — Gram cabinet and euro cabinet — using a technical flag Telegram attaches to each sponsored message. The API parameter kept its historical name, so filtering still looks like this:

GET https://tgadsspy.com/api/v1/ads?source=eur&niche=crypto&lang=en
GET https://tgadsspy.com/api/v1/ads?source=ton&niche=crypto&lang=en

source=ton returns Gram-cabinet ads. Use it to see which competitors test through the self-serve cabinet and which run through resellers. You can also browse both rails in the live ad feed.

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FAQ#

Is Gram a new coin? No. It is the same coin of the TON network under a new name and ticker since 15 June 2026. No swap was needed.

Can I still pay for Telegram Ads with "TON"? Yes — it is the same coin, now called Gram. The self-serve cabinet is funded in Gram via Fragment.

What is the cheapest way to start? The Gram cabinet, from about 20 Gram, if channel-level targeting is enough. If you need geo targeting, a reseller from €250–500.

What is the minimum CPM? 0.1 Gram in the self-serve cabinet per Telegram's getting-started page. In the euro cabinet resellers quote €0.30–0.75 for Russian accounts since 28 August 2026, depending on targeting.

Do Stars-paid ads reach more countries? For search ads, yes: Telegram said search ads bought with Stars are shown to all users, while those bought with TON/Gram are not shown in Russia, Ukraine, Israel and Palestine.

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Sources: @gram, ads.telegram.org, getting-started, ad policies, Telegram API: Stars, Content Creator Rewards ToS, eLama, Click.ru, aksanov.digital. Data: tgadsspy.com · License: CC BY 4.0

tgadsspy research (2026). Gram vs EUR vs Stars: Three Ways to Pay for Telegram Ads in 2026. tgadsspy.com. Retrieved from https://tgadsspy.com/blog/en-ton-vs-eur-telegram-ads-2026