EUR vs Gram vs Stars — which Telegram Ads cabinet to pick

Telegram operates three official ad cabinets in parallel. They serve the same sponsored messages under the same ad policies, but differ in how you get in, what you pay with and how you can target. This article gives a side-by-side decision framework.

Until mid-2026 this choice was framed as "EUR or TON". The coin 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" (@gram, ads.telegram.org). The blockchain is still called TON, and so are TON wallets.

#Quick decision tree

• You need a country, a language or an interest segment → **euro cabinet** via a reseller
• You advertise to Russian users and need ad marking (erid) and closing documents → **euro cabinet** via a reseller
• You are testing a crypto or Telegram-native product on a small budget and know the channels → **Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet)**
• Your channel or bot already earns Stars → **Stars cabinet**, to grow that same channel or bot
• You run at scale across markets → euro cabinet as the core, Gram cabinet for fast channel-level tests

#Euro cabinet

The cabinet 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, and Telegram itself does not publish these numbers (eLama). Everyone else goes through an authorised reseller: Click.ru accepts a first top-up from €250 (before commission and VAT) since 9 February 2026 (Click.ru), other resellers ask for €500, and eLama lets you start with no upfront payment and pay monthly for actual spend. Reseller commission is typically 15–20%.

**Strengths:** the richest targeting — country, language, interests, specific channels, bots, search keywords and retargeting; invoices, closing documents and Russian ad marking through the reseller. **Weaknesses:** reseller commission; minimum CPMs set by Telegram — for advertisers from Russia €0.60 for country or language targeting, €0.30 for Politics & Incidents and €0.75 for channels, bots and search since 28 August 2026 (eLama). **Use for:** B2C launches, regional campaigns, mass-market apps, content publishers.

#Gram cabinet (formerly the TON cabinet)

The self-serve account you open yourself at ads.telegram.org and fund with Gram (GRAM, formerly Toncoin). The ads it produces are ordinary sponsored messages — the same format as in the euro cabinet, not a separate "direct deal" with a channel owner.

• **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 (aksanov.digital).
• **Minimum CPM.** 0.1 per the official getting-started page — it still says "0.1 Toncoin", which is now Gram.
• **Targeting.** Only explicit lists of 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 (tginfo); practitioners also report that Gram-cabinet ads in general are not shown to users from Russia.

**Use for:** fast, cheap tests of crypto and Telegram-native products (a channel, a bot, a mini-app) when you know exactly which channels your audience reads.

#Stars cabinet

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). Search ads bought with Stars are shown to all users, including the countries where Gram-paid search ads are not (tginfo).

**Use for:** growing a channel or bot that already has a Stars balance. It is not a way to advertise a third-party product.

#Side-by-side table

Entry budgets and Gram-cabinet targeting are based on how resellers and practitioners describe the cabinets; Telegram does not publish a comparison table of its own.

#Multi-cabinet strategy

For products with overlap (e.g. a crypto mini-app), running more than one cabinet is common:

• Gram cabinet tests the message in the crypto channels your first cohort reads
• Euro cabinet expands to mass-market once messaging is validated, with geo and interest targeting
• Stars cabinet reinvests the Stars your bot earns into ads for that same bot

This is the standard playbook G.Media Agency uses for mini-app launches.

#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, alcohol and tobacco, weapons, political and religious ads and deceptive financial services are banned for everyone. The promoted channel must have at least one post from the two weeks before review, and the language of the ad must match the targeted channels and the destination.

Targeting is not purely contextual either: the euro cabinet targets by country, language and interests. Since 28 August 2026 ads.telegram.org makes one privacy promise — it does not use the contents of your private chats or contact lists for ad targeting.

#See also

We publish no CPM benchmarks: cost is never exposed to third parties, so there is nothing to build them from. What we do publish is creative volume per cabinet — tgadsspy.com/api/v1/stats. Sourced price estimates, each with its origin and date: /telegram-cpm.