How to Make a Paid Telegram Group with Whop

Paid Telegram group options compared

You can charge for Telegram access three ways: a bot service such as Whop, InviteMember or LaunchPass, or, for channels only, Telegram's own Star subscriptions. Whop has no monthly fee and, under its published fees, the lowest total cost of the three bot services, though the possible 3% Telegram app fee covered below can change that. InviteMember and LaunchPass charge a monthly plan but pay you through your own Stripe. Running Discord instead? Our paid Discord server guide covers roles and fees for that setup, and Whop vs Discord weighs Whop against Discord's built-in Server Subscriptions.

Prices as of October 2026, from each company's public pricing and help pages. Sources at the end of this page.

About that 3%: Whop's fee page lists no Telegram fee (checked October 3, 2026), but the Telegram app's listing in Whop's App Store says adding the app to a product brings a 3% fee on that product's payments. We couldn't confirm which one applies, so this page shows both numbers. Read the fee lines on your first real payment.

What a paid Telegram group costs at three revenue levels

At $30 a month per member, here's what each bot service takes in platform and processing fees.

Prices as of October 2026. Sources at the end of this page.

How we calculated it, for US cards and monthly billing, with no payout fees, taxes or currency conversion, rounded to whole dollars:

• Whop = revenue × 3.2% (2.7% processing + 0.5% billing, which Whop's fee page lists as applying when enabled) + $0.30 per payment, plus 3% of revenue in the second column.
• InviteMember = the monthly plan that covers your sales volume + Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 per payment. InviteMember's homepage says it charges no transaction fees.
• LaunchPass Premium = $29 + revenue × (3.5% LaunchPass fee + Stripe's 2.9%) + $0.30 per payment.

Whop's fee page also lists a $0.07 Radar fraud-screening fee per transaction, which these numbers leave out because Whop doesn't say whether it runs on every payment. If it does, add about $23 a month at $10,000. That doesn't change which option costs least at any level in the table.

Under Whop's published fees, Whop costs the least at every level, $239 a month less than InviteMember at $10,000. If the 3% fee applies, InviteMember is cheaper at most levels above about $4,500 a month, by $61 at $10,000 and $751 at $50,000, although Whop edges back ahead just after each jump to a pricier InviteMember plan. InviteMember's yearly billing, with two months free, lowers its column further. Stripe charges 0.7% for its Billing product on pay-as-you-go subscriptions, and neither InviteMember's pricing page nor LaunchPass's fee examples mention it, so add 0.7% to their columns if it shows up on your Stripe invoices.

Run your own price and member count through the fee calculator, and see every Whop fee explained for international cards and payouts. This page explains published fees. It isn't financial or tax advice.

Before you start

A few choices made now save you from reconnecting the bot later.

• Group or channel. A group lets members talk to each other and holds up to 200,000 people, while a channel is a one-way feed, according to LaunchPass's Telegram guide. Whop's app connects both.
• Make it private, so Whop is the only way in.
• Be the owner, or an admin who can add bots and promote admins.
• Set up payouts on Whop. You can sell first, but Whop asks for identity verification before your first payout. Our Whop payouts and KYC guide walks through it.
• Pick your price, billing period and any free trial.
• Keep a second Telegram account and Whop account for testing.
• If another bot already manages the group, such as InviteMember or LaunchPass, plan to switch it off before Whop takes over. The last section covers the order.

Set up a paid Telegram group on Whop, step by step

These steps follow Whop's July 9, 2025 walkthrough and its App Store listing, both checked on October 3, 2026. Labels can change, so look for the closest match.

Step 1: Create a product and a price

In your whop, create a product and name it after what members pay for, such as "Pro Chat membership." Add a monthly, yearly or one-time price, plus a free trial if you want one.

Common mistake: adding a trial to a one-time price. Whop's docs say trials only work on recurring checkout links.

Step 2: Add the Telegram app

Click Add app, find Telegram in the Whop App Store and add it to the product. Then click Configure Telegram, followed by Connect Telegram. Whop's listing says the app works with both groups and channels and handles memberships through the Whop Telegram bot.

Step 3: Add the Whop Bot to your group or channel

Adding the Whop Bot is the first step on Whop's connect screen. Whop's walkthrough says a group only needs the bot as a member, while a channel needs it as an admin.

Telegram's Bot API only lets a bot create invite links or ban users when it's an administrator with those rights. If paying members aren't let in, or lapsed members aren't removed, promote the Whop Bot to admin with permission to invite users and ban users.

Common mistake: adding the bot to a channel as a regular member. Whop's walkthrough says channels need the Whop Bot as an admin.

Step 4: Send the verification code

Copy the verification code shown in the second step of Whop's connect screen and post it in the group or channel. That proves you control it.

Step 5: Include the group in the app

Your group now appears under Available channels with an Add Channel button. Click it to move the group into the list of channels included in the app. Anyone who claims access through this product is then added to every included group or channel. Repeat for each one, and use Remove to take a group out later.

Step 6: Test with a second account, then share your link

Add a hidden $0 plan to the product, claim it from your second Whop and Telegram account, and confirm the bot adds you to the group. Then delete the test plan and share your real checkout link in your bio, your public Telegram channel and your emails.

Common mistake: testing from your owner account. You're already in the group, so a broken invite won't show up.

What members see when they join

Members pay through Whop's checkout, open your product on Whop, choose the Telegram app and claim access, and the Whop Bot adds them to each included group or channel. Whop says its bot adds and removes members automatically, so nobody has to send invites by hand.

Two Telegram details matter here. Whop's API docs say Telegram access is invite-based and isn't resynced the way Discord roles are, so if a paying member ends up outside the group, check that they weren't banned and help them claim access again. And Telegram's Bot API says a user banned from a channel or supergroup can't come back through an invite link until an admin unbans them.

Check that everything works

Run through this list before you announce:

• Your test member was added to every included group or channel, and to nothing else that's private.
• The group holds only paying members, admins and your test account, unless you're still moving members over from another bot.
• When you cancel the test membership, the bot removes the test account.
• You've added a payout method and started identity verification in Whop.
• After your first real payment, you've read its fee lines, including whether a 3% app fee appears.

Troubleshooting

Most problems come down to the bot's rights, the verification code or an old bot.

Moving a paid group from InviteMember or LaunchPass

Members who pay through your own Stripe account can usually keep their cards, everyone else re-subscribes, and the old bot has to step back before its subscriptions end.

From InviteMember, start by exporting your data: open the project info page in app.invitemember.com, then the three-dot menu, then Export data (CSV). You get four files, users, payments, subscriptions and recurring payments, with each member's user ID, plan, payment method and status. The free MoveToWhop migration tool uses that export to set up your Whop products, plans and member links. Then:

• Stripe members can move with Whop Migrations, which transfers active and trialing card subscriptions of $1 or more with an email on file, keeps each renewal date and schedules the old Stripe subscription to cancel at period end. Stripe sends each member a cancellation notice when this happens, so warn members before you run it.
• PayPal, crypto and Telegram Stars members re-subscribe on Whop, ideally with a free trial that covers the time they've already paid for. Our subscription migration guide covers the timing.
• Deal with InviteMember's bot first. It removes anyone without an active subscription except whitelisted users and admins, and a subscription cancelled in the payment provider removes the member immediately. Remove the bot or its ban permission before the first migrated subscription ends, or whitelist members who've moved.
• Cancel leftover PayPal subscriptions before you disconnect PayPal. InviteMember warns that it may stop receiving status updates from a provider you've disconnected.
• Let Whop's bot take over, rather than reusing anything from InviteMember. InviteMember's terms say its bot and membership page can't be used on other platforms, and cancelling your InviteMember plan queues them for deletion, so export before you cancel.

From LaunchPass, your subscriptions already live in your own Stripe account, so most card subscribers can keep paying without new card details. Remove the LaunchPass bot before Whop's migration runs. LaunchPass removes members whose subscriptions are cancelled, Whop schedules the old Stripe copy of every migrated subscription to cancel at period end, and LaunchPass's Telegram guide says its removals count as Telegram bans. Our LaunchPass to Whop migration plan lays out the full order, and the Whop vs LaunchPass comparison covers what changes after the switch.

What changed

• October 3, 2026: First published. Whop, InviteMember, LaunchPass and Telegram pricing and help pages checked October 3, 2026.