Telegram will allow channel creators to accept donations via a new @donate bot

· 3 min read
Telegram will allow channel creators to accept donations via a new @donate bot

This new bot can be found as @donate and already available to creators. It has an official verification badge and provided by the smart-glocal service.

Donate bot will allow creators to post messages with action buttons that will trigger a payment flow inside the Telegram. Currently, only payments in EUR are supported and the amount may vary from 1 to 100 EUR. Apart from default values, users should be able to adjust the amount during the payment process.

To start receiving donations, creators have to meet certain requirements.

Your channel has over 1000 followers, it is public and over 3 months old. Your channel content falls mainly under the entertainment and education categories.

On top of that, the content of the channel has to follow general Telegram guidelines.

To kick out the setup process, creators should contact the @donate bot and follow its instructions. From there it will be easy to access the FAQ and check all the necessary information. There is also a separate button to contact Support in case of payment and verification issues.

The bot will have to be added to the channel as Administrator and after that, you will be able to start the verification process. You will be asked to submit your payout information that can be a credit card or a bank account. On the next step, you will be redirected to the Sumsub webpage to pass the identity verification.

Sumsub is a third-party provider that handles KYC and document verification and you will have to share your photo and the photo of your ID with them.

When the verification is complete, creators should be able to post messages with certain keywords that will trigger the @donate bot and it will add donation buttons to the message.

Creator settings and Support bot on Telegram
Creator settings and Support bot on Telegram

Payout guidelines will require you to have at least 100 EUR in donations. The donation service will take a 2.5 EUR fee for payment processing and a 5 EUR fee for itself.

Payment processing fees

There are payment processing fees that cover the cost of all the things we do behind the scenes to collect donations from your followers.

- 2.5% but not less than €0.08 per successful donation

Service fee

We only receive a small percentage once you start collecting donations through our service.

- 5% per successful donation

Payout processing fees

These are the fees that are associated with transferring your collected donations to your specified payout method.

- 2.5% + € 2 to a Visa and MasterCard bank card
- € 35 to a bank account

All the FAQ documents are available via Telegraph and can be found below 👇

For now, you can start the verification process already. It is also required to be done per channel so if you have many of them, it is better to start earlier 😋

Are you going to use it? Let's support each other - share your channels below if you've set @donate bot up and tested it already!

And don't forget to follow @tgtester channel to get more updates about Telegram!

Not a beta tester yet? Check this out 🔥

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