Telegram Bot API adds sendPaidMedia for paid photos and videos in channels

What this means for you

A channel can now post a photo or video that is blurred until a reader pays a few Telegram Stars, Telegram's in-app coins. Tools can post these for you. If the post goes to a channel, the money goes to the channel. This only matters if you sell content on Telegram.

The details

• Method: sendPaidMedia with chat_id, star_count, media (an array of InputPaidMediaPhoto or InputPaidMediaVideo) and an optional caption.
• Limits today: star_count 1 to 25,000; up to 10 media items; caption 0 to 1,024 characters after entities parsing; optional payload of 0 to 128 bytes.
• Proceeds: "If the chat is a channel, all Telegram Star proceeds from this media will be credited to the chat's balance. Otherwise, they will be credited to the bot's balance."
• History: Bot API 7.6 launched it; 7.9 allowed paid media "to any chat" and on behalf of business accounts; 7.10 added PaidMediaPurchased updates; 9.0 raised the maximum price to 10,000 Stars; 9.3 raised it to 25,000 Stars; 10.0 added live photos as paid media.
• Copying: copyMessage and copyMessages cannot be used to copy paid media, so cross-posting a paid post means sending it again.
• ChatFullInfo.can_send_paid_media tells you whether a chat allows it.

What to do next

• Business owners: Nothing, unless you sell photos or videos on Telegram.
• Marketers and agencies: If a client sells content in a Telegram channel, ask whether your scheduler supports paid posts.
• Developers: Check can_send_paid_media, send with sendPaidMedia, and re-send rather than copy when cross-posting paid media.