How to Send a Gift on Telegram (2026)

Sending a gift on Telegram takes about fifteen seconds once you know where the button is. The decisions worth understanding take slightly longer: whether to pre-pay for the recipient's upgrade, whether to send anonymously, and what happens to the gift afterwards — because the person receiving it can display it, upgrade it, transfer it, or destroy it for Stars.

What you need first

• Telegram Stars. Gifts are priced in Stars, so you need a balance. Buy them in Settings → My Stars, or earn them free in mini-apps.
• An up-to-date app. Gifts and collectibles have shipped across several releases; an old client may not show the option.
• A recipient who accepts gifts. Most people do by default.

How to send a gift: step by step

1. Open the chat with the person you want to send to.
2. Open their profile.
3. Tap Gift (on some clients it sits behind the ⋮ menu, or as a gift icon in the message input area).
4. Browse the catalogue and pick a gift. Prices are shown in Stars, and limited-availability gifts are flagged.
5. Optionally attach a message.
6. Optionally hide your name, so the gift shows as anonymous.
7. Optionally pre-pay for the upgrade — see below, this is the one worth thinking about.
8. Confirm and pay with Stars.

The gift appears in the chat and on the recipient's profile if they choose to display it.

The three options people get wrong

Pre-paying for the upgrade

When you buy, you can set a flag that covers the cost of upgrading the gift into a collectible. This is the most consequential toggle in the flow.

A standard gift can only be kept, displayed, or converted to Stars. An upgraded gift becomes a unique collectible with randomised attributes — a distinct appearance, backdrop, symbol and number — which can be transferred, listed on Telegram's marketplace, or exported to the TON blockchain as an NFT.

If you don't pre-pay, the recipient has to spend their own Stars to unlock any of that. If you're sending a gift you want to mean something, pre-pay. Read The Complete Guide to Telegram NFT Gifts for what upgrading unlocks.

Hiding your name

Anonymous sending hides you from other viewers of the profile. Consider it carefully alongside the next point, because anonymity and permanence interact.

Original details are preserved on upgrade

When a gift is upgraded, there's an option to keep the original text, sender and receiver permanently attached to the collectible as an attribute. That means a message you wrote can travel with the item indefinitely — including if it's later sold to a stranger or exported to a public blockchain. Write accordingly.

What the recipient can do with it

Yes — they can convert your gift into Stars and the gift ceases to exist. There's a time limit on doing so, and gifts won at auction are excluded, but the option is theirs. You aren't notified.

Costs and limits worth knowing

• Gift prices vary widely and limited-edition gifts can sell out. Telegram has noted that some collections sold out within minutes.
• Upgrading costs extra — either you pre-pay it or they do. Telegram exposes both the current upgrade price and a schedule of future prices, so the cost is not necessarily fixed forever.
• Conversion pays less than purchase. By design.
• Transfers may be delayed. Some collectibles can't be transferred or exported until a set date.

Gift-sending etiquette

• Pre-pay the upgrade for people who care about collectibles. It's the difference between a nice image and a real item.
• Don't send expensive gifts to strangers. Unsolicited high-value gifts are a common opener for social-engineering attempts.
• Don't take conversion personally. Plenty of people prefer the Stars, and it's a normal use of the feature.
• Keep anonymous gifts kind. Anonymity plus permanence is a bad combination for anything you wouldn't sign.

FAQ

Can I send Stars directly instead of a gift?

Telegram supports gifting Stars to another user as well as sending gifts. But you cannot transfer an arbitrary slice of your existing balance to a friend the way you'd send money — the gifting flow is its own purchase.

Can I cancel a gift after sending?

No. Once delivered it belongs to the recipient.

Can I see if they upgraded or sold it?

A displayed collectible is visible on their profile. Sales aren't announced to you.

Can I send a gift to someone who hasn't messaged me?

Usually yes, subject to their privacy settings. Someone who restricts messages from non-contacts may not be reachable.

Do gifts expire?

The gift itself doesn't. The option to convert it to Stars does — it is only available for a limited period after receipt.

What's the cheapest gift?

The catalogue spans a wide range and changes over time; entry-level gifts cost a small number of Stars. Check the current catalogue in-app.

Get gifts to send without buying Stars

Gift Club awards real Telegram gifts from boxes you can open with Stars earned in-game through daily claims, streaks, and mini-games.

Open Gift Club in Telegram →

Want to go deeper?

• The Complete Guide to Telegram NFT Gifts — what upgrading actually creates.
• What Are Telegram Stars? — the currency gifts are priced in.
• How to Sell Telegram Gifts — what the recipient can do next.
• Telegram Stars Price — what a gift costs in real money.