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Даниил Корнилов
Даниил Корнилов

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I Built a Store Inside Telegram — Users Pay with Stars, Not Credit Cards

The Problem with Selling Digital Products

Every platform takes a cut:

  • Gumroad: 10%
  • App Store: 15-30%
  • Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30

And your customers need to enter their credit card every time.

Enter Telegram Stars

Telegram introduced Stars — a built-in currency that users can buy once and spend across any bot.

No credit cards per transaction. No payment forms. No redirects.

Just tap "Buy" and it's done.

What I Built

I created a Telegram bot that works as a full digital product store:

  • 26 products across 6 categories
  • 3 bundles with discounts
  • Instant PDF delivery after payment
  • SQLite database tracking all purchases
  • Zero monthly costs (runs on a VPS)

The Tech Stack 

import telebot
from telebot.types import LabeledPrice

bot = telebot.TeleBot(TOKEN)

@bot.message_handler(commands=['start'])
def start(message):
    bot.send_message(
        message.chat.id,
        "Welcome to SwiftUI Dev Shop!",
        reply_markup=main_menu_keyboard()
    )

def send_invoice(chat_id, product):
    bot.send_invoice(
        chat_id,
        title=product['name'],
        description=product['description'],
        invoice_payload=product['id'],
        provider_token='',  # Empty for Stars!
        currency='XTR',     # Telegram Stars
        prices=[LabeledPrice(
            label=product['name'],
            amount=product['stars']
        )]
    )
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Key Insight: provider_token=''

With Telegram Stars, you don't need Stripe, PayPal, or any payment provider. Set provider_token to an empty string and currency to 'XTR'.

Telegram handles everything.

Product Categories

Category Products Price Range
SwiftUI Templates 3 50-75 ⭐
Notion Systems 5 25-75 ⭐
Career Guides 8 25-50 ⭐
AI Toolkits 3 50-75 ⭐
Business Tools 4 25-75 ⭐
Bundles 3 75-350 ⭐

Why This Works

  1. No friction — users already have Telegram open
  2. Micro-pricing — 25 stars ≈ $0.50, low barrier
  3. Instant delivery — PDF sent automatically
  4. No platform fees — Telegram doesn't take a cut from bot payments
  5. Global reach — 900M+ Telegram users worldwide

Try It Yourself

Bot: @SwiftUIDailyBot on Telegram

Open it, browse the catalog, and buy something with Stars. The whole experience takes 10 seconds.

I'm a 19-year-old iOS developer building digital products. Follow me for more SwiftUI content and indie hacker updates.

Telegram: t.me/SwiftUIDaily

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