Telegram gives you plenty of ways to buy Stars and no way at all to cash them out. If you have a balance sitting in an account doing nothing, or gift NFTs you would rather have as spendable crypto, the app itself offers you nothing.
Third party services fill that gap. Here is what Stars are actually worth when you sell, how the process works, and the one number to check before you do it.
What Telegram Stars are worth when you sell
Rates move with the TON price, so a good service shows you the exact figure before you commit rather than after. At the rate in StarLedger when this was written:
| You sell | You receive |
|---|---|
| 1,000 Stars | about $8.40, volume bonus included |
The exact payout, shown before you confirm anything.
Selling is not the reverse of buying, and it should not be. Buying 1,000 Stars costs around $16.50. Selling the same 1,000 gets you about $8.40. That gap is the spread, and every exchange of every kind has one. It matters because it tells you what this is for: cashing out Stars you already hold or earned, not moving money in a circle.
Bigger sales pay more per Star
The volume bonus is applied automatically, so there is nothing to claim:
| Amount | Bonus |
|---|---|
| 1,000 Stars and up | +5% |
| 5,000 and up | +10% |
| 50,000 and up | +15% |
| 100,000 and up | +25% |
The minimum sale is 10 Stars, the maximum is 100,000 per transaction. If you are close to a tier, one larger sale beats two smaller ones by a clear margin.
Presets, bonus tiers, and gift NFT selling in one screen.
Selling a gift NFT
Gifts work differently from Stars because a gift has to physically move to the buyer. The order of operations is what protects you:
- Paste the gift link and check the price first.
- If the number is acceptable, transfer the gift to the escrow account.
- TON is credited to your balance automatically, usually within five minutes.
The important part is that you see the exact TON figure before anything leaves your account. A service that asks you to send the gift and then tells you what it was worth has the incentives backwards. Escrow is the right shape here, and it is worth checking any service you use offers it.
Getting paid
Four steps, from selling to a TON wallet.
Payouts go to any TON-compatible wallet, including Tonkeeper, TON Wallet and MyTonWallet. Selling Stars credits your balance instantly. Withdrawal is mostly instant with a $0.10 minimum, low enough that you are never stuck holding a balance you cannot move.
There is no conversion fee. The only cost is standard TON network gas on the withdrawal, which goes to the network rather than to the service.
Earning on top of selling
Referrals pay 20% of every sale made by people you invite, added to your balance instantly, with no cap and no expiry.
Balance, payout history and the referral programme in one place.
This is worth more than it looks, because a referral pays every time that person sells again rather than once. If you run a channel where people accumulate Stars, that compounds without you doing anything further.
What to check before you sell anything
Four things, and they apply to any service in this category rather than just this one.
- See the payout before you commit. If a service will not show you the exact figure until after you have sent Stars or a gift, walk away.
- Gifts must go through escrow. Never transfer a collectible to an address somebody sends you in a DM.
- Nobody needs your login. A Stars sale needs a Telegram payment and a wallet address. Anything asking for a password, a login code or a seed phrase is a scam, and asking is the tell.
- Check the wallet address twice. TON transfers are final. This is the most common way people lose a payout, and no service can reverse it.
What this does not do
- It is not a way to make money on Stars. Buy at $16.50 and sell at $8.40 and you have lost half. This is for Stars you already have.
- The rate moves. It follows the TON price, so the number you see today is not the number tomorrow.
- Gift prices are offers, not valuations. What a service will pay for a collectible is not the same as what it might fetch on an open marketplace. For a rare gift, check both.
- You need a TON wallet. Not difficult, but it is a step, and getting the address wrong is unforgiving.
Where to start
If you have a Star balance you are never going to spend, sell a small amount first and watch the whole flow work before you sell anything large. That is sensible with any service that pays in crypto.
StarLedger is the one we have listed and verified. They post payment proofs publicly in @StarLedgerProof, and rate updates go to @StarLedgerNews. If you are going the other way and want to buy Stars cheaply instead, that is a separate guide.