Telegram Premium Is Here: Features And Pricing

Telegram premium is official! After months of work and rumours, the messaging platform has finally launched the premium plan and revealed all the features that come with it, while also announcing Telegram's new feat of 700 million monthly active users.

"Telegram became one of the top-5 downloaded apps worldwide in 2022 and how has over 700 million monthly users. This growth is solely from personal recommendations - Telegram has never paid to advertise its apps," Telegram said in a blog post.

Telegram Premium Features

Premium Telegram users will get exclusive access to premium features such as 4GB file uploads, double limits, faster downloads, exclusive stickers and reactions, improve chat management, and lots of other features.

However, Telegram notes that all existing features that users have relied upon for almost a decade will still remain free, adding that it will not move any of the free features behind a paywall but instead, it will enhance many of them into a paid tier.

"The contributions of premium subscribers will help improve and expand the app for decades to come, while Telegram will remain free, independent and uphold its users-first values, redefining how a tech company should operate," a blog post read.

Below are the new features on Telegram Premium:

4GB Uploads: Telegram allows files and media sharing of up to 2GB and unlimited cloud storage per user. However, Telegram Premium doubles the size and allows a user to send media files up to 4GB.

Faster Downloads: Download speed on Telegram sometimes can be slow and very annoying. With Telegram Premium, subscribers will get to download media and files at the fastest speed possible. 

Double Limits: Everything in this section has been doubled. Telegram does allow regular users on the free version to follow up to 500 channels. On Telegram Premium, subscribers will be able to follow up to 1000 channels. 

Similarly, premium users will be able to pin 10 chats instead of 5 and save up to 10 favourite stickers. Premium users will also be able to create up to 20 chat folders with up to 200 chats each and will be able to add a fourth account to any Telegram app. 

There will be exclusively, about 400 favourite GIFs for premium subscribers to respond to messages, and premium users will be able to reserve up to 20 public t.me links, giving any channel or group stand out with a short and concise link. 

Animated Profile Pictures: The profile videos of premium users will animate for everyone on Telegram, including in chat and chat list.

Longer Bio: Telegram premium users will have the option to write a longer bio and include a link in it. In addition, users will be able to add more characters to media captions.

Voice-to-Text: Premium users will be able to convert voice messages sent to them into text if they want to read and not listen to them.

Chat Management: You will be able to set Telegram to always open a custom folder with your favourite conversations, or you can set it to open unread chats instead of the default "All Chats" folder that opens when you click on the Telegram app. Also, you will be able to archive and mute new conversations.

Unique Reactions and Stickers: With Telegram Premium, users will be able to react and express themselves better with full-screen animations and 10 new emojis. These exclusive stickers can be sent during private and group chats, and they will be visible to all users. Telegram promises monthly updates of this sticker collection.

No Ads: What's the use of a premium subscription if you will still end up seeing ads! Though not everywhere, in some countries, sponsored messages are shown in large public channels to help support Telegram's operating costs. With Telegram Premium, that will cease to exist.

Premium Badges And App Icons: All premium users will get a special badge next to their name to distinguish them from free users. This badge will appear to everyone in the chat list, chat headers, and member lists in groups.

Also, premium users will be able to add new icons to their Home Screen to better match their personality or wallpaper.

Telegram says non-premium users will be able to enjoy some premium benefits. That is, they will be able to download the extra-large documents and view stickers sent by premium users. Also, they can tap to increase counters on premium reactions added to a message.

Telegram Premium Pricing 

Though Telegram highlighted the features of the premium tier, it didn't say anything regarding the pricing. However, there is a high chance that the pricing will vary from one region to the other between the range of $5 to $6.

Take India for example, the subscription costs Rs 460 per month (which is less than $6) for iOS users.