Donate Bot News

Donate Service is shutting down

Dear authors, we have important news! We have worked on the Donate project for two years, sharing tips on blog monetization with you. However, we have now decided to focus on other projects, and therefore, soon, we will suspend operations of the @donate service.

You can switch to the Tribute service and continue monetizing your Telegram channel.

Tribute is a new service. You can transfer all your active subscriptions and subscribers there. Simply open the @Tribute bot and start the transition.

Regarding your funds: don't worry, we will pay out your remaining balance that has reached the threshold. Any remaining funds below the minimum amount can be transferred to Tribute. Just switch to the new service to do this.

Follow the Tribute | Monetize your content channel to stay updated. You can also contact Tribute support with any questions you have.

How @donate reminds users of unpaid subscriptions

If a user has requested a subscription but hasn't paid for it yet, @donate will remind them about it 👋

The user can either purchase the subscription or cancel notifications. If they miss the first one, the second will come in 7 days, and the next one in 30 ✨

Donate adds 9 new countries for payouts to local bank accounts

Now every creator can get a payout to their bank account in the following countries:

Belgium
Brazil
Estonia
Japan
Kenya
The Netherlands
Nigeria
Slovakia
Sweden

✨Payouts to local accounts are convenient, with a fixed commission of 15 euros regardless of the amount

The full list includes 50 countries

Updates for the Posts with Paid Access Feature

🧑‍🎨 Authors

Publication History
The History button has been added to the paid content menu that displays detailed information about published posts with paid access in chronological order in the feed format:
∙ channel name
∙ post publication date
∙ price and currency
∙ number of payments and total amount of payments

Content Editing
Authors can now edit content of the post with paid access before publishing it:
∙ media — image or video
∙ cost amount
∙ payment currency
∙ distribution channel

😎 Followers

Repository of the Purchased Content

Followers can now access the content they purchased and its details:
∙ channel name
∙ date of purchase

New feature on release

Authors can now give the audience of their public Telegram channels the easy way of supporting on a regular basis via public channel subscription.

The new feature combines the functionality of the tips and recurring payments. The recurrent tips feature enables the authors to:

– Create an invoice-message with subscribe button in a public channel, customize the description and cover art.
– Set a minimum payment amount. The subscriber can set the amount of recurring payment, but not less than the amount set by the author.
– Set payment frequency — once a week, month or year. Donate bot will charge the user off accordingly until they cancel the subscription.

More details on how to create a public channel subscription — in our guide 👇

New feature on release

🖼🔒 Posts with paid access are available in @donate.

With this feature, authors can publish videos or photos gated behind the paywall that followers can unlock after making a payment.

∙ The content of the post looks blurred for the subscribers, until they make a payment
∙ Price limits for one post: MIN — 1 EUR, MAX — 1,000 EUR
∙ The number of posts is unlimited

See detailed guide on posts with paid access and info on the associated fees 👇.

New release update

Subscriptions and donations. We have increased the maximum subscription fee to 500 euros for all subscription terms. We have also increased the maximum donation amount to 500 euros.

Subscription covers. Now authors can customize their subscriptions by adding cover images, which can be modified at any time. The followers will see the cover in the Donate bot before paying the subscription fee.

@Donate now available in 18 languages!

We have localized the bot's interface for all languages supported by Telegram, except for Arabic and Persian.

Bot language:
By default, the bot communicates with creators and followers in the language chosen in their Telegram settings.
A creator can change the bot's language by going to Settings > Notifications > Language. The bot’s commands and messages will be displayed in the chosen language.

Channel language:
A creator can choose a language for each of their channels in the settings, and the bot's messages and invoices will be displayed in this language.

New release update

Creators can now customize payment buttons for each channel.
Go to 'Channel Settings' to customize your 'Invoice design'. Choose a title, description, and button text.
Go to 'Preview' to check how your followers see the button. Post the button again with the standard $donate command and pin it to keep it visible.
Please notice that previously posted donate buttons will stay the same. The new design will only be applied to the newly posted buttons.

New release update

New local payout option. Creators can receive payouts to their bank account in rubles. You can add ruble account details in the settings or during the registration.

Accept donations in rubles.
You can switch the currency to rubles in your channel settings. To create a payment button, post the $donate keyword to the channel.

New release update

Subscriptions analytics. Now creators have access to detailed reports on subscriptions. That includes the count of current and unsubscribed followers, bank card payment overview, and total amount per follower.

Local cards support. We now support payout to MIR cards.

New subscription notifications. We added the subscription period and the next payment date to the subscription notifications for creators.

Direct access to the channel. The channel name is updated in a follower's feed automatically. If the channel has been renamed, a follower can still access it directly.

Card country. A creator can change the card issuer's country if payouts to the original country are banned.

Flexible subscription periods, more currencies

Subscription period. We have made it easier to choose the period for the subscriptions: weekly, monthly, annual, or one-time. It will only work for the new subscriptions.

Subscription currency. We are transitioning to multi-currency support. Currency choice for single-time or regular payments will be rolling out gradually, as we continuously add local payments support country by country.

Fewer requirements for the channel, TON subscriptions update & more

Minimal threshold. We have updated the rules for the public channel’s number of followers. The new minimum is 100 followers instead of 1000 followers.

TON subscriptions. Creator now may delete a subscription if there are no active subscribers to it.

Subscription management for the followers. Followers now see more information about their subscriptions: starting date, date of the next payment, the total amount spent on the subscription.

Last update of the year:

TON is now officially one of our supported payment methods.

You may choose to accept TON cryptocurrency when setting up your subscription. If you haven't yet read Pavel Durov’s latest post, check out what TON is.

Russian-speaking creators can enjoy extra bonuses from us when they enable TON.

You may receive a bonus of up to 20% in payouts from your subscriptions in TON and get extra promotion on the Telegram platform.
Follow @subscriptions to learn more.

A few updates this December:

1) Bot learned to speak Russian both to you and your followers. Привет!

2) Donate bot will message your followers when they request to join your channel. It will send a subscription invoice, the details of this particular subscription, and a link to the Terms & Conditions.

Donate bot creates join link -> adds follower to join requests list -> issues invoice -> checks payment -> approves join request.

More on this in the updated article.

Monetize your private channels

You can now set up subscriptions to offer your followers paid access to your private channel(s). The Donate bot will help you create a subscription invoice, generate an invite link after successful payment, and remove access to your private channel when a subscription is canceled.

You may share the subscription invoice in your public channel(s), send it via a direct message to your followers, or share it anywhere online.

You can also use the one-time donation invoice $donate or set up a monthly donation $donate_monthly in your private channel(s).

You can learn more about it here.

Set up your own donation amount

You can now set up a preferred donation amount in the settings and change it whenever needed.

Your followers will see that amount in the invoice as the suggested amount. But, no worries, they still have the option to add tips.

Go to Profile --> Options --> Channel settings to set it up. Then, type in any amount from €1 to €100.

Receive monthly donations from your avid supporters

A new Donate button is now available.
Use $donate_monthly instead of $donate, and the new button is ready to go.

Your followers will pay a fixed amount and be automatically subscribed to monthly donations. The exact amount will be charged from their card on the same day every month.