Other channels keep posting “boost our channel” with a link, and your channel has no button for stories at all. Telegram won’t let a channel post stories until subscribers with Premium give it boosts. More boosts mean a higher level and more features: stories, colors, wallpapers, auto-translation and, at a high level, switching off Telegram’s official ads.
Is it worth it for a small channel, and what should you post once stories unlock? Below: how boosts work, what each level gives, how to collect the first ones without begging, which story formats work for channels, and when to skip all of it.
Where boosts come from
A boost is a vote from a subscriber with Telegram Premium. Users without Premium can’t boost.
- Premium comes with 4 boosts. They can go to one channel or be split across several. A boost stays until the person moves it, and moving isn’t instant: each slot has a cooldown. When Premium ends, the boosts disappear.
- Gifting Premium. Whoever gifts a subscription gets 3 extra boosts; the recipient gets 1.
- Channel giveaways. The channel buys Premium subscriptions and gives them away to subscribers. For each winner it gets 4 boosts for the length of the subscription. A giveaway runs up to 31 days and can be limited to certain countries or to new subscribers only. Telegram Stars giveaways bring boosts too.
Everything about boosts lives in the channel profile under Statistics → Boosts: your link in the form t.me/yourchannel?boost, the current level, how many boosts the next level needs, who is boosting, and the share of subscribers with Premium.
That last number is your ceiling. Say your channel has 3,000 subscribers and 2% have Premium: that’s 60 people and up to 240 boosts, but only some will give them. If the share is close to zero, collecting will take months.
What each level unlocks
Each level needs more boosts than the one before. Key features and their minimum level under Telegram’s current settings (they change occasionally; the exact thresholds show in the channel’s appearance menu):
| Level | What unlocks |
|---|---|
| 1 | Stories: 1 per day, plus one more with every level |
| 1 and up | Custom emoji reactions and channel name colors: more options at higher levels |
| 3 | Auto-translation of posts into the subscriber’s language |
| 4 | Custom emoji in the background of the channel’s quotes and links |
| 7 | Profile background color and emoji |
| 8 | Emoji status next to the channel name |
| 9 | Channel wallpapers from Telegram’s set |
| 10 | Custom wallpapers |
| 50 | Switching off Telegram’s official ads in the channel |
A realistic goal for a small channel is levels 1–3. Stories add another touchpoint, and auto-translation helps channels with a bilingual audience, like an English-language channel read by Spanish speakers in Miami. Check the translation on five or six posts yourself. Wallpapers and emoji status are cosmetic and not worth asking for boosts. Level 50 is realistic only for large channels with a big Premium audience; other ways to earn and manage ads are covered in our guide to Telegram channel monetization.
How to collect your first boosts
- Start with yourself and your team. Every admin with Premium has 4 boosts to give the channel.
- Explain what subscribers get. “Boost the channel” doesn’t work because people don’t see why they should. A specific promise does.
- One post, pinned. A dedicated post with the boost link, pinned while you collect. Once the level unlocks, say thanks and unpin it.
- Remind at the moment of value. Under the most useful post of the week, one line: “If this helped and you have Premium, here’s the boost link. It unlocks morning stories with new gigs.”
- A Premium giveaway, if you have a budget. Five subscriptions mean 20 boosts for the subscription period. The price depends on duration and quantity, and Telegram shows it before launch. It only works with a live audience: a giveaway among bots brings boosts, not views.
An example post that beats “please support the channel”:
New idea: every morning at 9:00, a story with the day's best
freelance design gigs, so you don't have to dig through job boards.
To launch it, the channel needs boosts. If you have Telegram Premium,
it's free and takes two seconds: t.me/designgigs?boost
Once we hit the level, the first story goes out the next morning.What not to do: buy boosts on marketplaces. A bought boost lasts as long as the seller keeps Premium and doesn’t move it to the next client. Your level can drop at any moment, and the stories you taught subscribers to expect will have to stop.
What to post in channel stories
Subscribers see channel stories in the bar above their chats. They don’t replace posts; they’re a short “today, right now” format. What works:
- Teasing a fresh post. Share your post to stories: anyone who missed it in the feed sees it in the bar and opens it with one tap. The simplest and most useful format.
- A daily roundup. Rates, prices, schedules, menus, whatever your audience checks every day. A coffee shop: “Latte 15% off until 11:00, chili for lunch.”
- A reaction poll. A reaction sticker with a question: “What should we break down on Friday? 🔥 taxes, 👍 hiring.” Channel stories show a counter for each reaction. An admin without Premium can add one such sticker per story; with Premium, up to five.
- Behind the scenes. The warehouse, production, launch prep: things too small for a post that show real people.
- Urgent offers with a deadline. A sale until tonight, the last webinar seats: the story disappears after a day along with the offer.
- Going live. Channels with stories unlocked can stream right inside stories, with chat and Stars donations. Good for Q&As and product launches.
Technical details: a story lasts 24 hours (an admin with Premium can choose 6, 12 or 48), and the format is a vertical photo or video up to 30 MB. Save your best stories to the channel profile and group them into albums like “Menu”, “Reviews” or “How to find us”; up to three can be pinned to the top. More format ideas are in our list of Stories ideas.
Rhythm: one or two stories a day is enough. Five in a row get tapped through unread.
How to tell if stories are working
Channel statistics show views, reactions, forwards and reposts for each story. But what matters isn’t the story’s own views; it’s what it does for your posts. A two-week check:
- Tease every other post in stories.
- Compare first-24-hour views for posts with and without a teaser.
- If teased posts consistently get more, stories pay for the time. If there’s no difference, keep only roundups and urgent announcements.
Stories amplify regular posts but don’t replace them. How to keep posts going out on schedule, so the channel doesn’t go quiet in busy weeks, is covered in our guide to scheduled posts in Telegram.
When boosts and stories aren’t worth it
- Almost no Premium subscribers. Collecting will take months, and the requests will annoy people who can’t help.
- Nothing to show every day. Nobody waits for a weekly story; put the effort into posts.
- Evergreen content. Guides, checklists and breakdowns belong in posts: people save and forward them, while a story vanishes in a day.
- The channel isn’t growing yet. Until you have a few hundred real subscribers, boosts don’t solve the main problem. Start with the sources in our Telegram channel growth plan.
Stories are still posted by hand in the Telegram app, but channel posts don’t have to live in your head. In Repost21 they go into the content calendar on the best slots and publish on schedule alongside Instagram, Threads and X, and Luna can draft the teaser text. Try it free: the free plan is enough to run one channel on a schedule.