Telegram’s Premium tier is here: Here’s how much it costs and what all it brings

We reported a while ago that Telegram CEO Pavel Durov had announced the platform’s Premium tier. Durov explained in his post that while what Telegram was already offering was “unrivalled”, many users had been asking for more features. “The problem here is that if we were to remove all limits for everyone, our server and traffic costs would have become unmanageable, so the party would be unfortunately over for everyone,” Durov said.

He then went on to add that the only way to get more features to users, while keeping the existing ones free, was to “make those raised limits a paid option”. Durov mentioned that Telegram’s free tier would be getting more features over time, some of them common with the Premium tier, but of course, not all. And we were not aware at that point in time what the Premium benefits were.

Now, Telegram has released version 8.8 on the Apple App Store which introduces the Premium tier for $4.99 per month (Rs 389 approx). We haven’t spotted the update on the Google Play Store yet, but it should be coming in soon. In India, Telegram's Premium tier is going to set you back by Rs 469/month.

So, what all does the Premium tier on Telegram include?

For $4.99 or Rs 469 per month, here’s what you get -

• 4GB uploads
• Faster downloads
• Support to connect 4 accounts in any app
• Organise chats into 20 folders, 200 chats can be held in each folder
• Pin 10 chats in the main list
• Option to reserve up to 20 public t.me links
• Save 400 favourite GIFs and 10 favourite stickers
• Longer bio-option available, can also include links
• Include longer captions for photos and videos
• Voice-to-text transcriptions
• Unique stickers and reactions
• Premium badge
• Support for Profile video
• More custom icons
• No ads

Telegram’s version 8.8 on iOS also brings in some new features for both free and paid tiers including support for join requests on public groups, new animation when large files are shared from other apps on Telegram, bot improvements, ProMotion 120Hz support, and bug fixes.

Also Read: If you want more features, get ready to pay: CEO Pavel Durov introduces Telegram Premium

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