What is Telegram Premium? Everything You Need to Know

Jun. 8, 2022

The first Telegram Premium perk is increased file upload size. Going forward, Telegram Premium subscriberscan upload files of sizes up to 4GB. Non-premium users will continue to have 2GB as the upload size, a feature thatrecently found its way to WhatsAppas well. If you’re someone who often shares huge files with friends and peers, you might find this feature appealing.

Next up, Telegram says it is increasing the overall download speeds for subscribers. Notably,Premium users will not have any speed limitswhen downloading media and documents. Regular users will have a max speed limit for Telegram downloads. It goes without saying that you will need a fast internet connection to utilize the speed gains if you’re a Premium subscriber.

Also new in Telegram Premium areexclusive stickers. Compared to stickers that are available now, these stickers will have additional effects. Furthermore, Telegram promises to update stickers on a monthly basis.

Users who are on multiple channels would benefit from the new advanced chat management features. Telegram Premium users will have theoption to set a default folder for chats, auto-archive chats, and even hide new messages from users not on their contacts list.

Taking a page out of Signal’s playbook, Telegram is adding profile badges for subscribers.Premium subscribers will get a star icon badge next to their namein the conversation window, and it will be visible to all users.

Currently available as a free feature for everyone, theoption to set animated profile pictures is going behind a paywall. In case you are unaware, Telegram lets you set video avatars to help express yourself better on the platform.

Telegram introduced message reactions last December. At the moment, there are 16 message reactions to choose from. In addition to those reactions,Telegram will introduce exclusive animated reactions on messages to Premium subscribers. This is an easy way to stand out from the crowd, if you’re into that. WhatsApp has since also jumped on the bandwagon andintroduced message reactionsfor all users.

Alongside these features,Premium subscribers will enjoy twice the limits of free users. Subscribers can join up to 1000 channels, pin 10 chats, reserve 10 public username links, save up to 400 GIFs and 200 stickers, and use 140 characters in the bios link. Moreover, the subscribers will also be able to use longer captions with up to 4096 characters, access 20 folders, group up to 10 chats per folder, and add 4 connected accounts with different phone numbers.

Telegram Premium is priced at $4.99 per month, as spotted in the latest beta. Although we don’t know the exact India pricing of Telegram Premium right now, that roughly translates to around Rs. 388 here in India. We could expect it to be priced slightly lower than that, ideally around Rs. 250 per month, though.

Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.