Telegram Premium emoji
What Telegram Premium (custom) emoji are, where to find and how to add emoji packs, how to create your own with @Stickers, emoji in channels and groups, and what works without Premium.
Premium emoji are Telegram's custom emoji: animated and static, from packs drawn by Telegram's artists and by users themselves. They go right into the text of messages and captions, and they can be used as reactions and as your emoji status. Everyone can see them, while Telegram Premium subscribers can use them in any chat.
How to add an emoji pack
- Press and hold a message with premium emoji — the menu shows a line "This message contains emoji from … pack".
- Tap it: the pack opens.
- Tap "Add" — the emoji appear in your emoji panel.
A pack can also be opened with a link like t.me/addemoji/… — pack authors share such links. You can add up to 200 emoji packs: unused ones are archived as you add more.
Without a subscription a pack can't be added — Telegram says it is available only to Telegram Premium subscribers.
Where to find premium emoji
- In the emoji panel — opened with the button next to the message field. It has your packs, categories, search by words and trending packs.
- In Settings — "Stickers and Emoji" → "Emoji": the packs you've added and the archive, and on Android also "Trending Emoji Packs". You can remove a pack there too.
- In other people's messages — any emoji you like leads to its pack, as described above.
What works without Premium
- Seeing premium emoji in other people's messages, reactions and statuses.
- Sending them to Saved Messages to try them — Telegram suggests this itself.
- Writing with a group's emoji pack: if the admins set an emoji pack for the group, all members can use it, even without Telegram Premium.
- Making a profile picture from an animated or premium emoji.
- Adding a premium reaction that a Premium subscriber has already put on a message.
- Creating your own emoji pack — anyone can. Adding a pack and using it in chats is for Premium subscribers only.
If someone without a subscription forwards a message with premium emoji, regular emoji take their place.
How to create your own premium emoji
Packs are created with @Stickers — Telegram's official bot for stickers and emoji. It has a mini app, and all its functions are also available as text commands.
- Prepare the emoji: a PNG or WEBP image of exactly 100×100 pixels, a WEBM video of exactly 100×100 pixels, no longer than 3 seconds and with no sound, or a vector animation in the TGS format.
- Open @Stickers, create an emoji pack and upload the files.
- For simple one-color icons, send the command
/adaptivewhile creating the pack: such emoji take the text color in messages and the theme's accent color in a status. - Add the finished pack for yourself — you can use it with Premium. Group admins can make it the group's emoji pack.
Premium emoji in a channel and a group
- Channel posts. Premium emoji go into a post from its author, who needs Telegram Premium for that. Subscribers see them without a subscription.
- Channel reactions. A boosted channel can add custom emoji reactions — one more for each level.
- Group emoji pack. From boost level 4 the admins can choose one pack for the group: in the group's profile, "Edit" → "Appearance" → "Group Emoji Pack". All members can use it, even without Premium. You can pick a pack by Telegram's artists or make your own just for the group.
- A channel's or group's status — from boost level 8, see emoji status.
Boosts come from Premium subscribers, and how many boosts a level takes depends on the number of subscribers or members.
Emoji in a name or username
Premium emoji can't go into a profile name: a name on Telegram is text, so only regular emoji work there. A @username can contain only the Latin letters a–z, digits and underscores. The emoji next to a name is the emoji status, set by Premium subscribers.
Premium emoji in bots
Every premium emoji has its own ID — bots use it to show the emoji in messages and on buttons. By Telegram's rules for developers, a bot can do this if it has a username bought on Fragment, or — in messages the bot sends to chats itself — if the bot's owner has Telegram Premium.
Where to get Premium
Sending premium emoji in any chat, adding packs and setting an emoji status all come with a Telegram Premium subscription. You can get it for 3, 6 or 12 months — for yourself or a friend — in the Shiba Bank bot: how to buy Premium.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use premium emoji without Premium?
Anyone can see them. Without a subscription you can send them only to Saved Messages, as a test, and in groups whose admins set a group emoji pack. Everywhere else you need Telegram Premium.
How do I add premium emoji on Telegram?
Press and hold a message with such an emoji, open the pack from the menu and tap "Add". Adding packs requires Telegram Premium; you can have up to 200 packs.
Where do I find premium emoji on Telegram?
In the emoji panel next to the message field: your packs, search by words and trending packs. The list of packs you've added is in Settings, "Stickers and Emoji" → "Emoji".
How do I make my own premium emoji?
With the official @Stickers bot: prepare 100×100 pixel emoji (PNG, WEBP, WEBM up to 3 seconds, or TGS), create a pack and upload the files. Anyone can create a pack; using it takes Premium.
How do I add premium emoji to a channel?
The post's author with Telegram Premium puts them in, and subscribers see them without a subscription. Custom emoji reactions come with the channel's boost levels — one more reaction per level.
Can I put a premium emoji in my name or username?
No: a name takes only regular emoji, and a @username only Latin letters, digits and underscores. A premium emoji next to a name is the emoji status.
