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How to run a giveaway in a Telegram channel
A Telegram giveaway can be run two ways: with Telegram’s built-in feature or through a bot. We cover both, then go step by step: conditions, rules, the post, subscription check, picking the winner and what to do with participants once the results are in.
Telegram’s built-in giveaway or a bot
Telegram has built-in giveaways for channels and supergroups. The prize can be Telegram Premium subscriptions or Stars, channel subscribers take part, and Telegram itself picks the winners. You can limit the giveaway to new subscribers and countries and add a condition to subscribe to extra channels. Your own prize can only be described in text — you hand it over yourself, outside Telegram.
A bot is needed when the prize is your product or service, when you want to set the conditions and a “not a bot” check yourself, and above all when participants should stay with you: in your base, so you can message them after the draw. The built-in giveaway doesn’t give you that: after the draw you only keep the subscriber growth.
Preparation: prize, timing, sponsors
Pick a prize that fits your audience: your own product, a gift card, a service, a consultation. A generic prize like a smartphone attracts people who want a smartphone, not your channel — and they are the first to leave after the results.
Keep entries open for 5–7 days as a rule. Shorter, and the post doesn’t have time to spread through reposts and chats; longer, and the giveaway gets lost in the feed and forgotten. You can also close entries by the number of participants if size matters more to you than the date — then say so in the rules.
A joint giveaway with other channels — sponsors — widens your reach, but every extra “subscribe here too” filters out some people. Keep no more than three channels in the conditions. The bot can check a subscription to a sponsor’s channel only if the sponsor adds your bot as an admin of their channel — agree on this in advance.
Conditions and rules before the start
Decide in advance and publish:
- Organizer — who runs the giveaway and how to reach them.
- Dates — until when entries are accepted or how many are needed, when the results are.
- Who takes part and how — entry is free, the condition is a channel subscription, one person — one number.
- Prizes — by place, with their value.
- How the winner is picked and where the results are published.
- Handover — when the winner must reply and what happens if they don’t.
Full rules go on a separate page, the post has a short version and a link. Why entry must be free, and what about prize tax and consents — in the article on giveaway rules.
A post with a “Join” button
The channel post is the entry point: prize, conditions, results date, a link to the rules and a “Join” button that opens the bot. In Telegram the button leads to a link like t.me/your_bot?start=label: the bot sees which giveaway the person came from.
Don’t use conditions like “tag three friends in the comments” or “leave a reaction”: the bot can’t check them, and counting them fairly by hand across hundreds of participants is impossible. Subscription and entry through the bot are checked automatically.
Subscription check
The bot asks Telegram whether the person is subscribed to the channel. Telegram answers reliably only to a bot that is a channel admin, so make the bot an admin first. If the giveaway includes sponsors’ channels, they must add the bot as an admin too.
Check the subscription twice: on entry and at the draw. Some participants unsubscribe right after getting a number — the second check keeps them from winning.
Protection against bots and cheating
Telegram giveaways attract bot farms: a noticeable prize brings thousands of accounts created only to win prizes. You can’t fully protect yourself, but you can make their life harder:
- A “not a bot” check on entry — a sum to solve with answer buttons, or your own question.
- Rate limiting — if hundreds join within a minute, some are asked to try a bit later, and those who joined during the spike are flagged.
- Flags for suspicious entries — joined an hour before the results, the same person from several accounts, too many invites within a few minutes.
- A manual review before the results — look through the flagged entries and remove obvious cheating before the list is locked. After it’s locked, removing entries is no longer allowed, otherwise people stop trusting the results.
Re-checking subscriptions at the results is protection too: some bots unsubscribe right after joining.
Bring a friend: extra chances
A common technique is a personal participant link: for every N friends who join through it, the participant gets an extra chance. To keep referrals from turning into cheating, count a friend only after they meet the conditions themselves, cap the extra chances, and don’t count people who were already your subscribers or customers before the giveaway. It’s fairer to count an extra chance as the weight of a number in the draw rather than as a second number — then the participant list still has one line per person.
How to pick the winner fairly
Participants trust the results only if they can check them. A reliable scheme: publish the hash of a secret number before the start, fix the list of participants once entries close, and reveal the number at the draw — then anyone can repeat the pick. More in the article how to pick a winner fairly.
After the draw: participants stay with you
Message the winner privately and ask for the handover details, and ask separately for consent to publish their name — without it the results show only the number. If the winner stays silent, the prize goes to the next person in reserve. Other participants can get a consolation promo code — but only those who agreed to receive mailings.
A week and a month later, check how many participants are still subscribed: that’s the real result of the giveaway, not the number of entries.
Common mistakes
- No rules, or rules that change along the way. Participants notice first and write about it in the comments.
- Conditions that can’t be checked: “tag your friends”, “leave a reaction”, “repost to your story”.
- The winner is picked by hand “from the most active” — from the outside it looks rigged.
- The results are late or only announced in private messages. Publish them in the same channel on the promised day.
- The winner’s name is published without their consent. Without separate consent, publish only the participant number.
- A cash prize without rules or tax. A prize worth more than 4,000 ₽ triggers personal income tax.
- Nothing is done with participants after the results — within a week most of them unsubscribe.
How to do it in CHBT
In CHBT all of this is the “Giveaways” section and the “Subscription giveaway” template: the bot checks the subscription, issues numbers, runs the draw with a public record, messages the winner and creates a deal for the handover. Features and pricing — on the Telegram giveaway bot page.
FAQ
Can I run a giveaway for free? A built-in Telegram giveaway is paid for by the prize itself — Premium subscriptions or Stars. Free randomizer bots pick a winner, but the participants don’t stay with you. In CHBT you can run one giveaway on the Free plan, but it has a limit of 30 conversations per month — there won’t be more participants than that. Without this limit — from the Basic plan, 650 ₽ per bot per month.
Do I need to make the bot a channel admin? Yes, if the bot checks subscriptions: Telegram reliably answers this question only to a bot that is an admin of the channel.
What if the winner doesn’t respond? Set a response deadline in the rules — for example, 48 hours. No response — the prize goes to the next participant from the reserve, and this is visible in the results.
Can I give away money? Yes, but for a cash prize worth more than 4,000 ₽ the organizer — a company or a sole proprietor — withholds personal income tax. More in the article about giveaway rules.
How many winners can I pick? As many as the rules state. In CHBT — up to 3 on the Free plan, up to 50 on Basic and up to 100 on Business, plus a reserve in case a winner doesn’t respond.
Telegram giveaway botHow to pick a winner fairlyGiveaway rules and prize taxWhat a bot can do for a Telegram channel