How much can you earn with a Promoted Channel via MTProxy?

A Promoted Channel is not direct earnings, but a promotion for your channel. Indirect income: growth of your channel audience, which can be monetized via ads or sales. There are no direct payouts from Telegram for proxy usage.

Can users disable the Promoted Channel?

Yes. By disabling the proxy in the Telegram settings, the promoted channel will disappear from the chat list. There is no forced pinning.

What happens if I set someone else's channel in the TAG?

Technically possible, but it violates Telegram's terms of service. Moreover, the owner of that channel will not receive any benefit from such promotion realistically.

Is a TAG required for the proxy to work?

No. The TAG is completely optional. A proxy without a TAG works exactly the same, just without the promoted channel.

How many users do I need to see a noticeable effect?

From 100-500 simultaneous users. With 1000+ connected, the daily channel audience growth becomes noticeable.

MTProxy Monetization via Promoted Channels on Telegram

Running a VPS server costs money. Even the minimal plan on Hetzner or DigitalOcean costs around $3–5 per month. Telegram has provided an official way for proxy operators to offset these costs — the Promoted Channels mechanism.

Unlike ad networks, it doesn't require any middlemen and is integrated directly into the MTProxy protocol. Let's see how it works.

How Promoted Channels Work

When a user connects to your MTProxy, the following happens in their Telegram app:

Key features:

Only on active proxy: The channel is pinned only while the user is connected
Only at the top of the list: The channel doesn't forcefully join your list, it's just visually pushed to the top of existing chats
Metadata only: Telegram sends the proxy operator the number of connections, but no user data

Step 1: Register Proxy via @MTProxybot

Open the official bot @MTProxybot in Telegram.

Use the /newproxy command. The bot will ask for:

IP address of your server
Port (e.g., 443)
Secret (starts with ee for Fake TLS)

The bot will test your server for availability and return a TAG — a string like 48656c6c6f....

Step 2: Add TAG to Configuration

For Docker deployments, add the environment variable:

docker run -d \
  --name mtproxy \
  --restart always \
  -p 443:443 \
  -e SECRET="YOUR_SECRET" \
  -e TAG="YOUR_TAG" \
  -e WORKERS=1 \
  -v proxy-config:/data \
  telegrammessenger/proxy:latest

For a native proxy, add the -P flag:

./mtproto-proxy -u nobody -p 8888 -H 443 \
  -S "YOUR_SECRET" \
  -P "YOUR_TAG" \
  --aes-pwd proxy-secret proxy-multi-secret \
  -M 1

Restart the server after editing the configuration.

Step 3: Link a Channel to Your Proxy

Go back to @MTProxybot:

Send /myproxies — you will see a list of your registered proxies
Select your proxy
Tap "Set channel"
Enter the username of your Telegram channel (e.g. @mychannel)

After this, all users connected to your proxy will automatically have your channel pinned at the top.

What the Users See

The user sees your channel pinned at the very top of their chat list — above all other conversations. It's not a push notification or a forced subscription: the channel simply appears visually at the top.

If a user isn't subscribed to the channel, they see it labeled as "sponsored". They can:

Tap to open the channel
Subscribe
Ignore it
Disable the proxy (after which the channel will disappear from the top)

You cannot force a user to subscribe — this is restricted by the platform.

What Telegram Provides to You

In @MTProxybot you get basic stats for each proxy:

Number of active connections
Approximate number of unique users

Telegram does not provide the operator with:

Private user data
Message history
Phone numbers or user usernames

It's important to understand this: the business model of Promoted Channels is based on content promotion rather than data harvesting.

Real Value of this Setup

A Promoted Channel is not a direct way to "make money on proxies". It is an audience growth tool:

Proxy Audience	Expected Monthly Channel Growth
100–500 active users	100–500 new subscribers
1000–5000	500–2000
5000+	2000+

Actual rates depend heavily on channel content quality, topic, region, and conversion rates.

Ways to monetize:

Monetizing your channel via Telegram Premium ads
Selling direct ad placements on your channel
Promoting your own products or services

Technical Details

You can register multiple proxies with different TAGs and link different channels to them. Highly beneficial if you are running multiple projects.

Changing channels instantly applies from the bot interface — no server restart required. The TAG remains the same, only the assigned channel updates on Telegram's side.

TAG without a channel — the proxy operates normally but won't display a Promoted Channel. You can add one later.

Ethical & Legal Aspects

A Promoted Channel is an officially supported feature of Telegram and does not violate Terms of Service. Nonetheless, common sense applies:

Don't promote spam, pyramid schemes, or illegal activities
Limit how often you change the channel; users quickly lose trust in abusive proxies
Mentions about proxy support status in your channel are recommended

For an objective outline on proxy user risks, refer to Risks of Public MTProxy Services.

FAQ

How much can you earn? A Promoted Channel yields no direct cash payouts. It's an audience builder which you monetize independently.

Can users turn it off? Yes — closing the proxy unpins the channel. Nobody is forced into following.

Is a TAG mandatory? No. It works fine strictly serving internet paths without a TAG.

What user base makes it noticeable? Anything above 100–500 peak connections daily begins moving the needle visibly.

Looking to run a node first? Read the Docker Setup Setup or Full Installation Guide.

List of working proxies on MTProxyHub — for users seeking ready connections for Telegram.