Moving Your Paid Telegram Community From Another Paywall

Switching subscription bots feels risky because your subscribers are already paying, already inside your channel, and not waiting for you to experiment. The good news is that you can move without kicking anyone out or asking people to pay twice. The key is to plan around three tools: a new bot that is set up and tested first, complimentary access days for members who are already in the channel, and access tokens for everyone who needs special handling.

This guide walks through a migration from any paywall bot to Member Paywall, in the order we recommend. It assumes your members re-subscribe through the new checkout. We are not aware of an automatic way to move saved card details between providers, so ask your old provider and Stripe about that separately if you need it.

Before you start: take stock

Spend an hour on an inventory, because every later decision depends on it.

Export or list your active members and the date each one is next due to renew, if your current tool gives you that.
Write down your plans: names, prices, billing periods, trial rules and any discounts.
Identify special cases: lifetime members, comped partners, staff, giveaways and anyone on a custom price.
Check your old tool's cancellation terms, including notice periods and what happens to active subscriptions when you stop using it.
Pick a switch date far enough away to announce it, and not in the middle of your busiest renewal week.

Step 1: Build the new setup without touching the old one

Your existing channel and bot keep working while you prepare. In the Member Paywall bot:

Open @MemberPaywallBot, choose Become a Creator and create a project.
Connect Stripe. If you already use a Stripe account, you can connect the same one through Stripe Connect, so your payout settings and history stay with you.
Optionally enable crypto payments through NOWPayments.
Create plans that match your current prices and periods, so nobody sees a surprise.
Create the project's Edge Bot with @BotFather, which is the bot your subscribers will use, and brand it with your own name and picture.

Step 2: Link your existing channel

Add the Edge Bot to your channel as an administrator, with the permission to invite users via link, then link the channel to the right plan. For channels, post a message to activate the bot. For groups, send the start command in the group.

The order matters. When the Edge Bot is first added to a channel or group that you then link to a plan, existing members can be given complimentary access to that plan for a number of days you choose. Configure the number first, then link.

Step 3: Set existing-member access days

In the plan's onboarding and trial settings, set Existing Members Access Days (0 to 365). Then use Apply to Existing Members in Linked Chats to grant that many days to everyone currently in the linked chats. This is a one-time action each time you apply it.

How many days? Think about it as a bridge. If your old tool bills monthly and the longest gap before anyone's next renewal is about 30 days, give 35 to 45. That gives every member time to see your announcement, open the new bot and subscribe before their free period ends, while still covering anyone whose old subscription is about to lapse. Avoid a bridge so long that members pay both providers for the same period.

Step 4: Handle special cases with access tokens

Access tokens are codes that grant access without payment. When you create one, you choose how long the token is valid for redeeming, how long access lasts after redeeming, and how many times it can be used. Members redeem them in the project's Edge Bot.

Use them for:

Lifetime members: single-use tokens with the longest access duration the token settings allow, and a note in your announcement about when you will re-issue them.
Partners, staff and giveaways: single-use tokens, so a code cannot be passed around.
A small VIP group: a token with a usage limit equal to the group size.

Send each person their own code or link directly. Tokens can also be used to give a limited number of reviewers a free look at your new setup.

Step 5: Test before you announce

Run a full test with a second Telegram account:

Open the Edge Bot, choose a plan and pay with a card or a token.
Confirm that you receive the invite link and can join the channel.
Confirm that your manager accounts, if any, can see what they should.
Check the welcome message, plan description and language.

If you plan to remove expired members automatically, also confirm how auto-removal behaves. Enabling it can remove members who have neither subscribed nor received complimentary access for that plan, so enable it only after the existing-member days have been applied, and not before.

Step 6: Announce the move

A short, plain message works best. Say what is changing, what members need to do, by when, and what happens if they do nothing. For example:

We are moving billing to a new bot on [date].
You keep access for [N] days, free, while you switch.
Open the new bot, choose your plan, and subscribe before [date].
Your price is [price]. Nothing else changes.
Questions? Message [contact].

Pin the message, repeat it twice before the deadline, and link directly to your Edge Bot rather than a generic page. If you serve an international audience, remember the bot supports 24 languages, so members can use it in their own.

Step 7: Run both in parallel, then switch off the old one

Keep the old bot running, but stop accepting new subscribers through it from the announcement date. As each member subscribes on the new bot, make sure their old subscription is cancelled so they are not billed by both. Then:

Watch the new bot's subscription activity daily for the first two weeks.
Message members whose bridge period is ending and who have not subscribed yet.
Once the bridge ends, enable auto-removal if you want expired access to be removed automatically.
Cancel the old tool after the last old billing cycle you are committed to has passed.

Common mistakes

Applying existing-member days before linking the right plan, so members land on the wrong tier.
Enabling auto-removal too early, which can remove paying members who have not moved yet.
A bridge that is too short, which leaves people locked out for a billing mistake that is not theirs.
Double billing because the old subscription was never cancelled.
Forgetting special cases, such as lifetime members, who feel the pain of a clumsy migration most.

What to expect on cost

Member Paywall charges 3% of each successful payment with no monthly fee, and processor fees such as Stripe's are charged separately. The effect on take-home depends on your volume and on what you pay now, so run the numbers using our fee comparison for $500, $2,000 and $10,000 a month. If your current tool is InviteMember, MyMembers, LaunchPass, Tribute or Telegram Stars, the matching comparison page lists plan-by-plan differences, and the InviteMember alternative guide covers that switch in detail.

A migration done this way takes a few days of preparation and a couple of weeks of overlap, and it can be done without anyone losing access by accident. When you are ready, start with Member Paywall.