Telegram was rumoured to be working on a paid subscription plan previously. Today, Telegram's founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, confirmed that the Telegram Premium plan is in the works and will be available by the end of the month.
Telegram Premium will be available later this month, with additional features for more demanding users. According to a blog post by Durov, premium users will have a higher limit for chats, media, and file uploads.
Durov claims that the free version's existing features will not be degraded, and that a slew of new ones will be added soon. He also stated that users who do not subscribe to Telegram Premium will be able to use some of its features, such as viewing extra-large documents, media, and stickers sent by Premium users, or tapping to add Premium reactions already pinned to a message to react in the same way.
The Premium service, according to Durov, is designed to meet user demand for more storage and bandwidth without jeopardising Telegram's ability to provide a free service to everyone else.
"After some thought, we realised that the only way to give our most ardent fans more while keeping our existing features free is to charge for those increased limits," says Durav.
The Premium plan's exact details are unknown at this time. According to previous reports, the paid tier will cost $4.99 per month. Different regions may have different prices.
Telegram has seen an increase in users following privacy concerns with rival messaging app WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta Platforms. Telegram has 500 million monthly active users, according to its website, and is one of the top ten most downloaded apps worldwide.
