Paywall Setup Guide

Get your channel paywall live in under 2 minutes.

Before you start

You need:

  • •A private Telegram channel or group. Public channels cannot be gated — anyone can join them for free.
  • •Admin rights in the channel/group so you can add the Cloakd bot.
  • •A crypto wallet address to receive settlement payments.

Step 1 — Add the bot as admin

For a private channel:

  1. 1Open your channel settings.
  2. 2Tap Administrators → Add Administrator.
  3. 3Search for the Cloakd bot and add it.
  4. 4Enable "Invite Users via Link" and "Ban Users" permissions.

For a private group:

  1. 1Open your group settings.
  2. 2Tap Administrators → Add Administrator.
  3. 3Search for the Cloakd bot and add it.
  4. 4Enable "Invite Users via Link" and "Ban/Restrict Users" permissions.

Important

The bot validates that it has the required admin permissions when you run the setup wizard. If permissions are missing, the setup will stop and tell you what to fix.

Step 2 — Start the wizard

For a private channel:

  1. 1Open a private chat with the Cloakd bot.
  2. 2Type /paywall.
  3. 3The bot asks you to forward any message from your private channel. This is how it detects which channel to attach the paywall to.

For a private group:

  1. 1Go to the group.
  2. 2Type /paywall directly in the group chat.
  3. 3The bot detects the group context and redirects you to a private chat to finish the setup.

Steps 3–9 — The setup wizard

3

Pick how it bills

Choose one-time, lifetime, monthly, 3-month, yearly, or Custom. Custom lets you enter any whole number of days, weeks, months, or years (up to 10 years) — useful for a quarterly or 6-month plan, for example.

4

Set your price

Enter a USD price between $10 and $10,000. Subscribers always pay in whatever crypto they hold; you always receive your chosen coin regardless of what they pay. The price prompt restates the billing option you just picked, so it is always clear what the number covers (e.g. "Monthly subscription. What's the price?").

5

Choose the settlement network

Select which blockchain network to receive on (e.g. Ethereum, Arbitrum, Solana).

6

Choose your settlement coin

Select which cryptocurrency you want to receive (e.g. USDT, ETH, BTC, SOL). Only coins available on the network you just picked are shown.

7

Enter your wallet address

Paste the wallet address for receiving payments. This address is never shown to subscribers — it is only used for the settlement transaction.

8

Optional: free trial and description

For monthly, 3-month, yearly, or custom subscriptions, you can offer a free trial of 3, 7, 14, or 30 days (not available for one-time or lifetime). You can also add a short description (up to 200 characters) that subscribers see before they join — editable anytime later.

9

Confirm

The bot shows a summary of all your settings. Tap Confirm and your paywall is live.

Offering more than one plan

A single channel is not limited to one price or billing type. From /paywalls → your channel → + Add tier, you can add up to 5 pricing tiers per channel (e.g. Monthly at $10, Yearly at $90, and a Lifetime option at $150). Adding a tier only asks for the billing type and price — the channel's settlement coin, network, wallet, trial setting, and description are shared across all of its tiers.

When a channel has more than one tier, subscribers who tap your link see a plan picker instead of jumping straight to checkout. See Managing Your Paywall for pausing, editing, and deleting individual tiers.

Your subscribe link

After confirming, the bot sends you a unique subscribe link in the format t.me/cloakd_ai_bot?start=pw_xxxx. Share this link wherever your audience is — your bio, a pinned post, your website, or in a DM. Anyone who taps it will see your paywall.

If you lose the link, type /paywalls and tap Copy Link next to your channel.