Table of Contents
A Telegram username is a public name in the @name format that lets people find you in search and message you without your phone number. A name also has a market price: short dictionary usernames are sold on Fragment the same way domain names are.
Key Takeaways
- Price of a name: The most expensive username, @danbao, sold for 1,583,948 Gram - about $2.2 million at the September 2026 rate, while the cheapest lots cost 7 Gram, around $10.
- Length: A regular name takes 5 to 32 characters, and 4-character usernames exist only as collectibles - @news, @auto and @bank were sold on Fragment in that form.
- Ownership: A collectible username belongs to a crypto wallet, not to an account, so if you lose your phone it stays with whoever keeps the secret phrase.
What Is a Telegram Username
A Telegram username is a public name for an account, channel, group or bot that also works as an address. It has three properties:
- Link: The name comes with the addresses t.me/username and username.t.me, and either one opens a chat with you.
- Search: An account with a username appears in Telegram global search, and an account without one does not appear there at all.
- Privacy: Telegram says it directly - people who do not have your number can message you, while the number itself stays hidden.
A username and a profile name are different fields. The profile name is what people see in chats, it is not unique, and it does not have to be your real name: two people can use the same one. A username exists in a single copy, and it is the one that turns into a link.
How Long Can a Telegram Username Be
A Telegram username takes 5 to 32 characters and uses only Latin letters, digits and underscores. The field does not accept spaces, dots, emoji or styled fonts: fancy lettering belongs in the profile name, not in the username.
Letter case does not affect search: @Telegram and @TeleGram lead to the same account, and the spelling you typed is kept as it is. The rule for bots is stricter - a bot username must end in bot, for example tetris_bot.
The 5-character limit is only bypassed on Fragment, the official platform of the Telegram ecosystem where names are bought and sold. Telegram does not hand out 4-character names for free, but they exist as collectibles: @news, @auto and @bank were sold exactly in that form.
How to Set a Username on Telegram
A username is set in the account settings in about a minute, and no separate registration or payment is needed. The steps are the same on iOS and Android:
- Profile Settings: Open Settings and go to profile editing - the Username field sits next to your name and photo.
- Enter the Name: Type a name of 5 to 32 Latin characters, and the app shows right away whether it is free or taken.
- Save: Save the change - the t.me/username link starts working immediately.
You can change the name in the same field as often as you need. To remove the username completely, clear the field and save it empty: the account disappears from global search, while chats, contacts and channels stay in place.
The Username field in profile settings and the name entry screen. Source: Telegram
Important: When you change the name, the old t.me link stops opening the chat, so business cards, email signatures and forwarded messages with the old address lead nowhere.
Why You Can’t Change Your Telegram Username
The app refuses to change a username in four cases:
- The Name Is Taken: Another account, channel or bot already holds it, and it will not be released for free.
- The Name Is for Sale: Some short names are reserved for sale, and Telegram replies that such a name is available for purchase on Fragment.
- The Rules Are Broken: The name is shorter than 5 characters or contains a dot, a hyphen, a space or non-Latin letters.
- The Name Is Collectible: Collectible usernames are not edited in the app, they are managed on Fragment.
Please note: A taken name can sometimes still be obtained - Fragment forwards an anonymous offer to the owner for a small fee, and Telegram helps you claim a username you already own on at least two of Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
How to Find Someone on Telegram by Username
You find a person with a username through the search bar in the app: type the name with the @ sign, and the account appears in the global search section even if it is not in your contacts. You do not need to add the person to contacts, the chat opens right away.
The second way is the t.me/username link, which opens the chat both in the mobile app and in the desktop version. An account without a username cannot be found this way: it is added by phone number or through an invite link.
Why Some Telegram Usernames Are Expensive
Some Telegram usernames are expensive for the same reason a domain name is: a short clear word brings people to the address by itself. The domain bitcoin.com is worth more than the domain of any single wallet or exchange, even though the site built on it can be exactly the same - the name BTC needs no explanation. The record of the open domain market is voice.com at $30 million in 2019.
Telegram works the same way, only instead of the browser address bar there is the search bar of the messenger and the t.me link. A person types @gifts or @news at a guess and lands in a chat that paid nothing for that visit. Four properties raise the price of a name:
- Length: The shorter the name, the fewer similar options there are and the easier it is to say out loud - @news sold for 994,000 Gram, about $1.4 million.
- Dictionary Word: @auto, @bank and @chat are ready-made signs, and such lots cost the most: @auto sold for 900,000 Gram, about $1.2 million.
- Brand: A name that matches a company name is worth more to that company than any ad bid, because the brand has no alternative.
- Spelling: A name without digits, underscores and extra letters reads like a real title, not like a backup option.
A random set of letters on the same platform sells for 7 Gram, around $10 (September 2026). The gap between two names is five orders of magnitude, and it rests on the word itself.
Can You Sell a Telegram Username
You can sell a Telegram username if it is a collectible one: the owner puts it up on Fragment, and the price depends on the name itself. For example, @danbao was bought for 80,000 Gram in April 2023 and sold for 1,583,948 Gram in February 2026 - almost 20 times more. At the September 2026 rate that is about $110,000 and $2.2 million. The page of every name on Fragment shows its full ownership history with the prices of past sales.
There are two limits to keep in mind before buying. The price of a lot is counted in Gram, and the rate of the coin itself changed over that time, so the profit in dollars differs even for similar deals. And not every name finds a second buyer: for most lots the ownership history ends with the first sale.
The ten most expensive Telegram usernames and the dates of the deals. Source: fragment.com
What Is a Collectible Telegram Username
A collectible Telegram username is a unique name in the form of an NFT: the rights to it are recorded on the TON blockchain, and the owner sells, gifts or transfers it like any other digital asset. Inside the messenger such a name works exactly like a free one: it gives you a t.me link and shows up in global search. The difference is who owns the name and what you can do with it.
The table below compares a regular and a collectible Telegram username across five parameters, September 2026.
| Parameter | Regular username | Collectible username |
|---|---|---|
| Where to get it | in Telegram settings | on Fragment |
| Price | free | from 7 Gram, around $10, and up |
| Minimum length | 5 characters | 4 characters |
| Who owns it | the Telegram account | the owner’s crypto wallet |
| Sale and transfer | not possible | sale on Fragment, transfer to any TON address |
A collectible name is paid for in Gram (prev. Toncoin), the coin of the TON network. One account, channel or group can have several such names assigned at once, in the order you choose. Your own free name can also be converted into a collectible one and put up for auction - the mechanics of buying and selling are covered in a separate article.
Where to Store a Collectible Telegram Username
A collectible username is stored not in the Telegram account but in a crypto wallet that supports TON, such as Gram Wallet by Gem Wallet - a self-custodial wallet with fully open-source code, where the private keys stay on your device.
A collectible Telegram username behaves like any other TON NFT: it is visible in a block explorer and can be sent to another TON address. You can store your collectible Telegram username securely and privately inside the wallet, next to Telegram gifts and other NFT collections.
