How to Make Custom Emoji and Stickers in Telegram — Full Guide
In Telegram you can upload not just stickers but your own emoji — small images inserted right into message text that also work as reactions. For brands it's free merch inside the messenger: your logo as an emoji, branded reactions in a channel, a sticker pack spreading through chats. Here's the whole process: file specs, artwork prep and uploading via the bot.
Both stickers and custom emoji are uploaded through the official @Stickers bot. Stickers: PNG/WebP 512×512 (static) or TGS/WebM (animated). Custom emoji: same formats, 100×100. Anyone can create packs for free; using custom emoji in messages requires Telegram Premium — but in channel posts everyone sees them.
Stickers vs custom emoji
| Stickers | Custom emoji | |
|---|---|---|
| File size | 512×512 | 100×100 |
| Where they live | as a separate message | inside text, reactions, status |
| Who can send | everyone, free | Premium subscribers only |
| In channel posts | — | visible to all; admins with Premium can insert |
| Formats | PNG, WebP, TGS, WebM | the same |
The practical takeaway for brands: a sticker pack is a mass‑reach tool (free for everyone), custom emoji are a channel‑styling and status tool. On emoji as a marketing channel, see emoji in marketing.
File requirements
Static stickers: PNG or WebP, 512×512 pixels (one side exactly 512, the other up to 512), transparent background, under 512 KB. Getting transparency: our guide; why not JPG: the formats article.
Animated stickers: TGS — vector animation exported from Adobe After Effects via the Bodymovin plugin under strict limits (3 seconds, 60 FPS, under 64 KB) — or WebM (VP9, up to 3 seconds, under 256 KB) from any video editor.
Custom emoji: all the same, but on a 100×100 canvas. The key consequence of the small size: no fine detail — an emoji renders at lowercase‑letter height in text. Exactly the favicon logic: why only simple shapes survive at 16 pixels.
Step 1Prepare the artwork
- Draw or reuse. Figma is convenient (basics in how to design a logo in Figma), as is Procreate. Build the emoji version of a logo from the compact mark, not the full wordmark.
- Test the scale. Shrink the design to lowercase‑letter size on a phone: if the object stops reading — simplify. The emoji rule: one object, one meaning.
- Transparent background is mandatory. A sticker with a white box around it is the hallmark of a sloppy pack; we cover how to remove a background separately.
- Export: stickers — 512×512 PNG/WebP, emoji — 100×100. From Figma: a frame of the right size → Export PNG.
Telegram has light and dark themes and your sticker must read on both. The classic fix — a light 6-12 px outline around the subject (like Telegram's own stickers): it separates the image from any background.
Step 2Upload via @Stickers
- Open the @Stickers bot (check the blue verification badge — it's the official bot).
- /newpack for stickers, /newemojipack for custom emoji. The bot asks the type (static/animated/video).
- Name the pack and send files one by one as documents (uncompressed!), assigning a matching standard emoji after each (that's how the pack is found in the panel).
- /publish, a short pack name — and the bot returns a link like
t.me/addstickers/...ort.me/addemoji/....
Pin the link in your channel, embed it in a post or a QR code with a logo. Pack management also lives in the bot: /addsticker, /delsticker, /ordersticker, install stats via /packstats.
Step 3Wire the emoji into your channel
Custom emoji shine in channels:
- In posts branded emoji are visible to all subscribers, Premium or not (a Premium admin inserts them).
- Reactions. Channel settings can allow custom‑emoji reactions — your logo instead of a heart (for boosted channels).
- Emoji status — Premium users can set your emoji next to their name: the "wear the brand's merch" mechanic.
For the full channel look — avatar, cover, a coherent style — see a logo for your Telegram channel.
Legal traps
Uploading other people's logos, cartoon characters or memes with recognizable heroes is infringement: Telegram removes such packs on rights‑holder complaints. What you can and can't do with others' marks: can you use someone else's logo. Standard emoji are simpler: the Unicode symbols themselves are common property, but specific vendors' artwork (Apple, Google) is protected — don't repack it into stickers. Compare how the same emoji differ between vendors in our emoji catalog, and why they differ at all — in this article.
Pre‑publish checklist
- All files at the right size (512×512 / 100×100), transparent, sent as documents.
- Every item reads at real size on a phone, on light and dark themes.
- The pack is named for search (brand name + "stickers"/"emoji").
- The pack link is pinned in the channel and added to its description.
- Nothing in the pack infringes on anyone's IP.
If you need high‑resolution emoji sources for a pack — the Trace Logos emoji catalog holds over 1,900 PNGs, many with both Apple and Google versions. And on where emoji came from in the first place: what emoji are.