What is a Telegram username and why you need one

A Telegram username is a public name in the form @name. People find you in search and message you without a phone number, and it also turns into a t.me/name link that's easy to share.

How a username differs from your name and number

• First and last name — how you appear in chats. Many people can have the same one, and it's not a search address.
• Phone number — a private contact. By default it isn't visible to everyone, and you don't always want to share it.
• Username — a unique public address. It's one of a kind across the network; people can easily find and message you without seeing your number.

Why you need a username

• So people can find you. Just give out @name and someone can message you without knowing your number.
• For a link. t.me/name is handy to put in social media, business cards, bios.
• For privacy. You chat without revealing your phone.
• For channels, groups and bots. A public address lets people reach them by name.

Username rules

A name must be 5–32 characters, only Latin letters (a–z), digits (0–9) and the underscore. It can't start with a digit or underscore, or end with "_". Case doesn't matter. How to set one is in "How to set a username".

Why people pay for usernames

Beautiful, short names are like domains: there are few of them and many people want them. So there's a whole market: names are bought and sold on the official Fragment marketplace for the GRAM(TON) cryptocurrency, and top deals have reached millions of dollars. What a name costs depends on length, meaning and demand.