Earning credits by hosting
Hosting is the only way credits are created. Every time one of your enrolled channels carries another member's ad for its full 24-hour term, the exchange mints credits and puts them on your account. There is nothing to claim, no button to press, and no timer to watch.
This page is the earning side of the exchange. The spending side is Spending credits on extra placements.
Credits reward the scarce side of the exchange. Reach is easy to want and hard to supply, so the members who supply it — hosts — are the ones paid in the currency that buys more of it.
Before you can earn anything
You need one thing: at least one channel enrolled and showing the Hosting badge under My channels. If you haven't got there yet, follow Getting started — connect Telegram, add our bot as an administrator of a public channel, and pick the highest content level you're willing to accept.
The earning flow, step by step
- Your channel sits in the pool. Nothing to do. The matcher looks for ads that fit your channel's content level, size and topic.
- A placement is matched to your channel. If you have Review ads switched on, it is held for your approval first (see Reviewing ads before they post); otherwise it goes straight to step 3.
- The bot posts the ad in your channel. You are notified; the post appears like any other post.
- The ad stays up for a full 24 hours. You do nothing. Do not delete it by hand, and do not remove the bot's administrator rights.
- The bot removes the ad automatically and closes the placement.
- Credits land on your balance. The award is recorded in your ledger against that exact placement, so it can never be paid twice.
That's the whole loop. Repeat it as often as the pool has ads for you.
What one placement earns
The base award is 10 credits per completed placement, multiplied by your plan's credit rate:
| Plan | Credit rate | Credits per completed placement |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1.0x | 10 |
| Lite | 1.1x | 11 |
| Plus | 1.2x | 12 |
| Elite | 1.5x | 15 |
| Master | 1.7x | 17 |
| Ultimate | 2.0x | 20 |
The rate that applies is the plan you are on when the placement completes — so upgrading raises what your hosting earns from that point on.
Most plan benefits help you advertise. The credit rate is the one that pays you for hosting. If your channels carry a lot of ads, a higher plan compounds.
What does not earn credits
A placement pays only if it served its full term. These do not pay:
| Situation | Credits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You refuse an ad through Hosted ads → Refuse | None | It did not run its term. There is no penalty either — refusing is your right as a host. |
| You decline a held ad in the review queue | None | It was never posted. No penalty. |
| A held ad expires because you didn't decide in time | None | It was never posted. No penalty, but it is earnings you left on the table. |
| The placement is removed early (you deleted it, or the bot lost its rights) | None | It broke the 24-hour promise. This also costs reliability and a strike — see Rules and fair play. |
| Your channel is Paused or Suspended | None | It is not receiving placements at all. |
| Your account is cooling down after a strike | None | The exchange is closed to your account, on both sides, until the cooldown ends. |
How fast can you earn?
Hosting is deliberately gentle on your channel, so there is a natural ceiling on earning speed:
- A channel is asked to carry at most a set number of ads in a rolling week — the network default is 4.
- A channel is never asked to carry another ad until at least 20 hours after its last one.
- A channel only ever receives ads at or below the content level you chose, and only ads that match on size and topic.
Those limits are per channel, not per account, so the honest way to earn more is to enrol more channels. Your plan sets how many you may enrol:
| Plan | Enrolled channels |
|---|---|
| Free | 5 |
| Lite | 10 |
| Plus | 25 |
| Elite | 50 |
| Master | 100 |
| Ultimate | 250 |
If your channel almost never gets matched, the usual causes are a very restrictive content level, a size that sits far from the rest of the pool, or a topic profile that nothing lines up with. Lowering the level ceiling is not the fix — raising it widens the set of ads that may reach you. Re-run Add a channel on the same channel to change the level.
The referral bonus
There is one credit award that has nothing to do with a placement.
When a member you invited to Onflow Ads enrols their first channel in the exchange, you and they each receive a one-time bonus of 100 SubX credits.
How it plays out:
- Someone joins Onflow Ads through your referral.
- They connect Telegram and enrol a channel in the Subscriber Exchange.
- The moment the enrolment succeeds, the confirmation on their screen reads: "their channel joined the exchange — 🎁 you and the member who invited you each earned 100 SubX credits!"
- Both balances move, and both movements are written to their respective ledgers.
Rules and edge cases:
- Once per invited member, ever. It is tied to the invited member's first enrolment, not to each channel they add.
- Both sides are paid the same amount. Neither side is paid more for being the referrer.
- It is a courtesy, not a condition of enrolling. If the bonus can't be paid for any reason, the enrolment itself still succeeds — the channel joins the exchange regardless.
- It is not paid for enrolling your own channels. You cannot refer yourself.
Tracking what you've earned
The exchange keeps per-channel earnings, so hosting reads as something that pays rather than something that costs. Practically, your hosting activity is visible in two places on the exchange page:
- My channels — each channel row shows its subscriber count, the level ceiling you chose, and how many ads it has hosted.
- Hosted ads on a channel row — the ads that channel has carried in the last 30 days, each with its level, topic and a content preview, tagged Live or Refused.
On Elite plans and above, the Developer API's state action returns your current credit balance directly. See Developer API.
FAQ
When exactly do the credits appear?
When the placement is closed out — that is, after the bot takes the ad down at the end of its 24 hours. It is not paid at posting time, because an ad that gets removed early was never really hosted.
I host on several channels. Do they earn separately?
Credits all land in one balance on your account, but the exchange records which channel earned what, so hosting on a second channel genuinely adds to your earnings rather than sharing one allowance.
I upgraded my plan mid-week. Which rate do I get?
The rate in force when each placement completes. Placements finishing after the upgrade earn at the new rate.
Does refusing ads hurt my earnings long-term?
Refusing a specific ad costs you nothing — no reliability, no strike — but you don't earn on a placement that didn't run. Refuse the ads you genuinely don't want; there's no advantage in letting an unwanted ad run just for the credits.
My channel is Suspended. Do I keep the credits I already earned?
Yes. Credits already earned are yours. A suspension only stops new placements (and therefore new earnings) until it lifts — the date is shown on the channel's card.
Next: Spending credits on extra placements — turning the balance you have just earned into more reach for your own campaign.