TikRec used to charge a small Telegram Stars amount for past recordings. That's gone. From May 2026 onward, everything on TikRec is free.
What changed
- Past recordings: previously 5-50 Telegram Stars depending on duration. Now free.
- Watchlist recordings: were already free, no change.
- The bot delivery: you used to receive a separate thumbnail and a Stars-locked video. Now you get one Telegram album with the MP4 and the contact-sheet thumbnail together, in a single card.
No more Stars prompt. Click Watch on Telegram from any creator page or /latest and the bot delivers the recording immediately.
Why the change
Stars-based pricing wasn't the right fit for what TikRec is: a free public archive of TikTok lives that's most useful when frictionless. Removing the paywall keeps the focus on growth and discovery. A different monetization strategy will be designed later.
How to use TikRec now
Same flow as before, just without payment:
- Open @tikrec_live_bot on Telegram
- Send
/watch usernamefor any TikTok creator you follow - When they go live, TikRec records the stream and delivers the MP4 to your chat
For past recordings, you can browse the latest deliveries or any creator page and click Watch on Telegram on any thumbnail. The bot opens, the album lands in your chat. No Stars, no payment.
What about Stars I already spent?
Telegram processes its own refunds for purchased Stars. We don't touch those. Past purchases stay in your Telegram account and you can spend them in any other Stars-enabled bot.
Update: May 2026 - watchlist tiers added
After running fully-free for ~2 months, we added optional paid watchlist tiers to support heavier users:
- Free (no card): 2 watched creators on new accounts (accounts created before 2026-05-21 keep 5), all auto-recorded when live. Past archive still free for everyone.
- Basic: $2.99/mo for 25 watched creators.
- Pro: $4.99/mo for 100 watched creators.
Telegram Stars stays deprecated. Paid subscriptions are processed by @tribute (Telegram-native subscription bot, any country, any bank). The Free tier is unchanged - if you only follow a handful of creators, nothing changes for you.
Past archive lookups stay free for every user, every plan, including Free. That's the original promise from this post and it didn't move.
See the full breakdown on the pricing page.