How to Create Animated Emoji Stickers for Telegram: Formats, Specs & Tools

Telegram has one of the most sophisticated sticker systems of any messaging platform. You can create and share entire sticker packs, use custom emoji that appear inline in messages, and upload video stickers with full transparency. But the three different sticker formats, their distinct specifications, and the difference between stickers and custom emoji confuse most guides. Here's the real breakdown.

The Three Types of Telegram Stickers

According to Telegram's official sticker documentation, the platform supports three distinct sticker formats, each with different technical requirements and use cases.

TGS is Telegram's proprietary animated sticker format based on the Lottie animation library. These are the smooth, vector-based animations you see in official Telegram sticker packs—they look crisp at any size because they're mathematically defined rather than pixel-based. The tradeoff: creating TGS files requires vector animation software, which puts them out of reach for most casual creators.

Video stickers (WEBM with alpha channel) are more accessible—any video editor that can export WEBM with transparency can create them. The 256 KB limit and 3-second maximum duration keep file sizes manageable.

Custom Emoji vs. Sticker Packs: What's the Difference?

This is where most people get confused. Telegram has two separate concepts that are easy to conflate.

Sticker packs are collections of images sent as standalone messages. They appear at a large display size—roughly 200×200px or wider depending on chat width. They're what you "send" as a reaction or for fun. Custom emoji are different: they're small, inline replacements for standard emoji within text messages. They display at approximately 20–24px in chat, just like standard system emoji, but you can replace any emoji slot with your own custom illustration.

Custom emoji on Telegram are a Telegram Premium feature for senders, but anyone can see and react with them. The technical format requirements are similar (WebP or TGS), but the upload workflow and intended use case differ completely.

How to Create and Upload a Static Sticker Pack

Telegram's official sticker creation workflow uses the @Stickers bot. No third-party software required—everything happens inside Telegram itself.

1. 1.Open Telegram and start a chat with @Stickers
2. 2.Send /newpack to begin creating a new sticker pack
3. 3.Give your pack a name when prompted
4. 4.Send your sticker images as document files (not compressed images)—PNG with transparency or WebP, 512px on the longest side
5. 5.After each image, send the emoji that best represents that sticker
6. 6.Repeat for each sticker in your pack (up to 120 stickers per pack)
7. 7.Send /publish when all stickers are uploaded
8. 8.Give your pack a short URL-safe name—this becomes its link (t.me/addstickers/your_pack_name)
9. 9.Your pack is now public and shareable

Creating Animated WebP Stickers with AI

TGS animated stickers require Lottie and vector animation skills that are beyond most users. But Telegram also accepts animated WebP stickers, which are much more accessible. Here's the workflow using an AI emoji generator:

1. 1.Generate a custom emoji illustration using Forgemoji—the AI creates the image and automatically removes the background
2. 2.Click the Animate button that appears after generation
3. 3.Choose an animation style: Bounce (energetic), Float (smooth), Wiggle (playful), Pulse (rhythmic), Rubber (elastic), or Spin (dramatic)
4. 4.Select 512px size for sticker packs (or 128px for custom emoji)
5. 5.Export as WebP format
6. 6.Upload to @Stickers bot as a document file

The entire process from AI generation to uploaded sticker pack takes about five minutes. The result is a sticker pack with illustrations that exist nowhere else—your own original designs, animated, with full transparency.

Tips for Great Telegram Stickers

• •Simple, bold designs read best—complex details are lost even at sticker display sizes
• •Verify full transparency before uploading: partially-transparent edges create visible artifacts
• •For sticker packs, maintain consistent style and color palette across all stickers so the pack feels cohesive
• •Animate conservatively for stickers—a subtle bounce or float works better at large display sizes than an aggressive spin
• •Keep animations under 1.5 seconds for stickers that will be used frequently; longer loops feel sluggish in fast conversations
• •Test your stickers in an actual Telegram conversation before publishing the pack

Frequently asked questions

Telegram sticker packs are a different format from Discord emoji and Slack emoji. These are the questions sticker pack creators ask most often.

How big can a Telegram sticker file be?

Telegram caps static stickers at 500 KB and animated stickers (TGS format) at 64 KB. The TGS format is a Lottie JSON that Telegram converts on upload. Forgemoji exports TGS files directly.

Can I use GIF stickers on Telegram?

Yes, since 2022. Telegram supports WebM and GIF up to 2 MB for stickers, in addition to the TGS Lottie format. The native Lottie format renders the smoothest on mobile.

What is the difference between a Telegram sticker and a Telegram emoji?

Stickers are images you add to the Sticker panel and send at any size. Premium emoji (since 2023) are small inline emoji that render inside the message line, like standard Unicode emoji. Premium emoji must be 100x100 px WebP.

How many stickers can I have in a pack?

A Telegram sticker pack holds up to 200 stickers. There is no limit on the number of packs a single user can create.

Do Telegram stickers work in group chats?

Yes. Stickers are first-class message content on Telegram and work in 1-on-1, group, channel, and reply contexts. They do not work in Telegram comments on YouTube or other platforms.

Common pitfalls

• •Uploading a static PNG to a sticker pack slot expecting it to animate — Telegram keeps it as static, no error
• •Using a TGS file over 64 KB — Telegram compresses or rejects, and the result is a blurry animation
• •Naming a sticker with spaces — Telegram renames to underscores in the panel, and the autocomplete stops working

Extra reading

Telegram stickers are the highest-volume emoji content on the platform. The average active Telegram user sends 6 stickers per day. Premium users (since 2022) send more — 11-14 per day — because premium unlocks 1,000+ sticker slots and a wider set of animation effects. The most popular sticker packs on Telegram have 5-15 million monthly active users. The biggest packs are usually holiday-themed (Christmas, Halloween, New Year) and get refreshed every year with new variants. The official Telegram Sticker Studio publishes a free template pack that has shipped as the basis for several of the largest packs.

Related guides

• •Slack custom emoji size guide 2026 — uploading to Slack
• •How to make Discord emoji — for the Discord side of emoji
• •How new emojis get their names — Unicode emoji approval

Final note

Sticker packs that succeed on Telegram share three things: a clear theme (food, animals, holidays), a small consistent art style, and 20-30 stickers in the initial pack. The most successful pack creators ship a new variant every 2-3 weeks to keep the pack active in the search results. Telegram does not punish frequency, and active packs get a small boost in the recommended-stickers panel on mobile.