| Scale & membership |
| Member limit |
+ Up to 200,000 members vs. 200 in a basic group |
− Larger groups are harder to moderate and keep cohesive |
| Discoverability |
+ Can have a public username — findable via Telegram search |
− Public groups can attract spam, bots, and unwanted members |
| Administration & moderation |
| Admins |
+ Multiple admins with granular, per-permission role control |
− More admin complexity — accidental permission changes harder to undo |
| Member restrictions |
+ Per-user restrictions (mute voice, block media) without a full ban |
− Fine-grained settings require more ongoing management effort |
| Admin log |
+ Recent actions log for full audit trail of admin activity |
− No equivalent in basic groups — a gap if you relied on simpler oversight |
| Slow mode |
+ Rate-limit how often members can post to reduce spam |
− Can frustrate active users; enabling slow mode itself triggers conversion |
| Content & history |
| Chat history |
+ New members can optionally see full message history from day one |
− Pre-conversion messages may appear as a separate, unjoinable ghost chat in some clients |
| Message links |
+ Direct links to individual messages — shareable and citable |
− Not available in basic groups; existing workflows relying on that may break |
| Pinned messages |
+ Multiple pinned messages; topics for organised threaded discussion |
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| Bots & automation |
| Bot support |
+ Bots work fully and can be promoted to admin; much more reliable than in basic groups |
− Group ID changes on conversion — any bot or integration using the old ID breaks until reconfigured |
| Technical & structural |
| Group ID |
+ New supergroup is technically a new entity — clean slate for integrations |
− Old group ID is retired — Zapier, webhooks, and bots referencing it must all be updated |
| Member cap |
+ Basic groups are excluded from the 500-group membership cap per user |
− Supergroups count toward the 500-group limit (1,000 for Premium) — members may hit caps |
| Boosts |
+ Supergroups can receive boosts to unlock perks |
− Basic groups cannot be boosted at all |
| Deletion |
— |
− Supergroups cannot be deleted by the owner — only abandoned. The group persists. |
| Irreversibility |
| Rollback |
+ Can switch back to private visibility at any time (group stays a supergroup) |
ONE-WAY Conversion cannot be undone. Only option is deleting and recreating from scratch. |
| Silent conversion |
+ Happens seamlessly with no downtime for members |
− Conversion is automatic and silent — no confirmation prompt, can catch admins off guard |