Telegram APIs Follow on X Home FAQ Apps API Protocol Schema Telegram APIs We offer three kinds of APIs for developers. The Bot API allows you to easily create programs that use Telegram messages for an interface. The Telegram API and TDLib allow you to build your own customized Telegram clients. You are welcome to use both APIs free of charge. Lastly, the Gateway API allows any business, app or website to send verification codes through Telegram instead of traditional SMS. You can also add Telegram Widgets to your website. Designers are welcome to create Animated Stickers and Emoji or Custom Themes for Telegram. Bot API This API allows you to connect bots to our system. Telegram Bots are special accounts that do not require an additional phone number to set up. These accounts serve as an interface for code running somewhere on your server. To use this, you don't need to know anything about how our MTProto encryption protocol works — our intermediary server will handle all encryption and communication with the Telegram API for you. You communicate with this server via a simple HTTPS interface that offers a simplified version of the Telegram API. Learn more about the Bot API here » Bot developers can also make use of our Payments API to accept payments from Telegram users around the world. TDLib – build your own Telegram Even if you're looking for maximum customization, you don't have to create your app from scratch. Try our Telegram Database Library (or simply TDLib), a tool for third-party developers that makes it easy to build fast, secure and feature-rich Telegram apps. TDLib takes care of all network implementation details, encryption and local data storage, so that you can dedicate more time to design, responsive interfaces and beautiful animations. TDLib supports all Telegram features and makes developing Telegram apps a breeze on any platform. It can be used on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux and virtually any other system. The library is open source and compatible with virtually any programming language. Learn more about TDLib here » Gateway API The Telegram Gateway API allows any business, app or website to send authorization codes through Telegram instead of traditional SMS – offering a powerful and convenient way to lower costs while increasing the security and delivery speed of your codes to Telegram’s 1 billion monthly active users. Users will instantly receive messages with codes in a special chat inside Telegram. Telegram's Gateway API is completely free to test. Learn more here » Telegram API This API allows you to build your own customized Telegram clients. It is 100% open for all developers who wish to create Telegram applications on our platform. Feel free to study the open source code of existing Telegram applications for examples of how things work here. Don't forget to register your application in our system. Getting Started Security Optimization API methods Getting started Creating an application How to get your application identifier and create a new Telegram app. User authorization How to register a user's phone to start using the API. Two-factor authentication How to log in to a user's account if they have enabled 2FA, and how to change the password. QR code login QR code login flow. Passkeys Telegram allows creating a passkey on your device to instantly log in to Telegram with a PIN or biometric data like Face ID and fingerprints — instead of an SMS code. Error handling How to handle API return errors correctly. Handling different data centers How to connect to the closest DC access point for faster interaction with the API, and things to watch out for when developing a client. Handling updates How to subscribe to updates and handle them properly. Handling PUSH-notifications How to subscribe and handle them properly. Channels, supergroups, gigagroups and basic groups How to handle channels, supergroups, gigagroups, basic groups, and what's the difference between them. Forums Telegram allows creating forums with multiple distinct topics. Bots can also make use of topics, if enabled through @botfather. Direct messages to channels Telegram supports direct messages to channels, which can also be used to suggest (even paid) channel posts. Channel statistics Telegram offers detailed statistics for channels and supergroups. Message views and read metrics How to report read state, channel post views, message read metrics and music listens. Calling methods Additional options for calling methods. Uploading and downloading files How to transfer large data batches correctly. Pagination How to fetch results from large lists of objects. Client configuration The MTProto API has multiple client configuration parameters that can be fetched with the appropriate methods. Calls Telegram supports E2E-encrypted one-to-one calls. Group calls Telegram supports E2E-encrypted group calls. Security Secret chats, end-to-end encryption End-to-end-encrypted messaging. Security guidelines Important checks required in your client application. Perfect Forward Secrecy Binding temporary authorization keys to permanent ones. End-to-End Encryption in Voice and Video Calls End-to-end-encrypted calls. End-to-End Encryption in Group Calls End-to-end-encrypted group calls. Perfect Forward Secrecy in Secret Chats Re-keying secret chats to provide Perfect Forward Secrecy. Sequence numbers in Secret Chats How to assign and interpret seq_no counters in secret chats. Optimization Client optimization Ways to boost API interactions. API methods Available method list A list of available high-level methods. API TL-schema, as JSON Text and JSON presentation of types and methods used in the API. Layer changelog A detailed changelog of available schema versions. Other articles Working with bots, using the MTProto API How to work with bots using the MTProto API. AI features Telegram offers many AI features powered by Cocoon — a decentralized network designed to maximize privacy. Bot API dialog IDs A bot API dialog ID is a single, unique 64-bit peer ID sequence derived from the user, chat, channel and secret chat ID sequences, maintaining uniqueness across all of them. This page specifies how to convert MTProto peer IDs to bot API dialog IDs and vice versa. Managed bots Users can create managed bots (which are controlled by a specific manager bot) directly through the MTProto API, without interacting with @BotFather. Commands Bots offer a set of commands that can be used by users in private, or in a chat. Buttons Users can interact with your bot via buttons or even inline buttons, straight from inline messages in any chat. Menu button Bots can choose the behavior of the menu button shown next to the text input field. Inline queries Users can interact with your bot via inline queries, straight from the text input field in any chat. Games Bots can offer users HTML5 games to play solo or to compete against each other in groups and one-on-one chats; how to work with games in the MTProto API. Mini apps Bots can offer users interactive HTML5 mini apps to completely replace any website. Affiliate programs Developers can open affiliate programs for their mini app – allowing content creators, other mini app developers and any Telegram user to promote it and earn commissions on purchases made by people they referred. Attachment menu Bots can install attachment menu entries, offering conveniently accessible, versatile mini apps. Editing bot info Users can edit and localize the profile picture, name, about text and description of bots they own; the same can be done by the bots themselves. AI bots Telegram bots offer a number of features for AI chatbots. Guest mode Guest bots can be queried by username from any non-secret private chat, group and supergroup, posting their results directly into the chat, even if they're not a member. Bot-to-bot communication » Bots may receive and send messages to and from other bots in groups, private chats and chats, if Bot-to-Bot Communication Mode is enabled. Stories Telegram users and channels can easily post and view stories through the API. Similar channels and bots The API offers a method to obtain a list of similarly themed public channels and bots, selected based on similarities in their subscriber bases. Accent colors Telegram users and channels can change the accent color and background pattern of their profile page and their messages! Privacy settings Telegram allows users to specify granular privacy settings, choosing which users can or can't interact with them in certain ways. Search & filters Telegram allows applying detailed message filters while looking for messages in chats. This allows the server to filter messages based on a text query, and even on their type, and this feature is often used by graphical clients to implement features like the chat gallery, chat profile pictures and more. Polls Telegram allows sending polls and quizzes, that can be voted on by thousands, if not millions of users in chats and channels. Checklists Premium users can now create collaborative checklists in any chat to track tasks and coordinate teams — or manage shopping and to-do lists. Reactions Telegram allows users to react to any message using specific emojis, triggering cute Lottie animations. Animated message effects Telegram allows adding spectacular animated effects to messages you send. Emoji categories Sticker, custom emoji and GIF selection UIs should offer a list of categories to quickly filter results by a (list of) emojis, or by some other criteria. Emoji status Telegram allows users to set an emoticon or a custom emoji as status, to show next to their name in chats and profiles. Invite links and join requests Channels, basic groups and supergroups may have a public username or a private invite link: private invite links may be further enhanced with per-user join requests. Admin, banned and default rights for channels, supergroups and groups How to handle admin permissions, granular bans and global permissions in channels, groups and supergroups. Discussion groups Groups can be associated with a channel as a discussion group, allowing users to discuss posts. Channel comments and message threads Telegram allows commenting on a channel post or on a generic group message, thanks to message threads. Admin log Both supergroups and channels offer a so-called admin log, a log of recent relevant supergroup and channel actions, like the modification of group/channel settings or information on behalf of an admin, user kicks and bans, and more. Pinned messages Telegram allows pinning multiple messages on top of a specific chat. Group member/admin tags Members in group chats (both basic groups and supergroups) can now add a tag next to their name — to show their role at work, what they study in school, and more. Mentions Telegram allows mentioning other users in case of urgent duckling matters, and quickly navigating to those mentions in order to read them as swiftly as possible. Scheduled messages Telegram allows scheduling messages. Live geolocations Telegram allows sending the live geolocation of a user in a chat, optionally setting a proximity alert. Peer database How to work with peer information in the API. Min constructors Sometimes, user and channel constructors encountered in group chat updates may not contain full info about the user: this page explains how to handle such constructors. Account deletion How to delete a Telegram account. Imported messages Telegram allows importing messages and media from foreign chat apps. Telegram Passport How to work with Telegram Passport directly using the MTProto API. Telegram Payments How to work with Telegram Payments directly using the MTProto API. Third-party verification To further improve transparency on Telegram, official third-party services are able to assign extra verification icons to user accounts and chats — in order to prevent scams and reduce misinformation. Styled text with messag…