Telegram Bot APIs

Snippet Telegram

Quick-access to Telegram Bot APIs plus common troubleshooting steps.

Send Message - Basic

Send a simple text message to a user or group.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage" \
  -d "chat_id=<CHAT_ID>" \
  -d "text=Hello from DevTools!"

Send Message - Markdown

Send message with Markdown formatting.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -d parse_mode="Markdown" \
  -d text="*Bold* _Italic_ \`Code\`"

Send Message - HTML

Send message with HTML formatting.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -d parse_mode="HTML" \
  -d text="<b>Bold</b> <i>Italic</i>"

Send Photo - From URL

Send an image from a public URL.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto" \
  -d chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -d photo="https://example.com/image.png"

Send Photo - Local File

Upload and send a local image file.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F photo=@"/path/to/image.png"

Send Photo - With Caption

Send image with text caption.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F photo=@"screenshot.png" \
  -F caption="Server status report"

Send Document - Any File

Send PDF, ZIP, logs, or any file type.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendDocument" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F document=@"/path/to/file.pdf"

Send Document - With Caption

Send file with description and timestamp.

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendDocument" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F document=@"logs.txt" \
  -F caption="Application logs - $(date)"

Browser Request - Simple GET

Quick GET request you can use directly in browser.

https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage?chat_id=<CHAT_ID>&text=Hello

Browser Request - URL Encoded

Send message with URL encoding for special characters.

https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage?chat_id=<CHAT_ID>&text=Server%20is%20up

Java - Send Text Message

Basic Java implementation using HttpURLConnection.

String token = "<YOUR_TOKEN>";
String chatId = "<CHAT_ID>";
String text = "Hello from Java!";

String url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token +
             "/sendMessage?chat_id=" + chatId +
             "&text=" + URLEncoder.encode(text, "UTF-8");

HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
conn.setRequestMethod("GET");

int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();
System.out.println("Response: " + responseCode);

Java - HttpClient (Java 11+)

Modern Java HttpClient implementation.

HttpClient client = HttpClient.newHttpClient();
String body = String.format(
    "chat_id=%s&text=%s",
    chatId,
    URLEncoder.encode(message, StandardCharsets.UTF_8)
);

HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
    .uri(URI.create("https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token + "/sendMessage"))
    .header("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
    .POST(HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(body))
    .build();

HttpResponse<String> response = client.send(request,
    HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());

Java - Send Photo

Send photo using Apache HttpClient with multipart.

String token = "<YOUR_TOKEN>";
String chatId = "<CHAT_ID>";
File file = new File("image.png");

String url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token + "/sendPhoto";

HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);
MultipartEntityBuilder builder = MultipartEntityBuilder.create();

builder.addTextBody("chat_id", chatId);
builder.addBinaryBody("photo", new FileInputStream(file),
        ContentType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM, file.getName());

post.setEntity(builder.build());

HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);
System.out.println(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());

PHP - Send Text Message

Send message using PHP native functions.

<?php
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN";
$chatId = "CHAT_ID";
$text = "Hello from PHP!";

$url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot{$token}/sendMessage";

$data = [
    'chat_id' => $chatId,
    'text' => $text
];

$options = [
    'http' => [
        'header'  => "Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n",
        'method'  => 'POST',
        'content' => http_build_query($data)
    ]
];

$context = stream_context_create($options);
$result = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);

echo $result;
?>

PHP - Send Document

Send file using cURL in PHP.

<?php
$token = "YOUR_TOKEN";
$chatId = "CHAT_ID";
$filePath = "/path/to/file.pdf";

$url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot{$token}/sendDocument";

$post_fields = [
    'chat_id' => $chatId,
    'document' => new CURLFile($filePath)
];

$ch = curl_init();
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $post_fields);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);

echo $response;
?>

Bot Info - Get Details

Verify bot token and get bot information.

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getMe

Response Example

{
  "ok": true,
  "result": {
    "id": 123456789,
    "is_bot": true,
    "first_name": "MyBot",
    "username": "my_bot"
  }
}

Updates - Get Messages

Retrieve messages sent to your bot.

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates

Chat ID - Find User ID

Get chat ID from updates after sending a message.

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates | grep -o '"chat":{"id":[0-9]*'

Troubleshoot - 401 Unauthorized

Fix “401 Unauthorized” error (wrong token).

Solution

Get correct token from @BotFather
Verify with /getMe endpoint
Check for extra spaces in token

Troubleshoot - 400 Chat Not Found

Fix “400 Chat not found” error.

Causes

User hasn’t started the bot
Wrong chat ID
Bot not added to group

Solutions

User must click Start button first
Bot must be added to group (for group messages)
Group chat IDs are negative (e.g., -987654321)

Get Correct Chat ID

# Send message to bot, then run:
curl https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/getUpdates

Troubleshoot - 429 Rate Limit

Fix “429 Too Many Requests” error.

Rate Limits

30 messages/second per bot
1 message/second per chat
20 requests/minute for same group

Solution

Add delays between messages
Use message queuing
Batch notifications

Proxy - Java Configuration

Configure HTTP proxy in Java.

System.setProperty("http.proxyHost", "proxy.company.com");
System.setProperty("http.proxyPort", "8080");
System.setProperty("https.proxyHost", "proxy.company.com");
System.setProperty("https.proxyPort", "8080");

Proxy - cURL Configuration

Use proxy with cURL requests.

curl -x http://proxy.company.com:8080 \
  "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getMe"

API Methods Reference

Quick reference of common Telegram Bot API methods.

Method	Purpose
`sendMessage`	Send text
`sendPhoto`	Send image
`sendDocument`	Send file
`sendVideo`	Send video
`sendAudio`	Send audio
`sendLocation`	Send GPS coordinates
`getUpdates`	Get messages
`getMe`	Get bot info

Important Variables

Key variables for Telegram Bot API.

<YOUR_TOKEN>    → Bot token from @BotFather
<CHAT_ID>       → User ID / Group ID
Group IDs       → Always negative (-123456789)
User IDs        → Always positive (123456789)

Getting Started

Steps to create and use your first Telegram bot.

Message @BotFather on Telegram
Send /newbot command
Follow prompts to name your bot
Save the token provided
Start bot by sending /start from your account
Get chat ID using /getUpdates
Send your first message using API