Channel
Telegram
Bots and channels that people choose to follow, with rich buttons and no template approval.
On Telegram, a business talks to people through a bot: an account run by software that can send text, media, buttons and mini apps. Businesses use it for support, notifications people sign up for, communities and simple ordering, especially where Telegram is a popular everyday messenger. A person has to open the bot and press Start before the business can message them, which makes every conversation opt-in by design. Two further tools sit beside bots: Telegram Business adds business features to an account run by a person, and Telegram Gateway delivers login and verification codes inside Telegram.
Start with the 101Telegram 101: the whole pictureHistory, how it works, where it is used, what it costs, the rules, its limits, and when to choose it, with every claim sourced.Read the 101Need help implementing this? Ask members who have done it.
What matters when choosing
- Use of the official Bot API, with your own bot token held in your own account.
- Easy ways to bring people to the bot: links, QR codes and buttons on your site and in other channels.
- Handover from the bot to a person in a shared inbox, with the history kept.
- Respect for the platform's sending limits, so large broadcasts are paced rather than dropped.
Questions to ask providers
- Is the bot registered to our account, and can we take the token with us if we move?
- How do you pace broadcasts to many subscribers, and what happens to messages over the limit?
- How does a Telegram conversation appear next to the same customer's other channels?
Common mistakes
- Expecting to message people by phone number; they must start the bot first.
- Using automated personal accounts instead of a bot, which risks the account and the customer's trust.
What it is good at
- Opt-in conversations with buttons, menus and mini apps.
- Communities and announcement channels people choose to follow.
- Fast setup with no template approval for messages.
What to watch for
- You cannot start a conversation with someone who has not opened your bot.
- Popularity varies widely between countries.
- No delivery receipt in the SMS sense; you see what the platform reports back.
How it is priced
Ordinary bot messages carry no per-message fee from the platform. A bot that broadcasts faster than the free limit of about 30 messages per second can turn on paid broadcasts, charged in Telegram Stars (0.1 Stars) for each message above the limit. Telegram Gateway charges US$0.01 per delivered verification code (as of October 2026), and Telegram Business comes with a Premium subscription. Otherwise cost comes from the provider's subscription, priced per seat, per active contact or per month, and from your own hosting.
Sources Telegram ↗Telegram ↗Telegram ↗
Typical channels: Telegram Email Web chat & booking page SMS
Listings that fit (14)
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- ZendeskCarries: TelegramStrong match100
- IntercomCarries: TelegramStrong match100
- respond.ioCarries: TelegramStrong match100
- PreludeCarries: TelegramStrong match100
- A2P NetworkCarries: TelegramStrong match100
- Omnichannel SystemsCarries: TelegramStrong match100