How to Connect OpenClaw to Telegram: Complete Bot Integration Guide

One of OpenClaw’s most popular features is Telegram integration. It lets you chat with your AI assistant from any device through Telegram — the fast, secure messaging app with over 900 million active users.

This guide walks you through connecting your OpenClaw instance to Telegram in about 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

• A running OpenClaw instance (setup guide here)
• A Telegram account (free)
• The Telegram app on your phone or desktop

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot with BotFather

BotFather is Telegram’s official tool for creating and managing bots. Here’s how to use it:

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send the command /newbot
3. Choose a display name for your bot (e.g., “My AI Assistant”)
4. Choose a username that ends with “bot” (e.g., my_ai_assistant_bot)
5. BotFather will respond with your bot token — a long string like 123456789:ABCdefGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz

Important: Keep your bot token secret. Anyone with this token can control your bot.

Optional: Customize Your Bot

While chatting with BotFather, you can also:

• /setdescription — Set what users see when they first open your bot
• /setabouttext — Set the bio shown in the bot’s profile
• /setuserpic — Upload a profile picture for your bot

Step 2: Connect the Token to OpenClaw

1. Log in to your OpenClaw dashboard
2. Go to Dashboard → Telegram
3. Paste your bot token from BotFather
4. Click “Connect”

OpenClaw will verify the token and set up a secure webhook connection between Telegram and your instance. This means messages are delivered instantly — no polling required.

Step 3: Test Your Bot

1. Open Telegram
2. Search for your bot by its username
3. Send a message — your AI assistant should respond within seconds

That’s it! Your AI assistant is now available on Telegram 24/7.

What You Can Do with Your Telegram Bot

Once connected, your OpenClaw Telegram bot can:

• Answer questions on any topic using the AI model you selected
• Have extended conversations with persistent context
• Help with writing — emails, essays, code, creative content
• Analyze information — summarize articles, explain concepts, compare options
• Code assistance — write, debug, and explain code in any programming language
• Language translation — translate between languages in real time

Tips for a Great Telegram Bot Experience

Choose the Right Model

For Telegram, where quick responses matter, consider using Claude Haiku 4.5 or GPT-4.1 Mini. These models respond faster, which creates a more natural chat experience. See our model comparison guide.

Set Expectations

Use BotFather’s /setdescription to tell users what your bot can do. Clear expectations lead to better interactions.

Privacy

Your Telegram conversations are processed by your isolated OpenClaw instance. Messages go from Telegram to your instance to the AI provider and back — they’re not stored or logged by OpenClaw itself.

Troubleshooting

Bot Doesn’t Respond

• Check that your OpenClaw instance is running (green status in the dashboard)
• Verify your API key is valid and has sufficient credits
• Try disconnecting and reconnecting the Telegram token

Slow Responses

• Switch to a faster AI model (Haiku or GPT-4.1 Mini)
• Check your AI provider’s status page for any outages

Next Steps

• Choose the best AI model for your use case
• Discover 10 creative use cases for your AI bot
• Browse the full OpenClaw documentation