Create a Telegram Bot and get a Bot Token

Open Telegram application then search for @BotFather
Click Start
Click Menu -> /newbot or type /newbot and hit Send
Follow the instruction until we get message like so

Done! Congratulations on your new bot. You will find it at t.me/new_bot.
You can now add a description.....

Use this token to access the HTTP API:
63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c
Keep your token secure and store it safely, it can be used by anyone to control your bot.

For a description of the Bot API, see this page: https://core.telegram.org/bots/api

So here is our bot token 63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c (make sure we don't share it to anyone).

Get Chat ID for a Private Chat

Search and open our new Telegram bot
Click Start or send a message
Open this URL in a browser https://api.telegram.org/bot{our_bot_token}/getUpdates
See we need to prefix our token with a word bot
Eg: https://api.telegram.org/bot63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c/getUpdates
We will see a json like so

{
  "ok": true,
  "result": [
    {
      "update_id": 83xxxxx35,
      "message": {
        "message_id": 2643,
        "from": {...},
        "chat": {
          "id": 21xxxxx38,
          "first_name": "...",
          "last_name": "...",
          "username": "@username",
          "type": "private"
        },
        "date": 1703062972,
        "text": "/start"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Check the value of result.0.message.chat.id, and here is our Chat ID: 21xxxxx38
Let's try to send a message: https://api.telegram.org/bot63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c/sendMessage?chat_id=21xxxxx38&text=test123
When we set the bot token and chat id correctly, the message test123 should be arrived on our Telegram bot chat.

Get Chat ID for a Channel

Add our Telegram bot into a channel
Send a message to the channel
Open this URL https://api.telegram.org/bot{our_bot_token}/getUpdates
We will see a json like so

{
  "ok": true,
  "result": [
    {
      "update_id": 838xxxx36,
      "channel_post": {...},
        "chat": {
          "id": -1001xxxxxx062,
          "title": "....",
          "type": "channel"
        },
        "date": 1703065989,
        "text": "test"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Check the value of result.0.channel_post.chat.id, and here is our Chat ID: -1001xxxxxx062
Let's try to send a message: https://api.telegram.org/bot63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c/sendMessage?chat_id=-1001xxxxxx062&text=test123
When we set the bot token and chat id correctly, the message test123 should be arrived on our Telegram channel.

Get Chat ID for a Group Chat

The easiest way to get a group chat ID is through a Telegram desktop application.

Open Telegram in a desktop app
Add our Telegram bot into a chat group
Send a message to the chat group
Right click on the message and click Copy Message Link
We will get a link like so: https://t.me/c/194xxxx987/11/13
The pattern: https://t.me/c/{group_chat_id}/{group_topic_id}/{message_id}
So here is our Chat ID: 194xxxx987
To use the group chat ID in the API, we need to prefix it with the number -100, like so: -100194xxxx987
Now let's try to send a message: https://api.telegram.org/bot63xxxxxx71:AAFoxxxxn0hwA-2TVSxxxNf4c/sendMessage?chat_id=-100194xxxx987&text=test123
When we set the bot token and chat id correctly, the message test123 should be arrived on our group chat.

Get Chat ID for a Topic in a Group Chat

In order to send a message to a specific topic on Telegram group, we need to get the topic ID.

Similar to steps above, after we click the Copy Message Link, we will get a link like: https://t.me/c/194xxxx987/11/13, so the group Topic ID is 11.
Now we can use it like so (see message_thread_id): https://api.telegram.org/bot783114779:AAEuRWDTFD2UQ7agBtFSuhJf2-NmvHN3OPc/sendMessage?chat_id=-100194xxxx987&message_thread_id=11&text=test123
When we set the bot token and chat id correctly, the message test123 should be arrived inside our group chat topic.

Updated on: 03/06/2025