How to Deploy a Telegram Bot with AI in Under 2 Minutes

Telegram bots are one of the fastest ways to deploy a useful AI agent. With Hatcher, you can go from zero to a live, AI-powered Telegram bot in under two minutes. This guide walks you through every step.

What You'll Need

A Telegram account (mobile app or web)
A free Hatcher account — sign up here, no credit card needed

That.s it. Hosted AI is covered by AI Credits. If you want provider-paid BYOK usage, add your provider API key at the end.

Step 1: Get a Bot Token from BotFather (60 seconds)

Open Telegram and search for @BotFather — the official bot for creating bots.

Start a chat with @BotFather
Send /newbot
Choose a display name for your bot (e.g., "My AI Assistant")
Choose a username — must end in bot (e.g., myai_assistant_bot)
BotFather replies with your bot token — it looks like 1234567890:ABCdefGhIJKlmNOPqrsTUVwxyz

Copy that token. You'll need it in the next step.

Step 2: Deploy on Hatcher (60 seconds)

Log in to hatcher.host
Click Create Agent
Choose a framework — OpenClaw is recommended for Telegram bots
Give your agent a name and description
In the Integrations section, paste your Telegram bot token
Click Deploy

Hatcher builds the container, starts the agent, and connects it to Telegram. The whole process takes under 30 seconds.

Step 3: Test It

Open Telegram and search for your bot by username. Send it a message — any message. It should reply almost instantly using the hosted UsePod/OpenRouter model.

The default system prompt makes the agent a general-purpose assistant. You can customize it from the Config tab in your Hatcher dashboard.

Customizing Your Bot

From the dashboard Config tab you can change:

System Prompt — define the bot's personality, role, and knowledge
Model — switch to GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, or any BYOK provider
Tools — enable web search, file access, memory, and more. Hosted web search uses AI Credits.
Welcome Message — the first message users see when they start the bot

Adding a BYOK Provider Key

The free tier includes 500 AI Credits/month using our hosted UsePod/OpenRouter budget. If you want provider-paid BYOK usage:

Get an API key from your preferred supported LLM provider
In your agent's Config tab, find BYOK Settings
Select your provider and paste your key
Click Save — provider-paid BYOK usage from this point on, for free

Going Further

Once your Telegram bot is running, you can extend it in minutes:

Add it to a Telegram group and it will respond to mentions or all messages (configurable)
Connect the same agent to Discord, Twitter, or WhatsApp — one agent, multiple platforms
Enable the memory tool so your bot remembers conversations across sessions
Use the workflow editor to build multi-step automations triggered by messages

Your first agent is free. Start building now.