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.