Quickstart

Bot Father

Before you start, you need to talk to @BotFather on Telegram. Create a new bot, acquire the bot token and get back here.

Bot token is a key that required to authorize the bot and send requests to the Bot API. Keep your token secure and store it safely, it can be used to control your bot. It should look like this:

1234567:4TT8bAc8GHUspu3ERYn-KGcvsvGB9u_n4ddy

Hello World

Now that you have a bot, it's time to bring it to life! Create a new console project for your bot. It could be a legacy project targeting .NET Framework 4.6.1-4.8 or a modern .NET Core 3.1-.NET 5+.

Examples in this guide target .NET 6, but earlier targets should work as well (including .NET Framework).

dotnet new console

Add a reference to Telegram.Bot package:

dotnet add package Telegram.Bot

This code fetches Bot information based on its access token by calling the Bot API getMe method. Open Program.cs and use the following content:

⚠️ Replace {YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE} with your access token from the @BotFather.

using Telegram.Bot;

var botClient = new TelegramBotClient("{YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN_HERE}");

var me = await botClient.GetMeAsync();
Console.WriteLine($"Hello, World! I am user {me.Id} and my name is {me.FirstName}.");

Running the program gives you the following output:

dotnet run

Hello, World! I am user 1234567 and my name is Awesome Bot.

Great! This bot is self-aware. To make the bot interact with a user, head to the next page.