Node.js Telegram Bot API

Node.js module to interact with the official Telegram Bot API.

📦 Install

npm i node-telegram-bot-api

✍️ Note: This package is ESM-only and requires Node.js ≥ 18. Use import (not require). TypeScript types are bundled — do not install @types/node-telegram-bot-api (it would shadow the bundled, more accurate types). Upgrading from 0.6x? See the migration notes in the changelog.

🚀 Usage

import TelegramBot from 'node-telegram-bot-api';

// replace the value below with the Telegram token you receive from @BotFather
const token = 'YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN';

// Create a bot that uses 'polling' to fetch new updates
const bot = new TelegramBot(token, { polling: true });

// Matches "/echo [whatever]" - the leading ^ anchors the command to the start of
// the message, so it won't match "/echo" embedded in a URL or mid-sentence.
bot.onText(/^\/echo (.+)/, (msg, match) => {
  // 'msg' is the received Message from Telegram
  // 'match' is the result of executing the regexp above on the text content
  // of the message

  const chatId = msg.chat.id;
  const resp = match?.[1] ?? ''; // the captured "whatever"

  // send back the matched "whatever" to the chat
  bot.sendMessage(chatId, resp);
});

// Listen for any kind of message. There are different kinds of messages.
bot.on('message', (msg) => {
  const chatId = msg.chat.id;

  // send a message to the chat acknowledging receipt of their message
  bot.sendMessage(chatId, 'Received your message');
});

More runnable examples live in the examples/ directory.

📚 Documentation

Usage
Examples
Migration guide (0.6x → 1.0)
Tutorials
Help Information
API Reference — generated from source; the package also ships its own TypeScript types, and method signatures mirror the official Bot API
Contributing to the Project

Note: Code for the latest release resides on the master branch, and pull requests should target master.

💭 Community

We thank all the developers in the Open-Source community who continuously take their time and effort in advancing this project. See our list of contributors.

We have a Telegram channel where we post updates on the Project. Head over and subscribe!

We also have a Telegram group to discuss issues related to this library.

Some things built using this library that might interest you:

tgfancy: A fancy, higher-level wrapper for Telegram Bot API
node-telegram-bot-api-middleware: Middleware for node-telegram-bot-api
teleirc: A simple Telegram ↔ IRC gateway
bot-brother: Node.js library to help you easily create telegram bots
redbot: A Node-RED plugin to create telegram bots visually
node-telegram-keyboard-wrapper: A wrapper to improve keyboards structures creation through a more easy-to-see way (supports Inline Keyboards, Reply Keyboard, Remove Keyboard and Force Reply)
beetube-bot: A telegram bot for music, videos, movies, EDM tracks, torrent downloads, files and more.
telegram-inline-calendar: Date and time picker and inline calendar for Node.js telegram bots.
telegram-captcha: Telegram bot to protect Telegram groups from automatic bots.
@toptl/node-telegram-bot-api: Plugin for TOP.TL, the Telegram directory. Auto-tracks bot stats and enables vote checking.

👥 Contributors

License

The MIT License (MIT)

node-telegram-bot-api