How to create a Telegram bot: BotFather to your first flow

Here’s how to create a Telegram bot, and it’s the easy part: a few minutes in BotFather. What most tutorials skip is what comes next. They stop at the token or jump straight into Python. This guide takes you from creating the bot and storing the token safely to having a first welcome flow live, with no code.

A note: this blog belongs to Flow4You, and the final part uses our editor, whose interface is in Portuguese today. The BotFather steps are the same whichever tool you choose.

How to create a Telegram bot with BotFather

@BotFather is Telegram’s official bot for creating and managing bots. Everything happens in a chat with it, on your phone or computer.

1. Open the chat. Search for @BotFather in Telegram and check that the username is exactly that. Your token comes from this chat, so don’t settle for a similar name.
2. Send /newbot. It replies asking for a name.
3. Pick a name. This is what shows in the chat and on the profile, for example “Phone Photo Tips”. It can include spaces, and you can change it later with /setname.
4. Pick a username. This is the bot’s address, and its link becomes t.me/username. Telegram’s rules: 5 to 32 characters, Latin letters, numbers and underscores only, ending in “bot”, like phonephototips_bot.
5. Copy the token. BotFather replies with a string made of a number, a colon and random-looking text. That’s your bot’s key.

Think about the username before you confirm. Unlike the name, the documentation says it can’t be changed later. It will appear in your ads, bio and materials, so choose something you can live with.

Treat the token like a password

Whoever has the token controls the bot. Telegram’s advice is simple: store it somewhere safe and don’t share it.

In practice:

• Don’t send it in a group, a screenshot or an email.
• Don’t commit it to a code repository.
• If it leaks, use /token in BotFather to generate a new one. Then update the token in every tool connected to that bot.

Make the profile presentable

Before you send anyone to the bot, spend five minutes on its profile. It’s all in BotFather:

• /setuserpic: the bot’s picture.
• /setdescription: up to 512 characters, shown under “What can this bot do?” to people who haven’t pressed Start yet. It’s your first sales line.
• /setabouttext: up to 120 characters, shown on the profile page.
• /setcommands: the command list people see when they type /.
• /mybots: an interactive screen for editing all of this without memorizing commands.

You’ve created it in BotFather. Now what?

This is where most tutorials end, and where you notice something: if you open the bot and send a message, nothing happens. BotFather only registers the bot. It doesn’t answer on its own. Telegram explains that bots are connected to their owner’s server, which processes each message. Something has to play that role.

You have three routes:

• Write code. Python, Node or another language, talking to the Bot API. You get total freedom. In return, you handle the server, database, send queue and support screen. It makes sense if someone technical will keep maintaining it.
• An integration tool such as n8n. It’s good for connecting Telegram to other systems. You build and maintain the conversation logic node by node, and a chat screen for your team is on you.
• A visual bot builder. You paste the token and draw the conversation in blocks. It’s faster to change and easy to hand to a non-developer. Your limit is the set of blocks the tool offers.

If the goal is selling or support, the third route is usually the shortest. Our guide to the Telegram bot builder goes deeper on that choice, and we compare tools in best Telegram bot builders. From here on, the example uses Flow4You, where the conversation you draw is called a flow.

Connect the token

1. Get an account. In Flow4You, you subscribe first and create the account afterward. Subscriptions start at R$ 99 per month, billed in Brazilian reais, and there’s no free plan or free trial.
2. Go to “Add New Bot” (“Adicionar Novo Bot”).
3. Paste the token in the Telegram bot token field (“Token do bot do Telegram”). The name and @username come from Telegram.

Done: the bot is connected but has nothing to say yet. Let’s fix that.

Build your first welcome flow

Open the “Flows” menu (“Fluxos”) and create a flow. Start small. This example is for a made-up photo tips profile, so swap in your own text:

When…

Lead presses Start in the bot ("also start with /start" toggle on)

Send Message

Hi {{lead.first_name}}! This is Pete from Phone Photo Tips. I send one short tip a day and let you know when a new class opens. Want your first tip now?Send me the tipJust looking

Action: add tag

Tag "wants-tips" goes on whoever tapped Send me the tip

Send Message

Tip 1: wipe your lens before shooting. It sounds silly, but nothing changes a photo more.

Smart Delay: 1 day

Send Message

Did you try it? The new class opens this week.See the classJust the tips, thanks

Block by block:

1. “When…” trigger (“Quando…”). Turn on the “also start with /start” toggle (“Iniciar também com /start”). This makes it the flow that runs when someone opens the bot directly. Only one flow per bot can have it on. The trigger also shows the flow’s own link, a deep link you can use in an ad, bio or post.
2. First message. Say who you are, what the person gets here, and offer a next step with inline buttons. You’ll find more examples in the Telegram bot welcome message guide.
3. Tag. The add-tag Action sets apart whoever asked for the tip. You can use that tag later for a broadcast to that group alone.
4. Delivery. Hand over what you promised before you offer anything.
5. Smart Delay. Wait a day before coming back.
6. Second message. “See the class” is a button with a link to your page or checkout. The payment happens there, not in the flow.

Now test it:

1. Run the Telegram simulation inside the editor.
2. Click “Publish” (“Publicar”). Only published flows open.
3. Open your bot on your own Telegram and press Start. Check the text, the buttons and, in the lead base (“Base de leads”), the tag on your contact.

What about Managed Bots?

Since Bot API 9.6, released on April 3, 2026, Telegram has had Managed Bots: one bot can create and manage other bots for their owners. Whoever runs the manager bot turns on “Bot Management Mode” in BotFather’s Mini App and shares a t.me/newbot/… link, which people use to create their own bot. It’s an API feature for people coding a manager bot, not a conversation editor. For the route in this guide, nothing changes: BotFather, token, flow.

What usually goes wrong

• The bot doesn’t respond to Start. It’s almost always one of two things: the flow isn’t published, or the /start toggle is off. With no flow using that toggle, a plain /start opens nothing.
• Only one link works. If the flow’s link opens but the bot directly doesn’t, it’s the same toggle.
• Testing a huge flow from day one. Start with four or five blocks. A small flow that’s live teaches you more than a big one in draft.
• Sending people to your channel and expecting the bot to reach them. A channel member who has never talked to the bot isn’t one of its leads.
• An improvised username. Since it stays, a test name becomes a problem once the bot starts circulating.

Next step

With the welcome flow live, the work shifts: sending people to the link and watching what happens in the conversation. The natural next move is from welcome to offer, and the Telegram sales funnel guide shows how to build that sequence.