🤖 Build a Telegram Bot with Python

Want to build your own Telegram bot from scratch? In this guide we go from zero to a fully working bot using Python and VS Code — no experience needed. The tutorial is split into two levels: Level 1 covers complete setup and your first bot that greets users by name. Level 2 adds commands like /start and /help for smarter responses.

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⚡ Level 1 — Setup & Your First Bot

🛠️ What You Need

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🔑 Get Your Bot Token from BotFather

Every Telegram bot needs a token — think of it as a unique password that connects your Python code to your bot on Telegram. You get this token from BotFather, an official Telegram bot that manages all bots.

• Open Telegram and search for @BotFather, then start a chat
• Send the command: /newbot
• It will ask for a display name — type anything, e.g. My First Bot
• Then it asks for a username — must end in bot, e.g. myfirsttest_bot
• BotFather replies with your token, which looks like this:

7123456789:AAHxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Copy it and save it somewhere — you will need it in your code.

⚠️ Keep your token secret. Anyone who has it can control your bot. Never share it publicly or push it to GitHub.

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📁 Set Up Your Project in VS Code

• Create a new folder anywhere on your PC — name it something like telegram_bot
• Open VS Code → File → Open Folder → select that folder
• In the Explorer panel on the left, click the New File icon and name the file bot.py
• Press Ctrl + ` to open the terminal at the bottom of VS Code

Your workspace is ready. No extra commands needed.

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⚙️ Install the Library

We use the python-telegram-bot library — it handles all the communication with Telegram's servers so you don't have to. In the VS Code terminal, run:

pip install python-telegram-bot

Wait for it to finish. You will see Successfully installed at the end when it is done.

💡 Note: This tutorial uses python-telegram-bot v20+, which uses Python's async/await style. If you already have an older version, update it with: pip install python-telegram-bot --upgrade

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💻 Level 1 Code — Name Greeting Bot

This is the simplest possible bot. The user types their name, and the bot replies with "Hello [name]! 👋". Paste this into your bot.py file:

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import ApplicationBuilder, MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes

TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE"  # paste your token here


async def reply_hello(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    name = update.message.text          # reads whatever the user typed
    await update.message.reply_text(f"Hello {name}! 👋")


app = ApplicationBuilder().token(TOKEN).build()
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT, reply_hello))

print("Bot is running...")
app.run_polling()

Replace "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE" with the actual token you copied from BotFather.

What each part does:

• TOKEN — your bot's identity, connects the code to Telegram
• async def reply_hello — a function that runs every time a message is received
• update.message.text — reads what the user typed
• reply_text(f"Hello {name}!") — sends the reply back using that text
• MessageHandler(filters.TEXT, reply_hello) — for any text message, call reply_hello
• run_polling() — keeps the bot alive and listening for new messages

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▶️ Run and Test the Bot

In the VS Code terminal, run:

python bot.py

You will see:

Bot is running...

Now open Telegram, search for your bot by its username (e.g. @myfirsttest_bot), and send it a message:

You:  Harsh
Bot: Hello Harsh! 👋

🎉 Level 1 complete! Your bot is live and greeting users by name. To stop it, click the terminal and press Ctrl + C.

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🚀 Level 2 — Commands & Smarter Responses

🆕 What's New in Level 2

In Level 1, the bot replied to every single message the same way. In Level 2, we add commands — special messages that start with / — and make the bot behave differently based on what the user sends.

• /start — sends a welcome message when the user first opens the bot
• /help — shows a list of all available commands
• /hello — greets the user using their actual Telegram profile name
• Any plain text — still does the name greeting from Level 1

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💻 Level 2 Code — Commands Bot

Replace everything in your bot.py with this:

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import (
    ApplicationBuilder, CommandHandler,
    MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes
)

TOKEN = "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN_HERE"


# Runs when user sends /start
async def start(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "👋 Hi! I'm your bot.\n"
        "Send me your name and I'll greet you.\n"
        "Or type /help to see all commands."
    )


# Runs when user sends /help
async def help_command(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    await update.message.reply_text(
        "📋 Commands:\n"
        "/start  — Welcome message\n"
        "/help   — This list\n"
        "/hello  — Bot greets you by your Telegram name\n\n"
        "Or just type any name and I'll say hello!"
    )


# Runs when user sends /hello — uses their Telegram profile name
async def hello_command(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    name = update.effective_user.first_name   # reads from their Telegram profile
    await update.message.reply_text(f"Hello, {name}! 😊")


# Runs for any plain text message (not a /command)
async def reply_hello(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    name = update.message.text                # reads what the user typed
    await update.message.reply_text(f"Hello {name}! 👋")


app = ApplicationBuilder().token(TOKEN).build()

# Register command handlers
app.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
app.add_handler(CommandHandler("help", help_command))
app.add_handler(CommandHandler("hello", hello_command))

# Text handler — fires only for plain messages, not /commands
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT & ~filters.COMMAND, reply_hello))

print("Bot is running...")
app.run_polling()

Key differences from Level 1:

• CommandHandler("start", start) — handles /start specifically, not all messages
• update.effective_user.first_name — reads the name from their Telegram profile (used in /hello)
• update.message.text — reads what they actually typed (used in plain text replies)
• ~filters.COMMAND — the ~ means "not a command", so the text handler only fires for normal messages

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📊 Expected Output

Run python bot.py again and test all the commands in Telegram. Here is what each one does:

You:  /start
Bot: 👋 Hi! I'm your bot.
     Send me your name and I'll greet you.
     Or type /help to see all commands.

You:  /help
Bot: 📋 Commands:
     /start  — Welcome message
     /help   — This list
     /hello  — Bot greets you by your Telegram name

     Or just type any name and I'll say hello!

You:  /hello
Bot: Hello, Harsh! 😊

You:  Harsh
Bot: Hello Harsh! 👋

✅ Level 2 complete! Your bot now handles both commands and plain text messages with different responses.

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➕ Adding More Commands — The Pattern

Every new command follows the same 3-step pattern. Here is an example — a /joke command:

# Step 1 — define the function
async def joke(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    await update.message.reply_text("Why do programmers hate nature? Too many bugs! 🐛")

# Step 2 — register it (add this before app.run_polling)
app.add_handler(CommandHandler("joke", joke))

# Step 3 — user types /joke in Telegram and gets the reply

That is all there is to it. Define a function → register it → it works.

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🚀 Next Steps

Now that your bot is working, here is what you can build next: connect it to a weather API to create a weather bot, add a database to remember users, use inline keyboards for button-based menus, or deploy it to a free cloud host like Railway or PythonAnywhere so it runs 24/7 without keeping your computer on. Happy building!