How to Set a Telegram Webhook

A webhook is how Telegram delivers messages to your bot in real time, instead of your bot having to constantly ask "any new messages?" A webhook needs three things: a public HTTPS URL, a valid SSL certificate, and a call to Telegram's setWebhook method.

Step 1: Get your bot token

You'll need the API token from @BotFather, in the format 123456789:ABCdefGhIJKlmnoPQRstuVwxyz.

Step 2: Point your webhook to your hosted URL

Once your bot code is live at a public HTTPS address, you register it with Telegram using a simple GET or POST request:

https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/setWebhook?url=https://yourdomain.com/bot.php

Step 3: Verify it worked

Check the webhook status with:

https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getWebhookInfo

If the response shows your URL with no pending errors, your bot is now receiving live updates.

Common webhook issues

• Invalid SSL certificate — Telegram rejects self-signed or expired certificates
• Wrong content type — Telegram sends JSON; your script must parse php://input correctly
• Server timeout — your webhook endpoint must respond quickly, or Telegram may retry and cause duplicate messages

Skipping the manual setup

On VIP Bot Hosting, webhook setup happens automatically the moment you deploy a bot — no manual setWebhook calls, no SSL configuration needed. It's built for developers who just want their Telegram bot hosted without touching server infrastructure.

  Skip the Manual Setup