TelegramBot user agent
Operated by Telegram
TelegramBot is the fetcher Telegram uses to build link previews in chats and channels.
The TelegramBot bot at a glance
- TelegramBot is operated by Telegram and reads page titles, descriptions and images to build link previews.
- The robots.txt token for TelegramBot is TelegramBot.
- Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings.
- TelegramBot robots.txt support: Not documented.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is TelegramBot?
TelegramBot loads a shared page to show its title, description and image as a preview under the message.
Telegram has not published a crawler page for this user agent.
Should you block TelegramBot?
Allow TelegramBot unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps. |
| Follows robots.txt | Not documented |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow TelegramBot
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token TelegramBot is matched case-insensitively. robots.txt alone may not stop TelegramBot, so add the Nginx, Apache or Cloudflare rule as well.
robots.txt: block
# Block TelegramBot
User-agent: TelegramBot
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow TelegramBot
User-agent: TelegramBot
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep TelegramBot out of private areas only
User-agent: TelegramBot
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to TelegramBot
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(TelegramBot)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to TelegramBot
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (TelegramBot) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "TelegramBot")How to verify real TelegramBot traffic
Telegram publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for TelegramBot, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find TelegramBot in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts TelegramBot requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "TelegramBot" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
TelegramBot user agent string
The full user agent Telegram publishes for TelegramBot. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
TelegramBot (like TwitterBot)TelegramBot FAQ
TelegramBot identifies itself with the robots.txt token "TelegramBot". A typical request header reads: TelegramBot (like TwitterBot)
Telegram has not documented how TelegramBot treats robots.txt. Add a robots.txt rule and back it with a server rule if the traffic matters to you.
Blocking a social preview bot has no effect on search rankings. No direct effect on AI answers, but shared links lose their title, image and description, which usually lowers clicks from social and chat apps.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: TelegramBot" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Telegram publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for TelegramBot, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "TelegramBot", for example with: grep -i "TelegramBot" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Public bot registry. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
