How to get a Telegram chat_id in 2026 — 3 methods that actually work

Every Telegram bot needs a chat_id to call sendMessage. And every developer hits the same wall the first time: the Bot API doesn't tell you what your chat_id is — you have to fish it out yourself. Here are three methods, ordered from "30 seconds" to "you have specific constraints".

Method 1 — getUpdates (fastest, no extra tools)

Works for any chat where you can add your bot.

1. Add your bot to the target chat (or DM it directly).
2. Send any message in that chat.
3. Open this URL in your browser, replacing <TOKEN> with your bot's token:

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

1. Look for "chat":{"id":...} in the JSON response. That number is your chat_id.

Gotcha: getUpdates only returns recent unconsumed updates. If your bot already has a webhook configured, the response will be empty — Telegram routes updates to the webhook, not to long-polling. Two options:

• Temporarily call deleteWebhook (Telegram Bot API method) and re-run getUpdates.
• Or use Method 2 below, which bypasses the webhook entirely.

Method 2 — Helper bots inside Telegram

If you'd rather not pull the trigger on deleteWebhook, or you can't add your own bot to the target chat, two community bots solve this without any HTTP request:

• @userinfobot — DM it any message, it replies with your numeric user ID. Useful for getting your own chat_id.
• @RawDataBot — add it to a group or channel, it posts a JSON dump with the chat_id and full message metadata. Then kick it out.

For one-off lookups this is by far the fastest path. For programmatic resolution at scale, see Method 3.

Method 3 — Resolve a public @username to a numeric ID

If the chat is public (has a @username you can see in Telegram search), you can skip the bot entirely:

• Use the free Get Telegram ID tool — paste the username, get the numeric ID back through Telegram's own resolver.
• Or call MTProto's users.resolveUsername directly with Telethon if you're writing code.

This is the only method that works without your bot being a member of the chat. Useful when you're building a directory, doing OSINT, or just trying to find the chat_id of a channel you want to forward from.

chat_id formats — match them on sight

Telegram's chat_id format depends on the chat type. If you mismatch them, the Bot API returns Bad Request: chat not found and you can lose 30 minutes wondering why.

Chat type	chat_id format	Example
Private DM with a user	Positive integer	123456789
Basic group	Negative integer	-123456789
Supergroup / channel	Negative, starts with -100	-1001234567890

A common mistake: copying 1234567890 from a t.me/c/1234567890/42 link and using it as-is. For the Bot API you need to prepend -100 to that internal channel ID. See the channel post link parser for the full breakdown.

Common errors when sending to a chat_id

Even with the right chat_id, calls can still fail:

• Bad Request: chat not found — your bot isn't a member, or the user has never DM'd it. For private chats, the user must initiate the first message.
• Forbidden: bot was blocked by the user — the user blocked you. Permanent failure for that chat_id.
• Forbidden: bot is not a member of the supergroup chat — you got kicked. Get re-added.
• Chat_id is empty — you sent an empty string. Most bot libraries treat None/null as empty.

Full list with fix recipes: Telegram API error codes reference.

Code samples

Python (python-telegram-bot)

from telegram import Bot
bot = Bot(token="YOUR_TOKEN")
await bot.send_message(chat_id=-1001234567890, text="hello")

curl

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TOKEN/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id=-1001234567890 \
  -d text="hello"

Node.js (grammY)

import { Bot } from "grammy";
const bot = new Bot(process.env.TOKEN);
await bot.api.sendMessage(-1001234567890, "hello");

Verifying your token before you send

Before you debug a chat_id error, make sure the token itself is valid. The fastest sanity check is calling getMe:

curl -s "https://api.telegram.org/bot$TOKEN/getMe"

If it returns "ok":true plus your bot's profile, the token works. If it returns "Unauthorized", the token is wrong/revoked — BotFather can regenerate it.

There's also a browser-based bot token tester that does the same call without you having to fire a terminal — useful when you're triaging which of three half-deployed bots actually has a working token.

Wrap-up

For most cases, Method 1 (getUpdates) is what you want. For one-off lookups, helper bots are faster. For programmatic resolution of public chats, MTProto resolveUsername is the only option.

The Bot API documentation is at core.telegram.org/bots/api — bookmark it. Most chat_id confusion comes from missing the -100 prefix or trying to DM a user who hasn't messaged the bot first.

If you're hitting a chat_id error not covered here, leave a comment or check the error code reference — it has a filter for common ones.