How to Create a Python Bot with Telegram Bot API

How to Create a Python Bot with Telegram Bot API? Complete Guide

Introduction to Telegram Bots

In today's world, messengers have become an essential part of life, and bots are a convenient tool for automating tasks, communicating with users, and even running a business. If you want to quickly and easily create your own Telegram bot, Python and the python-telegram-bot library are the perfect choice.

Step 1. Get Your Access Token from BotFather

Before writing any code, you need to register your bot with Telegram. Here's how:

1. Open Telegram and find the user @BotFather.
2. Type the command /start and then /newbot.
3. Provide a name and a unique username for your bot (e.g., MyFirstPythonBot).
4. After registration, BotFather will give you an API token. Copy it — you'll need it in your code.

Step 2. Install the Required Libraries

To interact with the Telegram API, we'll use the python-telegram-bot library. Install it via pip:

pip install python-telegram-bot --upgrade

Step 3. Basic Bot Skeleton

Now let's create a simple bot that responds to the /start command:

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import ApplicationBuilder, CommandHandler, ContextTypes

async def start(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    await update.message.reply_text("Hello! I'm your first Python bot!")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = ApplicationBuilder().token("YOUR_TOKEN_HERE").build()
    app.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
    app.run_polling()

Here's what's happening:

• ApplicationBuilder and CommandHandler are the core tools for handling commands.
• The start function responds to the /start command and sends a text message to the user.
• The run_polling() method launches the bot and starts checking for new messages.

Step 4. Handle User Messages

Let's add handling for regular text messages:

from telegram.ext import MessageHandler, filters

async def echo(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    received_text = update.message.text
    await update.message.reply_text(f"You wrote: {received_text}")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = ApplicationBuilder().token("YOUR_TOKEN_HERE").build()
    app.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
    app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT & ~filters.COMMAND, echo))
    app.run_polling()

Now the bot will reply to any text message by echoing your text back.

Step 5. Add Buttons and Interactive Menus

Bots become much more user-friendly when you add buttons:

from telegram import InlineKeyboardButton, InlineKeyboardMarkup

async def menu(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    keyboard = [
        [InlineKeyboardButton("Button 1", callback_data='button1')],
        [InlineKeyboardButton("Button 2", callback_data='button2')]
    ]
    reply_markup = InlineKeyboardMarkup(keyboard)
    await update.message.reply_text('Choose an option:', reply_markup=reply_markup)

async def button_handler(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    query = update.callback_query
    await query.answer()
    await query.edit_message_text(text=f"You clicked: {query.data}")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    from telegram.ext import CallbackQueryHandler
    app = ApplicationBuilder().token("YOUR_TOKEN_HERE").build()
    app.add_handler(CommandHandler("start", start))
    app.add_handler(CommandHandler("menu", menu))
    app.add_handler(CallbackQueryHandler(button_handler))
    app.add_handler