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eternnoir/pytelegrambotapi

8,730PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A Python library for building Telegram bots, register message handlers, respond to commands, send files and polls, and choose between synchronous or async coding styles.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((pyTelegramBotAPI))
    What it does
      Wrap Telegram Bot API
      Register message handlers
      Send messages and files
    Modes
      Synchronous polling
      Async with asyncio
    Features
      Commands and filters
      Inline mode
      Webhooks
      Payments
    Setup
      pip install
      BotFather API token
    Audience
      Python developers
      Bot builders
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a Telegram bot that responds to user commands and echoes messages in about 10 lines of Python code.

USE CASE 2

Create an async bot that handles many concurrent Telegram messages without blocking, for high-traffic bots.

USE CASE 3

Send files, photos, polls, or payments through a Telegram bot using the library's API wrappers.

USE CASE 4

Add a Telegram notification or command interface to an existing Python app or automation script.

Tech stack

Python

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Requires creating a Telegram bot via BotFather to get an API token before writing any code.

No license information is mentioned in the explanation.

In plain English

pyTelegramBotAPI is a Python library for building Telegram bots. Telegram provides an official Bot API that lets you create automated accounts that can send and receive messages, respond to commands, send files, create polls, handle payments, and do many other things within Telegram chats. This library wraps that API so that Python developers can write bot logic without having to handle the underlying HTTP calls directly. The library supports both regular (synchronous) and asynchronous programming styles. In the synchronous style, your code runs one step at a time in order. In the asynchronous style, your code can handle multiple incoming messages at once without waiting for each one to finish, which is better for bots that expect a lot of traffic. Both modes expose the same features. To use the library, you create a bot account through Telegram's BotFather tool and receive an API token. You then write Python code that registers message handlers: functions that run automatically when certain types of messages arrive. A simple echo bot, which the README walks through step by step, takes about 10 lines of code. Handlers can filter by command, message content, or any custom condition you define. The library is installed via pip, the standard Python package installer, and works with Python 3.10 through 3.14. It is kept up to date with Telegram's Bot API as Telegram releases new features. The README includes a thorough table of contents covering topics like inline mode, webhooks, middleware, proxy support, and how to send large text messages in chunks. The project has official documentation hosted on Read the Docs, available in both English and Russian. It is described as production-ready but still actively developed. The full README is longer than what was shown.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Using eternnoir/pytelegrambotapi, write a Python Telegram bot that responds to the /start command with a welcome message and echoes back any text the user sends.
Prompt 2
How do I set up a webhook for my pyTelegramBotAPI bot instead of long polling, and deploy it to a server?
Prompt 3
I want my Telegram bot to send a photo with a caption when a user types /pic. Show me the code using pyTelegramBotAPI.
Prompt 4
How do I use the async version of pyTelegramBotAPI to handle multiple users at once? Show me a minimal async bot example with asyncio.
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