Telegram Bot API — DevTools#

A complete reference of raw Telegram Bot API commands, cURL examples, Java integration, and error fixes.

Send a Simple Text Message#

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage" \
  -d "chat_id=<CHAT_ID>" \
  -d "text=Hello from my DevTools!"

bash

Send Markdown Message#

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage" \
  -d chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -d parse_mode="Markdown" \
  -d text="*Bold text* _Italic text_"

bash

Send Photo (URL)#

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto" \
  -d chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -d photo="https://example.com/image.png"

bash

Send Local Photo#

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendPhoto" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F photo=@"/path/to/local/image.png"

bash

Send Document (PDF, ZIP, Logs)#

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendDocument" \
  -F chat_id=<CHAT_ID> \
  -F document=@"/path/to/file.pdf"

bash

Quick GET Request (Browser Friendly)#

https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_TOKEN>/sendMessage?chat_id=<CHAT_ID>&text=Hello

plaintext

Java Snippets (Without telegrambots Library)#

Java: Send Text Message#

String token = "<YOUR_TOKEN>";
String chatId = "<CHAT_ID>";
String text = "Hello from Java!";

String url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token +
             "/sendMessage?chat_id=" + chatId +
             "&text=" + URLEncoder.encode(text, "UTF-8");

HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) new URL(url).openConnection();
conn.setRequestMethod("GET");

int responseCode = conn.getResponseCode();
System.out.println("Response Code: " + responseCode);

java

Java: Send Photo (Multipart Upload)#

String token = "<YOUR_TOKEN>";
String chatId = "<CHAT_ID>";
File file = new File("image.png");

String url = "https://api.telegram.org/bot" + token + "/sendPhoto";

HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);
MultipartEntityBuilder builder = MultipartEntityBuilder.create();

builder.addTextBody("chat_id", chatId);
builder.addBinaryBody("photo", new FileInputStream(file),
        ContentType.APPLICATION_OCTET_STREAM, file.getName());

post.setEntity(builder.build());

HttpClient client = HttpClientBuilder.create().build();
HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);
System.out.println(response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());

java

Error Fixes#

401 Unauthorized#

Fix:

Wrong bot token
Wrong chat_id
Check updates:

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

bash

400 Bad Request: chat not found#

Fix:

User has not clicked Start
Bot not added to group
For groups: chat ID must be negative

Example:

-987654321

plaintext

Java Proxy Fix#

System.setProperty("http.proxyHost", "proxy.company.com");
System.setProperty("http.proxyPort", "8080");

java

Variable Reference#

<YOUR_TOKEN> → Telegram Bot Token  
<CHAT_ID> → User ID / Group ID / Channel ID  
Group IDs → Negative (e.g., -123456789)

plaintext

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Published: 12/9/2025

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