AI automation
How much does a Telegram bot cost? Builders, custom code, AI bots and the monthly bill
Telegram charges nothing for a bot within its limits, so the bill is the build plus the running costs. Published builds range from about 30 euros on a gig platform to hundreds of thousands of roubles at studios, while a small AI support bot can run on roughly $15 a month. VITON13 launches a one-channel chatbot from $73.
How much does it cost to make a Telegram bot in 2026?
Telegram does not sell bots. You create one in @BotFather in minutes and the Bot API has no subscription or per-message fee, so the money goes to what surrounds it: who builds the bot, where it runs, which model answers and how it takes payment. Telegram's FAQ says a working bot needs programming skill, which is why third-party builders exist.
| Route | Published figure | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Builder you configure: SUCH (vendor, 19 September 2025) | Free to start; PRO $19 a month; AI replies from $1 a credit | A Telegram-only support bot; credits are spent only on AI replies |
| Builder you configure: Botpress (its pricing page) | Free with 25 conversations a month; Plus $150 a month billed annually with 250 conversations | A general bot platform with an official Telegram integration |
| Gig platform: one ComeUp seller, France | Base pack 30 euros; +40, +50 or +60 euros for smarter packs | Seller's own description: from a question-and-answer bot to a custom bot with payments |
| Freelance brief: Codeur.com, France (29 October 2025) | Budget 1,000 to 10,000 euros; 18 quotes averaged 2,450 euros | An AI bot for Telegram and WhatsApp |
| Studio price list: Vibes, Moscow (Sostav, 24 March 2025) | Classic bot from 150,000 roubles in a week; Mini App from 300,000; bot plus Mini App with CRM and analytics from 700,000 | The agency's own list; it says it mostly builds Mini Apps |
| VITON13 | From $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led | One channel, answers you approve, request capture and handoff to a person; 5–8 working days |
The spread is the finding. A 30 euro gig and a 700,000 rouble project are different products: one answers common questions, the other joins a CRM, takes payments and ships an interface. A builder suits simple flows, custom code suits integrations and your own hosting, and an AI assistant adds model fees and a need for human handoff. Ask every quote: what may the bot say, which systems does it touch, and who fixes it in month three?
Which Telegram bot do you need: FAQ, orders, booking, support or a Mini App?
| Kind | What it does | What drives the price | Telegram rule to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| FAQ and lead capture | Answers common questions, collects name, contact and request | Size of the answer base, captured fields, where leads land | Users start the chat; no unsolicited messages |
| Orders and payments | Shows a catalog, sends an invoice, confirms the order | Catalog size, stock and CRM links, payment provider, refunds | Physical goods: a provider. Digital goods: Stars only |
| Booking | Offers slots, confirms, reminds | Calendar or booking-system link, staff rules, cancellations | Promotions need permission |
| Support with handoff | Answers from approved content, passes the chat to a person | Content quality, working-hours rules, who takes over | A bot connected through Telegram Business has its own duties |
| Mini App | A web app that opens inside Telegram: shop, account area, game | Design, back end, sign-in, payments, testing | A privacy policy button is shown; same payment split |
Studio price lists show the gap. The Moscow studio above prices a Mini App at double its classic bot, and the combined bot, Mini App, CRM and analytics at more than four times.
What does a Telegram bot cost to run each month?
Four lines: a server, model usage if AI writes the replies, a builder plan if you use one, and the hours someone spends changing answers.
| Line | Published price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Small server | DigitalOcean Droplets: $4, $6 or $12 a month for 512 MiB, 1 GiB or 2 GiB of memory | Check the transfer allowance against your traffic |
| Model usage | Claude Haiku 4.5: $1 per million input tokens, $5 per million output tokens | Only if AI writes the replies; other providers price differently |
| Builder plan | SUCH PRO $19 a month; Botpress Plus $150 a month billed annually | Replaces the server when the builder hosts the bot |
| Your time | Not priced | Editing answers, reading transcripts, taking over handoffs |
A worked example: 3,000 customer questions a month. If each answer reads about 1,500 tokens (the question, recent chat and a few paragraphs of your content) and writes about 300, that is 4.5 million input and 0.9 million output tokens. At the Haiku 4.5 list price that is $4.50 plus $4.50, or $9.00. With a $6 server the bill is about $15 a month.
How do Telegram's rate limits and paid broadcasts affect a bot's bill?
Telegram's FAQ sets three limits that apply at once: about one message a second in one chat, 20 messages a minute in one group, and about 30 a second across all chats. Going over ends in 429 errors.
At 30 a second, a message to 50,000 subscribers takes about 28 minutes and 100,000 takes about 56. Telegram suggests spreading broadcasts over 8 to 12 hours unless you pay for speed.
Paid broadcasts lift the ceiling to 1,000 a second at 0.1 Stars per message above the free 30, but a bot needs 100,000 Stars on balance and 100,000 monthly users to switch them on. At Telegram's developer value of $0.013 a Star, a full-speed broadcast to 100,000 people, with 97,000 paid messages, costs about $126. A local business will almost never meet that limit.
How do payments work in a Telegram bot, and when must you use Stars?
| Physical goods and services | Digital goods and services | |
|---|---|---|
| How you are paid | A payment provider connected through BotFather; more than 20 providers, over 200 countries | Telegram Stars only, currency code XTR |
| Telegram's cut | None; the provider charges its own fees, for example Stripe's 2.9% plus 30 cents per US card charge | Developers receive 0.013 USD per Star, paid out through Fragment after up to 21 days |
| Disputes and refunds | Yours, with the provider and the bank | Yours: the bot must answer /paysupport and can refund Stars through the Bot API |
| Why the split | Telegram does not process these payments | Apple and Google store rules; a bot selling digital goods another way can be made inaccessible |
What do Telegram's terms and privacy law require from a business bot?
- A privacy policy users can reach, saying what data you keep, how you collect it and why. Telegram's Standard Policy applies if you write none, and fitting it to your use is your job.
- Deleting user data when the user or Telegram asks, and when you no longer need it.
- No spam: unsolicited messages are barred and broadcasts must be in good faith.
- No data collection beyond what the service needs, and none aimed at building datasets or AI models.
- Telegram Business bots: say truthfully what the bot does, what private data you keep and for how long, and never pass message contents to third parties, including third-party APIs, without the user's authorization.
Who should skip a Telegram bot for now?
- Businesses whose customers are not on Telegram: check where people already write to you.
- A handful of chats a week: answer them by hand.
- Teams with nobody for the handoff: a bot that offers a person and never delivers one is worse than none.
- Shops whose prices and stock change daily and live in someone's head.
- Anyone planning to message people who never asked.
- Sellers of digital goods who want any currency but Stars.
What does a one-channel chatbot launch cost with VITON13?
The chatbot service lists Telegram among its channels. Totals below add live starting prices in both production modes; hosting, builder and model fees are not in them.
Cost calculator
Plan your chatbot launch
Tick what you need; the totals update as you choose.
Your estimate
- AI-assisted
- from $73
- Human-led
- from $93
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
stages can overlap; the written estimate fixes the dates
Get a written estimate in 1 working dayStarting prices of VITON13 packages; the written estimate confirms scope and price after the brief.
The chatbot takes 5–8 working days and the n8n workflow 5–8 working days.
How VITON13 builds a Telegram chatbot
We sell one layer: a chatbot on one channel. Telegram is one of the three the service lists, beside a website and WhatsApp Business. You supply your FAQ and policies, access to the Telegram bot it should run on, the person who takes over chats and the place requests should land. The bot answers only from the base you approve, says it is a bot and hands the chat to a named person when it cannot help. AI-assisted: AI drafts answers from your documents, a specialist checks each one and 20 scripted conversations test the launch. Human-led: a specialist designs the conversation and tone, runs 40 test conversations and reads the logs weekly for two weeks.
AI chatbot with human handoff
- Price
- $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
The final price is fixed in writing after a short scope review.
n8n automation
- Price
- $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
AI automation services
- Price
- $73 AI-assisted or $93 human-led
- Timeline
- 5–8 working days
AI-assisted: AI drafts inside defined steps, a person directs and checks every result. Human-led: a specialist does the work and AI assists.
What is included
- An approved answer base: up to 30 question-and-answer pairs or 20 pages of documents
- Three flows: answering questions, capturing a request and handing the chat to a person
- Up to 5 captured fields sent to one place: email, a Google Sheet or a CRM with an API
- One handoff channel (email, Telegram or WhatsApp) with the transcript, a working-hours rule and an out-of-hours message
- A tested launch with a bot disclosure line, 5 working days of fixes and an admin guide
- Delivery: 5–8 working days after the brief is approved
Not included
- Platform, hosting and model fees, paid by you directly and listed in the estimate
- Extra channels, each quoted separately
- Payments or bookings inside the chat, quoted as an integration
- Mini Apps, bulk messaging and cold outreach through messengers
- Medical, legal or financial advice bots, legal review of consent and privacy rules, and any promise of more leads or sales
Revisions: 2 revision rounds on answers and flows
Get an estimate in 1 working dayWritten estimate within 1 working day
Example
PILOTPilot in progress
No published Telegram bot case yet
VITON13 has not published a client Telegram bot with real conversation numbers, so this guide invents no results or savings. The $15 monthly bill above is arithmetic on list prices for an assumed 3,000 questions, not a client's invoice.
What this does not prove
- The example assumes 3,000 questions with 1,500 input and 300 output tokens each. It does not show what a real business pays or what a bot earns.
- Nothing here shows how often a bot hands a chat to a person; that depends on your content and your rules.
Questions and answers
Is the Telegram Bot API free?
Yes. Telegram's FAQ says bots can message their users at no cost within the rate limits. The only Telegram fee is 0.1 Stars per message above 30 a second, open to bots with 100,000 Stars and 100,000 monthly users. Hosting, models and builders are yours to pay.
Do I need a developer to make a Telegram bot?
Telegram's FAQ says there is no out-of-the-box way to make a working bot without programming. Third-party builders such as SUCH and Botpress fill the gap with their own plans and limits. Use a builder for simple flows, a developer for a back end or integrations.
How much does it cost to host a Telegram bot?
A small server lists at $4 to $12 a month at DigitalOcean, and a text bot with modest traffic is a light job. If AI writes the replies, model usage is usually the larger line: near $9 for 3,000 answers in our example.
Can a Telegram bot take payments, and what does Telegram charge?
Yes. For physical goods you connect a payment provider and Telegram takes no commission, though the provider does. Digital goods must be sold in Telegram Stars, and developers receive 0.013 USD per Star. Either way you handle disputes and refunds, and the bot must answer /paysupport.
Can a bot answer inside my own Telegram business account?
Yes. Telegram Business lets an account owner connect a bot that answers private chats on their behalf. The developer terms add duties: say truthfully what the bot does, state what private data you keep, and never pass message contents to third parties, including APIs, without permission.
Sources
- Telegram, Bots FAQ —
- Telegram, Bot developer terms —
- Telegram, Bot Payments (physical goods) —
- DigitalOcean, Droplet pricing —
- Anthropic, Claude pricing —
- Botpress, Pricing —
- Botpress, Telegram integration guide —
- SUCH, Telegram support chatbot cost —
- Codeur.com, Telegram and WhatsApp bot brief —
- Sostav, Vibes guide to Telegram bots —