Telegram AI chatbots for business: 7 tools that answer from your own information
Yevhen Kurapov, co-founder · Updated Oct 20, 2026
For a Telegram bot that answers customers from your price list and FAQ without building flows, look at ChatPal (free for 100 replies a month, then from $20) or Chat Data (from $15.83 a month billed yearly). ManyChat and SendPulse suit flows and broadcasts, Botpress and n8n suit teams with a developer, respond.io suits teams on many channels.
We make ChatPal, one of the tools below, and list its limits on the same terms as everyone else's.
A Telegram chatbot for a business is a separate bot account, with its own @username, that an AI assistant runs for you: customers open it, press Start and get answers from your price list, FAQ and website. Below are seven tools that put that assistant on your own bot. If you want it answering from your information without building flows, start with ChatPal or Chat Data; the rest suit other jobs, set out below.
What Telegram allows, whichever tool you pick
These rules come from Telegram, so they apply to every tool on this page.
- The bot is not your account. You create it in @BotFather with a username that ends in “bot” and can’t be changed later, and BotFather gives you a token. Every tool here connects with that token. Anyone who has it controls the bot, so paste it only into the service you choose.
- The customer writes first. A bot can’t start a conversation. People open its t.me link or find its @username and press Start. After that, a bot may write to them again, which is how broadcast tools send updates.
- Groups work differently. In a group, a bot by default sees only commands addressed to it and replies to its own messages. To see everything, it has to be an admin or have privacy mode turned off in BotFather. A support bot that answers in a busy group either answers when mentioned or reads every message, and you should decide which before you pick a tool.
- Your personal account is separate. Answering chats that arrive on your own number needs Telegram Business, which comes with Telegram Premium. Most tools here answer only in chats with the bot.
- The bot itself is free. Telegram charges nothing to create or run a bot. Telegram asks bots to send no more than one message a second in a chat and 20 a minute in a group, and limits bulk messages to about 30 a second unless the bot pays for faster broadcasts.
How we chose
We make ChatPal, so weigh our verdict on it accordingly. We picked tools that connect to a bot you create yourself and can answer with AI, then read each one’s pricing page and help pages on 20 October 2026 (ManyChat’s prices were read in a browser on 19 October). We didn’t test the other six hands-on. Tidio offers Telegram only on its Plus and Premium plans, so we left it out. The tools are grouped by the situation they suit, not ranked.
Seven Telegram AI bots, by situation
| Tool | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| ChatPal | AI that answers from your information, no flows | Free for 100 replies a month; $20 for 500, $50 for 1,500 and $120 for 4,000, billed monthly |
| Chat Data | AI that answers from your information, no flows | Entry plan $15.83 a month billed yearly, with 1,500 message credits a month; Telegram isn’t on the free plan |
| ManyChat | Flow builders with broadcasts | Free for 25 active contacts without AI; Pro with AI $39 a month billed monthly or $29 a month billed yearly ($348), for 2,500 contacts; tax extra, price depends on billing country |
| SendPulse | Flow builders with broadcasts | Free up to 500 subscribers and 10,000 messages a month; Pro from €11 a month, or €8.80 a month billed yearly (€105.60), as the site showed from Europe |
| Botpress | Builder platforms for teams with a developer | Free for 100 conversations a month; Plus $150 a month billed yearly, with 250 conversations and $25 of AI usage |
| n8n | Builder platforms for teams with a developer | Community Edition to self-host from GitHub; cloud Starter $20 a month billed yearly, with 2,500 workflow executions |
| respond.io | Team inbox for many channels | AI Agents from Growth, $159 a month billed yearly ($1,908); Starter $79 a month billed yearly, without AI Agents; 7-day trial, no free plan |
AI that answers from your information, no flows
ChatPal
Price: Free for 100 replies a month; $20 for 500, $50 for 1,500 and $120 for 4,000, billed monthly
Good at
- Paste the token BotFather gives you and your bot answers from your files and web pages, with no flows to build
- Books through Google Calendar, Calendly or Altegio, with the free times as Telegram buttons the customer taps
- Hands a chat to you, and your reply from the ChatPal inbox arrives in the same Telegram chat
- Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and website chat on every plan, the free one included
Keep in mind
- Private chats only: it doesn’t answer in Telegram groups or channels
- Voice messages, videos and stickers get no reply; it reads text and photos
Chat Data
Price: Entry plan $15.83 a month billed yearly, with 1,500 message credits a month; Telegram isn’t on the free plan
Good at
- Connects with your BotFather token and answers from your website, PDFs and FAQs
- Also answers in groups and supergroups when someone @mentions the bot, replies to it or uses a command
Keep in mind
- The free plan (100 message credits a month) has no Telegram integration
Flow builders with broadcasts
ManyChat
Price: Free for 25 active contacts without AI; Pro with AI $39 a month billed monthly or $29 a month billed yearly ($348), for 2,500 contacts; tax extra, price depends on billing country
Good at
- Telegram is on every plan, the free one included
- Pro and above send broadcasts on Telegram, WhatsApp and Messenger
Keep in mind
- AI Knowledge, which lets the AI answer from your business information, works only on Instagram and is in beta
- Billing counts every person you interact with in a month as an active contact
SendPulse
Price: Free up to 500 subscribers and 10,000 messages a month; Pro from €11 a month, or €8.80 a month billed yearly (€105.60), as the site showed from Europe
Good at
- An AI bot can work in your Telegram group when it is an admin, triggered by mentions, commands or keywords
- Can also answer chats on your own Telegram account; forwarding from a Telegram Business account needs Telegram Premium
- Broadcasts, and payments in the chat through Stripe, PayPal and others
Keep in mind
- AI needs a paid plan and your own key from OpenAI, DeepSeek, Claude or Gemini, billed by that provider
Builder platforms for teams with a developer
Botpress
Price: Free for 100 conversations a month; Plus $150 a month billed yearly, with 250 conversations and $25 of AI usage
Good at
- Telegram integration: install it from the Hub and paste the BotFather token
- Knowledge bases from websites and documents (PDF, Word, text, Markdown), plus tables
Keep in mind
- The first paid plan, Plus, costs $150 a month billed yearly
- Extra conversations come in packs of 100, $65 each on Plus
n8n
Price: Community Edition to self-host from GitHub; cloud Starter $20 a month billed yearly, with 2,500 workflow executions
Good at
- A Telegram Trigger starts a workflow on new messages, channel posts and other bot events
Keep in mind
- You build the bot yourself, and AI replies need your own account with a model provider such as OpenAI
Team inbox for many channels
respond.io
Price: AI Agents from Growth, $159 a month billed yearly ($1,908); Starter $79 a month billed yearly, without AI Agents; 7-day trial, no free plan
Good at
- Telegram sits in one inbox with WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, Viber, website chat, SMS and email
- AI Agents answer from documents and website URLs you add
Keep in mind
- No free plan: AI Agents start on Growth at $159 a month billed yearly
Telegram side by side
| Tool | Answers from your documents on Telegram | In groups | Free plan with Telegram |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatPal | Yes, files and web pages | No, private chats only | Yes, 100 replies a month |
| Chat Data | Yes, website, PDFs and FAQs | When mentioned or replied to | No, from Entry |
| ManyChat | No, AI Knowledge is Instagram only | Not checked | Yes, without AI |
| SendPulse | Through your own AI key | Yes, as group admin | Yes, without AI |
| Botpress | Yes, websites and documents | Not stated in its docs | 100 conversations free; Telegram on it not stated |
| n8n | You build it | You build it | Self-hosted Community Edition |
| respond.io | Yes, from Growth | Not checked | No, 7-day trial |
“Not checked” and “not stated” mean we didn’t find it in the vendor’s own pages, not that it can’t be done. Ask the vendor if groups matter to you.
Which one fits your business
- Customers ask the same questions in private chats (prices, hours, delivery, “do you have it in stock”): ChatPal or Chat Data. Both answer from documents you upload and pages you link, so a new question needs a line in your FAQ, not a new branch in a flow. ChatPal also books appointments and hands chats to you; Chat Data also answers in groups.
- You run a Telegram group for customers or students and want the bot to answer there: Chat Data answers when mentioned, SendPulse runs an AI bot as a group admin. ChatPal doesn’t answer in groups, so post its link in the group and let people ask in private.
- You want to send offers to everyone who started your bot: ManyChat Pro or SendPulse. Telegram allows it once someone has pressed Start, and both include broadcasts. ChatPal only replies.
- You need custom logic, such as checking an order in your own database before answering: Botpress or n8n, with someone who can build and maintain it.
- Several people answer customers across many channels: respond.io, if its Growth price fits your budget.
What a month on Telegram costs
Take a small language school that answers parents on Telegram: about 200 conversations a month, at an assumed 3 replies each, so 600 replies. Those are our assumptions; put your own numbers in.
| Tool | Plan you need | Price |
|---|---|---|
| ChatPal | 1,500 replies (the $20 plan covers 500) | $50 a month |
| Chat Data | Entry, 1,500 message credits | $15.83 a month billed yearly |
| ManyChat | Pro, for AI (its AI Knowledge works on Instagram only); 200 parents are 200 active contacts | $39 a month, or $29 billed yearly |
| SendPulse | Pro; 200 subscribers also fit the free plan, but AI needs a paid one | €11 a month, or €8.80 billed yearly, plus your AI provider’s bill |
| Botpress | Plus; the free 100 conversations fall short | $150 a month billed yearly |
| n8n | Starter, if each customer message runs the workflow once | $20 a month billed yearly, plus your AI provider’s bill |
| respond.io | Growth, the first plan with AI Agents | $159 a month billed yearly |
Two figures need care. Chat Data counts message credits, and we assumed one credit per reply, so check how many a reply uses on the model you pick. SendPulse and n8n leave the AI bill to you, and that depends on the model and on how long the answers are. ChatPal counts each reply its assistant writes, your own test messages included, and has no per-message fees on top.
Setting up a Telegram bot with ChatPal
The whole setup is BotFather, a token and your documents.
- In Telegram, open @BotFather, send /newbot, choose a display name and a username ending in “bot”, and copy the token. How to create a Telegram bot walks through every BotFather setting.
- In ChatPal, open Integrations, choose Telegram, click Connect Telegram Bot, paste the token into Telegram Bot Token and click Save. ChatPal registers the bot itself, and the page shows the bot’s picture and @username so you know the right one is linked.
- Open Knowledge in the left navigation and add what it should answer from: your price list or FAQ on the Files tab, your website on the Website & links tab. Then open Configuration and, on the General tab, write the Welcome Message customers see when they press Start, and ask them to type rather than send voice notes.
- Back on the Telegram page, copy the Telegram Link or click Download QR code, and put it on your website, your Telegram channel and your shop window.
Here is an example we wrote for this page, for a language school that uploaded its fee list and timetable. Every reply follows the rules ChatPal’s assistant runs on: short answers, at most one question, and a plain “I don’t have that” instead of a guess.
Parent: How much are group English lessons for a 12-year-old?
Assistant: Group lessons for ages 11 to 14 are $120 a month, with two 60-minute lessons a week. Would you like the timetable for that group?
Parent: Yes. Can he join in the middle of term?
Assistant: The 11 to 14 group meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5 pm. I don’t have details on joining mid-term; the school office can confirm that on [phone number].
Parent: Can I talk to someone here instead?
Assistant: Our team has your message and will reply here in this chat.
The last reply needs Hand off to a human when needed switched on (Configuration, Handoff & leads tab). With it on, when a chat needs you, the assistant hands it over and you get an alert by email or Telegram. You reply from the ChatPal inbox, not from the Telegram app, and the customer gets your answer in the same chat. The full walkthrough, from welcome message to handoff, is in the guide to an AI chatbot on Telegram.
If your customers also write on WhatsApp and Instagram, AI chatbots for WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram compares tools across all three. If you mainly want to try it, connect a bot to ChatPal’s free plan and send it ten questions customers asked you last month.