How to obtain the chat_id of a private Telegram channel

Question

I use curl to update my public channels. This kind of syntax:

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot144377327:AAGqdElkZ-77zsPRoAXXXXXXXXXX/sendMessage" -d "chat_id=@MyChannel&text=my sample text"

But what's the chat_id of a private channel? It's not the one you have in the private invite.

Because now we can pass a channel username (in the format @channelusername) in the place of chat_id in all methods (and instead of from_chat_id in forwardMessage). But what's the @channelusername of a private channel that I administer?

Why do you need channel's chat_id? All sending methods to channel use string "@channel_name" — Stas Parshin, Nov 22 '15 at 20:24
Hi @pengrad with curl command I ask a bot of mine to send a message to MyChannel. For a public channel the chat_id is equal to the last part of its URL: in https://telegram.me/MyChannel, the chat_id is "MyChannel". The private channels have only invite url like https://telegram.me/joinchat/AJhkwTviqL_7HWcGZgottQ and the chat_id is not "AJhkwTviqL_7HWcGZgottQ". For this reason I'm looking for the chat_id of a private channel. — aborruso, Nov 22 '15 at 21:27

score 281 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:43

281

I found the way to write in private channels.

You should convert it to public with some @channelName
Send a message to this channel through the Bot API:

https://api.telegram.org/bot111:222/sendMessage?chat_id=@channelName&text=123

As the response, you will get information with chat_id of your channel.

{
  "ok" : true,
  "result" : {
    "chat" : {
      **"id" : -1001005582487,**
      "title" : "Test Private Channel",
      "type" : "channel"
    },
    "date" : 1448245538,
    "message_id" : 7,
    "text" : "123ds"
  }
}

Now you can convert the channel back to private (by deleting the channel's link) and send a message directly to the chat_id "-1001005582487":

https://api.telegram.org/bot111:222/sendMessage?chat_id=-1001005582487&text=123

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:43

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 23 '15 at 02:32

Stas Parshin

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I voted your question and I thank you for details! I'm perplex voting your answer here because is more an hacking :-). BTW, my general question is: What the need of a Private Channel? Maybe groups (recent supergroups) are a better way? In facs telegram documentation is unclear about Private channels. – Giorgio Robino Dec 01 '15 at 09:10
1

I tried this and it worked only for some minutes. I think because once the channel becomes private there is a time frame where it is still publicly reachable: after, if you try to set it again as public you have to redefine the channel id. – roibeart Jul 17 '16 at 23:33
2

You should clarify that we need to submit our api token next to bot on first slash. Anyways thanks! It was a neat solution. – Franco Maldonado Mar 16 '20 at 19:57
1

Also first thing you need to do is create a /newbot in BotFather and then you will get ApiKey and then add the bot to your channel as administrator. Thanks! – Franco Maldonado Feb 09 '21 at 04:32
1

there's no nedd to convert your channel to private, you can still retrieve the chat id even its private, just by sending a message to it by yourself, not via the bot – mark Sep 04 '21 at 12:35
Thanks for your answer! It works. Also we have a few more options to deal with this included with sending our channel name into a bot then it returns back the `chat_id`, see at https://gist.github.com/mraaroncruz/e76d19f7d61d59419002db54030ebe35 – haxpor Mar 06 '22 at 17:49

Nigrimmist · Answer 2 · 2022-09-18T08:32:36.987

173

The easiest way:

Just send your invite link to your private channel to @username_to_id_bot (https://t.me/username_to_id_bot) bot. It will return its ID. The simplest level: maximum! :)

PS. I am not an owner of this bot.

PS 2. the Bot will not join your group, but to be sure in security. Just revoke your old invitation link if it is matter for you after bot using.

A more cumbersome way:

Making the channel public cannot be done by the user with exist at least five public groups/channels, so...the problem is not solved. Yes, you can revoke one of them, but for now, we cannot retrieve chat id another way.

Another one working solution:

log in under your account at web version of Telegram: https://web.telegram.org
updated (thanks @Julian Espinel) Find your channel. See to your URL. It should be like https://web.telegram.org/z/#-1543515057
Grab "1543515057" from it, and add "-100" as a prefix.

So... your channel id will be "-1001543515057". Magic happens :)

The solution was found at Web Channel ID .

edited Sep 18 '22 at 08:32

answered Oct 09 '16 at 11:46

Nigrimmist

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Even my new channel switched private/public/private to set `@channel_username`, but while it's private, `@channel_username` is not working for me! I've used your posted solution, and worked – MohaMad Sep 18 '17 at 20:18
1

I don't think this `-100` prefix will work forever, but after 4 year it still works! – Ali Tou May 06 '20 at 21:34
1

@AliTou Pavel Durov just found this comment and decided to not remove FEATURE, ahah :) Glad to hear, that it still works :) – Nigrimmist May 06 '20 at 21:46
@Nigrimmist your bot is not working anymore for some time now. I used to use it a lot, do you have a github repo of it? – LeoPucciBr Mar 08 '22 at 14:47
@LeoPucciBr just checked, works fine. Maybe you are doing something wrong? – Nigrimmist Mar 08 '22 at 21:57
2

It sems like telegram changed the URL structure. Take this one for example: https://web.telegram.org/k/#-1779618123. The channel ID is `-1001779618123`. (Append `100` between `-` and the given number `1779618123`) – Julian Espinel Sep 17 '22 at 22:28

score 86 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 11 '19 at 14:52

86

Open the private channel, then:

on web client:
- look at the URL in your browser:
- if it's for example https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=c1192292378_2674311763110923980
- then 1192292378 is the channel ID
on mobile and desktop:
- copy the link of any message of the channel:
- if it's for example https://t.me/c/1192292378/31
- then 1192292378 is the channel ID (bonus: 31 is the message ID)
on Plus Messenger for Android:
- open the infos of the channel:
- the channel ID appears above, right under its name

WARNING be sure to add -100 prefix when using Telegram Bot API:

if the channel ID is for example 1192292378
then you should use -1001192292378

answered Jun 11 '19 at 14:52

Fabio Michelini

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I don't think this method works now because the invitation link does not have this format anymore – Kusal Hettiarachchi Dec 08 '20 at 08:17
2

This method works! It's not the invitation link, it's the URL of the channel. When you open the web client, and navigate to your private channel, the URL in browser still have this format and so the private channel id can be derived from it. Awesome! – Alexander Kudashkin Apr 09 '21 at 12:35
3

Wow! Works like charm. You saved me so much time. Thanks. – Slavik Meltser Apr 26 '21 at 21:45
adding prefix `-100` worked because I was using a bot token – HackRx Feb 06 '23 at 12:00

score 46 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 24 '20 at 19:46

46

The easiest way is to invite @get_id_bot in your chat and then type:

/my_id @get_id_bot

Inside your chat

edited Jul 24 '20 at 19:46

Sergey Evstifeev

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answered Jan 21 '17 at 12:55

Jurgo Boemo

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According to my test, bot should be added as administrator in channel. – Morteza Jul 12 '17 at 10:05
Yes, has to be added as administrator it seems – Stefan Reich Jul 23 '18 at 12:27
5

is this still current? /my_id@... doesnt seem to do anything (apart from have that message appear) – wal Jun 07 '19 at 13:24
1

@wal I got the id by 2 methods `/start @get_id_bot` and also `/my_id @get_id_bot` space seems important. Add `@get_id_bot` as member and give only post right as Administrator. Remove it for safety once you get ID. – rahoolm May 11 '20 at 20:38
just forward a message from your channel to the bot – Marat Mkhitaryan Feb 18 '21 at 06:54

score 20 · Answer 5 · answered Apr 26 '21 at 23:21

Actually, it is pretty simple.

All you need to do is to:

Invite the bot to the channel/group (doesn't matter private or not).
Send any message in the channel/group.

Go to getUpdates API URL in the browser:

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

Now, look at the results.
You will see a JSON output. In this JSON, look for the chat data. Usually, latest updates are at the end.

{
   "ok":true,
   "result":[
      ... 
      {
         ... 
         "my_chat_member":{
            "chat":{
               "id":-100987654321,
               "title":"My Channel",
               "type":"channel"
            },
            ...
         }
      }
   ]
}

Your chat ID is -100987654321.

This is the safest option, without adding any unknown bot to your group. — Habeeb, Mar 10 '22 at 05:53
Agreed, to me this looks the simplest and safest option, thank you. — A.Infante, Dec 10 '22 at 08:18

score 9 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:56

9

Open Telegram Web at https://web.telegram.org
Search your private channel
Look at the URL. It's like: https://web.telegram.org/#/im?p=cXXXXXXXXXX_578236787445474833

The id of your private channel is the XXXXXX part (between the "p=c" and the underscore).

To use it, just add "-100" in front of it. So if "XXXXXX" is "4785444554" your private channel id is "-1004785444554".

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:56

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 09 '18 at 12:47

Peter

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score 7 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:58

7

For now you can write an invite link to bot @username_to_id_bot and you will get the id:

Example:

It also works with public chats, channels and even users.

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:58

Peter Mortensen

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answered May 02 '20 at 00:44

crystalbit

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i do not know how to do that – toha Oct 22 '22 at 03:29

score 4 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:46

4

You can also do this:

Step 1. Convert your private channel to a public channel

Step 2. Set the ChannelName for this channel

Step 3. Then you can change this channel to private

Step 4. Now sending your message using @ChannelName that you set in step 3

Note: For Step 1, you can change one of your public channels to private for a short time.

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:46

Peter Mortensen

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answered Dec 09 '15 at 21:52

Mohammad Abdolahzadeh

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correct, @Channel Name in private is no name sometimes – toha Oct 22 '22 at 05:51
This does not work anymore : name is removed – Shatiz Apr 04 '23 at 11:48

score 3 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:54

There isn't any need to convert the channel to public and then make it private.

find the id of your private channel. (There are numerous methods to do this, for example see this Stack Overflow answer.)
curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/botxxxxxx:yyyyyyyyyyy/sendMessage" -d "chat_id=-100CHAT_ID&text=my sample text"

Replace xxxxxx:yyyyyyyyyyy with your bot id, and replace CHAT_ID with the channel id found in step 1. So if the channel id is 1234, it would be chat_id=-1001234.

All done!

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 15 '23 at 06:49

Simply and easy; just pass the channel username and it will show you the id:

from telethon.sync import TelegramClient, events
client = TelegramClient("bot", API_ID, API_HASH)


channel_name = "channel username"
channel = client.get_entity(channel_name)
print(f' Channel ID: {channel.id}')

client.start()
client.run_until_disconnected()

score 0 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:55

0

The option that I do is by using the popular Plus Messenger on Android.

You can click on the channel and in Channel info below the group name, you can find the channel Id.

Supergroup and channel ids will look like 1068773197 on Plus Messenger. For your usage on API, you can prefix -100 which would make it -1001068773197.

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:55

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 04 '18 at 10:24

Habeeb

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score 0 · Answer 12 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 13:00

0

I found the solution for TelegramBotApi for Python. Maybe it will work for other languages.

I just add my bot to the private channel and then do this:

@your_bot_name hi

In the console I get a response with all the information that I need.

edited Apr 24 '22 at 13:00

Peter Mortensen

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answered Nov 02 '20 at 20:53

lisichka ggg

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score 0 · Answer 13 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 13:01

I used Telegram.Bot and got the ID the following way:

Add the bot to the channel
Run the bot
Write something into the channel (for example, /authenticate or foo)

Telegram.Bot:

private static async Task Main()
{
    var botClient = new TelegramBotClient("key");
    botClient.OnUpdate += BotClientOnOnUpdate;
    Console.ReadKey();
}

private static async void BotClientOnOnUpdate(object? sender, UpdateEventArgs e)
{
    var id = e.Update.ChannelPost.Chat.Id;
    await botClient.SendTextMessageAsync(new ChatId(id), $"Hello World! Channel ID is {id}");
}

Plain API:

This translates to the getUpdates method in the plain API, which has an array of update which then contains channel_post.chat.id.

Roman · Answer 14 · 2022-04-24T16:24:05.317

Yet another way to use JavaScript and the Axios library. So you might want to explore /getUpdates method of Telegram API:

const headers: any = {
  'Access-Control-Allow-Origin': '*',
  'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  timestamp: +new Date(),
}

const options = { headers: { ...headers } }

const urlTelegramBase =
  'https://api.telegram.org/bot123456:ABCDEF'

const urlGetUpdates = `${urlTelegramBase}/getUpdates`
const username = 'user_name'

const {
  data: { result: messages },
} = await axios.get(urlGetUpdates, options)

const chat_id = messages.find(
  messageBlock => messageBlock.message.chat.username === username
).message.chat.id

console.info('chat_id': chat_id)

jak bin · Answer 15 · 2022-08-20T16:38:28.163

0

Run this command in your terminal.

curl https://api.telegram.org/bot{your_bot_token}/getUpdates

But You have added your bot to your private channel.You will get your private channel chat id in json response.

edited Aug 20 '22 at 16:38

answered Aug 20 '22 at 14:42

jak bin

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score 0 · Answer 16 · answered Aug 25 '23 at 11:08

At the moment of writing this comment August 2023, I could not use the methods recommended here, including the "-100" thingy. But using telethon I found a quite simple solution to write to private channels by just parsing the channel id to int using in-built int() method Example:

channel_id = "-100123456789" 
# channel_id = "123456789" # works too, no need for -100

send_message(int(channel_id), "message")

score -2 · Answer 17 · edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:58

-2

You should add and make your bot an administrator of the private channel. Otherwise, the chat not found error happens.

edited Apr 24 '22 at 12:58

Peter Mortensen

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answered Oct 22 '19 at 12:12

T.Todua

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How to obtain the chat_id of a private Telegram channel

17 Answers17

Telegram.Bot:

Plain API:

Linked