How to Set Up a Telegram AI Bot in 5 Minutes

What You Will Build

By the end of this guide, you will have a personal AI assistant running in Telegram that can:

• Send you daily briefings with news, weather, and calendar
• Answer any question using GPT-4, Claude, or Gemini
• Summarize articles and long messages
• Help you draft replies and messages

Total time: about 5 minutes.

Step 1: Create a Telegram Bot (30 seconds)

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather
2. Send the command /newbot
3. BotFather will ask for a name. Type something like "My Assistant"
4. Then it will ask for a username. This must end in "bot" (e.g., my_clawmate_bot)
5. BotFather will give you a bot token — it looks like: 7123456789:AAHfiqksKZ8WmR2zMtgsLjk

Copy that token. You will need it in the next step.

Step 2: Set Up ClawMate (30 seconds)

1. Go to clawmates.net/setup
2. Choose your AI model (we recommend Claude or GPT-4o)
3. Enable Telegram and paste your bot token
4. Give your assistant a name and personality
5. Click "Start Free Trial"

Step 3: Start Chatting (1 minute)

After the setup completes, open Telegram and search for your bot's username. Send it a message like "Hello!" and your AI assistant will respond.

That is it. You now have a personal AI assistant in Telegram.

What to Try First

• Ask it to summarize a news article (paste a URL)
• Say "Give me a morning briefing"
• Ask it any question you would normally Google
• Tell it "Remember that I prefer concise answers" to customize its style

Tips

• The more you chat with it, the better it understands your preferences
• You can change the AI model or personality anytime from your dashboard
• Your first 7 days are completely free