What does a Telegram chat id look like?

Group chat ids are usually negative numbers like -1001234567890. Regular users have positive ids.

What's the fastest way to get a group chat id?

In the group, @mention your OpenClaw bot and ask: "Please tell me the current telegram group chat id". If your bot doesn’t reply in groups yet, use logs or the Bot API getUpdates method.

Telegram · chat id · groups

How to find a Telegram group chat id

You need a group chat id for certain routing/config workflows. Here are the three fastest ways.

Option A (fastest): ask your own OpenClaw bot in the group

In your Telegram group, @mention your OpenClaw bot and ask it for the current group chat id:

Please tell me the current telegram group chat id

This is the simplest method if your bot is already receiving messages in that group.

If your bot doesn’t reply in groups yet (mention mode / privacy mode), use Option B (logs) or Option C (Bot API getUpdates).

Option B: read OpenClaw (Moltbot) logs

Send a message in your Telegram group, then follow logs and look for chat.id.

openclaw logs --follow

Logs cheatsheet →

Option C: Bot API getUpdates

If you have the bot token, call Telegram’s getUpdates and read message.chat.id in the JSON.

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

What the chat id looks like

Group chat ids are usually negative numbers like -1001234567890.

Back to Telegram guide → Group mentions →