Connect Your Telegram Bot
Create a bot via @BotFather, paste its token into MemberPass, and activate the connection that powers everything.
By the end of this page, you'll have a Telegram bot created with @BotFather and connected to your MemberPass project — ready to onboard members, enforce access, and handle payments.
A Telegram bot is the interface your subscribers interact with. They start with /start, pick a plan, go through payment, get invited to your private channels. Behind the scenes, MemberPass controls the bot via the token you provide. One bot per project.
What you need
- A Telegram account with access to @BotFather (everyone does — it's a public official bot).
- Your MemberPass project created. See Creating a project.
- About five minutes.
Create a bot with @BotFather
Open Telegram and search for @BotFather — the official Telegram bot for creating other bots. Tap Start if you haven't chatted with it before.
/newbot.BotFather asks for a display name. This is the human-friendly name that shows up in chat headers — e.g. "Pro Chess Club Assistant". Send it.
BotFather asks for a username. This is the @handle. It must:
- End in
bot(e.g.pro_chess_bot). - Be unique across all of Telegram.
- Use only letters, numbers, and underscores.
BotFather confirms creation and sends you the HTTP API token — a string that looks like 123456789:ABCdefGhIJKlmNoPQRstuVWxyz. Copy it somewhere safe. This is the credential MemberPass will use to control your bot.
Treat the bot token like a password. Anyone with it can control your bot.
Never paste it into public channels, screenshots, or support chats. If you
accidentally leak it, send /revoke to BotFather to get a new token, then
update MemberPass.
Connect the bot to your project
Open MemberPass and navigate to All Projects from the sidebar.
Find the project card, click the Actions (three-dots) menu, and choose Connect Bot.
A modal appears with a single input: Telegram Bot Token. Paste the token you copied from BotFather.
Click Activate Bot.
MemberPass calls the Telegram API with the token, confirms the bot exists, and registers it with your project. You'll see a success toast and the project's Bot Connection section updates to show the bot's username and "Open Bot Chat" link.
Recommended post-connection setup
After activation, a few minutes of BotFather tuning goes a long way:
Send /setuserpic to BotFather, pick your bot, and upload a square profile picture. Members will see it in the chat header.
Send /setdescription — a short sentence shown before users press
Start. Make it concise and outcome-oriented: "Join our premium chess
community with exclusive games, tactics, and live analysis."
Send /setabouttext — the longer About section shown on the bot's
profile.
Send /setcommands if you want Telegram's native command menu to show built-in commands. MemberPass typically sets useful defaults automatically, but you can override from BotFather.
Managing a connected bot
View bot status
On All Projects, each card shows the connected bot's username next to a status indicator. Open the project to see the full Bot Connection panel: API calls recent timestamp, whether the webhook is healthy, etc.
Reconnect with a new token
If you regenerated a token via BotFather's /revoke, paste the new token in the same Connect Bot modal — MemberPass overwrites the stored credential and keeps everything else in place. Members don't notice the swap.
Disconnect a bot
If you need to stop operations — e.g. migrating to a new bot or closing the project temporarily:
On All Projects, click Actions → Disconnect Bot.
Read the warning and confirm.
Disconnecting has serious consequences.
- The bot stops responding to new users.
- No more renewal reminders, trial nudges, or notifications.
- MemberPass can't kick / ban expired subscribers from your Telegram destinations.
- Existing recurring charges may still process at the payment-provider level until you cancel them — disconnection at the bot level doesn't cancel the subscriptions themselves.
If you just need a break, deactivate the project (flip Active off) instead — it stops the bot from processing new work while keeping everything wired up. See Creating a project → Active toggle.
Common problems
Related
- Resources — what the bot manages access to.
- Subscription plans — what the bot sells.
- Sharing your project — getting the bot link in front of your audience.
- Telegram integration — deeper look at the platform-level mechanics.