How to Build a Telegram Bot with Claude API in Python (2026)

pip install python-telegram-bot anthropic

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Application, MessageHandler, filters, ContextTypes

BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"

async def handle_message(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    text = update.message.text
    await update.message.reply_text(f"You said: {text}")

app = Application.builder().token(BOT_TOKEN).build()
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT & ~filters.COMMAND, handle_message))
app.run_polling()

from telegram import Update
from telegram.ext import Application, MessageHandler, CommandHandler, filters, ContextTypes
import anthropic

BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
claude = anthropic.Anthropic()  # reads ANTHROPIC_API_KEY from env

conversations: dict[int, list] = {}

async def handle_message(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    chat_id = update.effective_chat.id
    user_text = update.message.text

    if chat_id not in conversations:
        conversations[chat_id] = []
    conversations[chat_id].append({"role": "user", "content": user_text})

    history = conversations[chat_id][-20:]

    response = claude.messages.create(
        model="claude-sonnet-4-6",
        max_tokens=1024,
        system="You are a helpful assistant. Be concise — this is a Telegram chat.",
        messages=history,
    )

    reply = response.content[0].text
    conversations[chat_id].append({"role": "assistant", "content": reply})
    await update.message.reply_text(reply)

async def reset_command(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    conversations.pop(update.effective_chat.id, None)
    await update.message.reply_text("Conversation reset.")

app = Application.builder().token(BOT_TOKEN).build()
app.add_handler(CommandHandler("reset", reset_command))
app.add_handler(MessageHandler(filters.TEXT & ~filters.COMMAND, handle_message))
app.run_polling()

async def handle_message(update: Update, context: ContextTypes.DEFAULT_TYPE):
    await context.bot.send_chat_action(
        chat_id=update.effective_chat.id,
        action="typing"
    )
    # ... rest of the handler unchanged

def split_message(text: str, limit: int = 4000) -> list[str]:
    if len(text) <= limit:
        return [text]
    parts = []
    while text:
        parts.append(text[:limit])
        text = text[limit:]
    return parts

# In your handler, replace reply_text with:
for part in split_message(reply):
    await update.message.reply_text(part)

[Unit]
Description=Claude Telegram Bot
After=network.target

[Service]
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu/claude-bot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 bot.py
Restart=always
Environment=ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your-key
Environment=BOT_TOKEN=your-token

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable claude-bot
sudo systemctl start claude-bot
sudo systemctl status claude-bot