Telegram Link Generator

Which link belongs where

One tool covers every target, because they differ only in the shape of the address. A Telegram group link generator and a channel one produce the same username form. A Telegram bot link generator adds a start payload, a Telegram share link generator builds the forward sheet, and the Telegram QR code generator draws whichever of them you settled on.

For anything the public will see, whether that is a post on another platform, an email or a printed code, use the t.me form. Some of the people who click it won’t have Telegram, and the web page handles them. A tg:// link silently fails for exactly that group, which is the group you were hoping to convert. Inside your own mobile app, or in a message people are already reading in Telegram, the deep link is better. It skips the browser hop and the page flash. Both are produced above, so you can take the right one rather than the one you happened to copy.

Telegram link not working? What to check

Six things account for nearly every broken Telegram link, and the app rarely tells you which one you’ve hit.

1. The username changed or was released. Telegram usernames aren’t permanent. A link to a name its owner has given up simply fails, and someone else may hold it now. Worth knowing before you print it.
2. The chat is private. A private group or channel has no username, so it has no t.me/name address at all. The only way in is an invite link, and an admin can revoke that.
3. The invite link was revoked. Revoking one breaks it silently for everyone who hasn’t used it yet. Links made for a limited number of uses expire the same way.
4. A tg:// link where the app is not installed. The deep-link form does nothing at all without Telegram, and many platforms won’t make it clickable in the first place. Use the t.me form anywhere the public sees it.
5. The prefilled message was not URL-encoded. A space, an ampersand or a question mark inside ?text= truncates the message or breaks the link outright. The generator above encodes it for you.
6. The start payload is invalid. Telegram accepts only letters, digits, underscores and hyphens, up to 64 characters. Anything else, a space or a colon or an equals sign, and the parameter is dropped. The bot never learns where the person came from, and nothing visibly fails.

The reader at the bottom of this page tells you which case you’re in for any link you paste: whether it addresses a username or an invite hash, and what payload it carries.

Tracking where subscribers came from

Channel links can’t carry a tracking parameter. Telegram ignores anything extra on t.me/yourchannel, and the channel has no way to see it. Bot links can. The start payload arrives with the first message, before the person types anything, so the bot knows which advertisement produced them. That is why growth funnels needing attribution route through a bot rather than straight to the channel, and why the bot then offers the channel link. If you are paying for placements and can’t tell which one worked, this is the mechanism you are missing.

Reading a link before you agree to run it

An advertiser sends a link and a price. The link tells you more than the pitch does. It shows whether the target is a channel or a bot, whether it carries a campaign payload, and whether the destination is public at all. A link into a private invite means you can’t check what you are sending your audience into. Paste it into the reader above. It works on both link forms, and on shortened forms that still resolve to a Telegram address.

Telegram links — questions

How do I create a link to my Telegram channel?

A public channel is reachable at t.me/yourchannel, using the username set in the channel settings. Enter the name above and you get that link plus its tg:// twin. A private channel has no username, so it has no address of this kind. The only way in is an invite link generated inside the app, and an admin can revoke that later. If your channel has no username yet, adding one in Channel Settings turns it public and gives it a permanent link.

What is the difference between a t.me link and a tg:// link?

A t.me link opens a web page that then hands off to the Telegram app. Someone without Telegram still lands on a page that tells them what they found and offers the app, so nothing is lost. A tg:// link addresses the app directly and skips the web hop. That is faster and avoids the browser flash, but it does nothing at all if the app is missing, and many places won't make it clickable. Use t.me anywhere the public can see it. Use tg:// inside your own app, or in a QR code aimed at people you know already have Telegram.

Should I use t.me or telegram.me?

They are the same service on two hostnames, and either works for a normal visitor. The short one is what people recognise, so it is the default here. The long one matters in specific places. The short domain is blocked, or fails to resolve, on some corporate networks, at several hosting providers, and in a few regions. So a link that a server, a scraper or a monitoring job will fetch is safer written out in full. It's switchable above rather than decided for you.

How does a Telegram bot start parameter work?

A link of the form t.me/yourbot?start=abc123 opens a chat with a Start button. Pressing it sends /start abc123 to the bot before the user types anything. That payload is how a bot knows where someone came from: which advertisement, which partner, which referrer. Telegram limits it to 64 characters of letters, digits, underscores and hyphens, which is why the attribution option above packs source, campaign and tag into base64url first. Use ?startgroup= instead of ?start= when the link is for adding the bot to a group.

Can I put a message in the link so it is already typed?

Yes, with ?text= on a user, group or phone link. The recipient sees the message waiting in the input box and still has to press send. Telegram never sends anything on someone's behalf. That's the right design, and the reason the parameter is safe to use. The text has to be URL-encoded, which we do for you. Hand-writing it is where the spaces and ampersands usually go wrong.

How do I make a QR code for my Telegram channel?

Enter the channel above and the QR code appears next to the links. PNG and SVG are both downloadable. It encodes the t.me web link rather than the tg:// one, deliberately. A scanner belonging to someone without Telegram still reaches a real page instead of silently doing nothing. We draw the code in this browser tab, so the link never goes to a QR service. That also means the image keeps working after any such service disappears, unlike a shortened one.

How can I tell where somebody else's Telegram link points?

Paste it into the reader at the bottom of the page. It reports the kind of target, whether channel, bot, post, invite or phone, plus the username, the message number if there is one, and the start payload if the link carries one. That's the practical use for anyone buying advertising. A link in a promo tells you which bot it feeds, and what campaign tag the advertiser is attaching to your audience.

Why is my Telegram link not working?

Six causes cover nearly all of them. The username was changed or released, because Telegram usernames aren't permanent. The chat is private, so it has no username to address at all. An invite link was revoked, which breaks it for everyone who hasn't used it yet. A tg:// link was used where Telegram isn't installed, so it does nothing. The prefilled ?text= wasn't URL-encoded, so a space or an ampersand truncated it. Or the start payload contains a character outside letters, digits, underscore and hyphen, so Telegram drops it silently and the bot never learns where the person came from.

Do these links expire?

Username links don't. t.me/yourchannel keeps working as long as the username is yours, and stops if you release or change it. Invite links to private groups are different. An admin can revoke one at any time, and a revoked link fails for everyone who hasn't used it yet. If a printed QR code needs to work for a year, base it on a username rather than an invite link.