How to Get Telegram Alerts When Your Website Goes Down

Email is a fine place to keep a record of outages, but it's a poor way to find out about one. Monitoring emails get buried under newsletters, filtered into folders, or simply ignored until Monday morning. By then, your client may have already noticed.

Telegram fixes that. It's fast, it's on your phone and your desktop, and a message from a bot shows up like any other chat. This guide walks you through getting a Telegram message the moment your website goes down, using a free Telegram bot and ismysiteup. It takes about ten minutes and costs nothing.

Why use Telegram for downtime alerts?

Telegram is a natural fit for alerts, especially if you already use it every day:

• It's instant and hard to miss. A bot message lands in a chat with a normal push notification, not in an inbox you check twice a day.
• It works everywhere. The same alert reaches your phone, tablet, and desktop app at once.
• Bots are free and official. Telegram's Bot API is built for exactly this kind of automated message. There's no third-party gateway and no per-message fee.
• It can reach a group. You can add your bot to a group chat so a whole team sees the same alert.
• You control the noise. Mute other chats, keep the alert bot loud, and you'll never sleep through an outage you care about.

On ismysiteup, Telegram alerts are included on every plan, including Free, and they're unlimited. If you want to compare channels first, see our overview of email vs Telegram vs WhatsApp alerts.

What you'll need

Before you start, have these ready:

• A Telegram account (the mobile or desktop app both work).
• A free ismysiteup account. You can sign up here with email or Google, and no credit card is needed.
• About ten minutes.

You'll end up with two values: a bot token and a chat ID. Those are the two things ismysiteup asks for to send you Telegram alerts.

Step 1: Create a Telegram bot with BotFather

Telegram bots are created through an official bot called @BotFather.

1. Open Telegram and search for @BotFather. Make sure it's the verified account with the blue check mark.
2. Start a chat and send /newbot.
3. Choose a display name when asked, for example "My Site Alerts".
4. Choose a username for the bot. It has to be unique and end in bot, for example acme_uptime_bot.
5. Copy the token. BotFather replies with an HTTP API token that looks something like 123456789:AAH.... This is your bot token.

Treat the token like a password. Anyone who has it can send messages as your bot. If it ever leaks, you can generate a new one in BotFather with the /revoke command and update it in ismysiteup.

Step 2: Find your chat ID

The chat ID tells the bot where to send messages. A bot can't message you until you've messaged it first, so start there.

1. Open your new bot (tap the link BotFather gave you, or search for its username) and press Start, or send it any message such as "hi".
2. Open this URL in your browser, replacing <TOKEN> with your bot token:

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

1. Look for the chat object in the response. It looks like "chat":{"id":123456789, ...}. That number is your chat ID.

If the response is empty ("result":[]), send your bot another message and refresh the page. Updates only appear after the bot has received something.

Sending alerts to a group instead

If you want the whole team to see alerts, create a Telegram group (or use an existing one) and add your bot as a member. Then send a message in the group that mentions the bot, such as /start@acme_uptime_bot, and open the getUpdates URL again.

Group chat IDs are negative numbers, and supergroups usually start with -100. Copy the full number, including the minus sign. By default, bots in groups only see commands and messages that mention them, which is why the mention matters here.

Step 3: Connect Telegram in ismysiteup

Now plug those two values into ismysiteup.

1. Log in to your ismysiteup account, or create a free one.
2. Add Telegram in your notification settings. Paste your bot token and chat ID, then save.
3. Add a monitor for the site you want to watch, if you haven't already. Paste the URL; for a basic check, that's the whole setup.

ismysiteup stores sensitive credentials such as Telegram bot tokens encrypted, so your token isn't kept in plain text. It's only used to deliver your alerts through Telegram's Bot API.

That's it. The next time a check fails, the alert goes straight to your Telegram chat.

What the alerts look like in practice

When a check fails, ismysiteup sends the first alert right away, rather than waiting for the next cycle. Each alert includes the status code and response time, so you can see at a glance whether you're dealing with a timeout, a 500 error, or something else. If a code isn't familiar, our guide to HTTP status codes explains the common ones.

If a site keeps flapping between up and down, follow-up alerts are batched so your phone doesn't buzz nonstop. When the site comes back, you get a recovery message, so you know it's fixed without having to check.

How quickly you hear about an outage depends on your check interval:

Plan	Check interval	Price
Free	Every 5 minutes	$0
Pro	Every minute	$9/mo
Business	Every 30 seconds	$24/mo

Telegram alerts are unlimited on all three. See the pricing page for current details and availability, or read our guide on how often to check your website.

Troubleshooting Telegram alerts

If alerts aren't arriving, these are the usual suspects:

• You never started the bot. Telegram bots can't start a private conversation. Open the bot and press Start, then try again.
• The chat ID is wrong. Double-check you copied the chat ID, not the from ID or the message ID. For groups, make sure the minus sign is included.
• The bot was removed from the group. If someone removed it, add it back. Upgrading a group to a supergroup can also change its chat ID, so check getUpdates again.
• The token was revoked. If you used /revoke in BotFather, the old token stops working. Paste the new one into ismysiteup.
• The chat is muted. Alerts may be arriving silently. Unmute the bot's chat, or set a distinct notification sound for it.

Telegram for agencies and teams

If you look after sites for clients, a few habits make Telegram alerts much more useful:

• Use one group per team, not per site. Group your monitors by client or project in ismysiteup, so every alert tells you whose site it is without needing separate chats.
• Keep a backup channel. Telegram is reliable, but no single channel is perfect. Built-in email works out of the box, and you can also send alerts to a shared Slack channel with the Slack alerts setup guide.
• Pick the channel people actually read. Some teammates live in WhatsApp rather than Telegram. If that's you, follow our guide to WhatsApp website down alerts as well. Both are free on every plan.

Frequently asked questions

Are Telegram downtime alerts free?

Yes. On ismysiteup, Telegram alerts are included on every plan, including Free, with no per-message charge. Creating a Telegram bot with BotFather is free too.

Do I need to know how to code?

No. You create the bot by chatting with BotFather, and you find the chat ID by opening one URL in your browser. Then you paste both values into ismysiteup.

Can one bot send alerts to more than one person?

Yes. Add the bot to a Telegram group and use the group's chat ID. Everyone in the group gets the same alert.

Is it safe to give ismysiteup my bot token?

The token only controls the bot you created for alerts, not your personal Telegram account. ismysiteup stores it encrypted. If you ever want to cut off access, revoke it in BotFather.

Will I get spammed if my site keeps going up and down?

No. The first alert goes out as soon as a check fails, follow-ups are batched while a site is flapping, and you get a single recovery message when it's back.

Get your first Telegram alert set up

You don't need to keep refreshing your site or digging through your inbox. Ten minutes with BotFather and you'll know about downtime the moment it happens.

Create your free ismysiteup account, or check any site right now with the free instant checker. No signup needed.

Related reading: Email vs Telegram vs WhatsApp Alerts · UptimeRobot Alternative With WhatsApp & Telegram Alerts · Is My Website Down?