Fix OpenClaw Telegram Bot Not Responding in Groups

Key takeaways

• If your bot connects to Telegram but never replies, check the logs for "drop" lines. They tell you exactly why messages are being ignored.
• drop dm (pairing required) means you never approved the pairing request. Run openclaw pairing pending and approve it.
• drop dm (not in allowlist) means your user ID is missing from allowFrom. See the allowFrom guide.
• In groups, bots default to only responding when @mentioned. This is requireMention, not a bug.
• BotFather's "Group Privacy" mode also affects what the bot can see. Both Privacy Mode and requireMention need to be configured.

Your OpenClaw bot shows Telegram channel started in the logs. It's connected. But when you send a message, nothing happens. No error, no reply, just silence. That's different from a 401 error where the bot can't connect at all. Here, the bot is running but not talking back.

Diagnose OpenClaw Telegram bot not responding

Check the logs for "drop" lines while sending a message to your bot. The drop line tells you the exact reason. Most silent bot issues resolve at step 1 or 2.

Step 1: Watch the logs while messaging

openclaw logs --follow

Send a message to the bot while watching. You should see:

Received message from user 123456789 (@yourname)

If you see nothing at all, the bot isn't receiving messages. That means either:

• Another OpenClaw instance is connected with the same bot token (Telegram only allows one active connection per token)
• The bot token is wrong (you would usually see a 401 error in that case)

Step 2: Look for "drop" lines

If the bot receives the message but drops it, the logs show exactly why:

The "drop" line is the single most useful diagnostic. If you see one, you know the exact problem.

Step 3: Check gateway status

openclaw status
openclaw gateway status

If the gateway shows Runtime: running but RPC probe: failed, the gateway process is stuck. Restart it:

openclaw gateway restart

Step 4: Check for API key issues

The bot receives your message but crashes trying to generate a response. This shows up as API errors in the logs mentioning your AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.). This is not a Telegram problem. Verify your AI provider API key is valid and has available credits.

Step 5: Check for rate limiting

If you sent many messages quickly, Telegram may throttle the bot's replies. Check logs for 429 Too Many Requests. Wait 30 seconds and try again. Telegram's rate limits reset quickly.

OpenClaw Telegram pairing not approved

Run openclaw pairing pending and approve the group. OpenClaw requires explicit approval before your agent talks in any Telegram group. This is part of the pairing system, which prevents random people from controlling your agent if someone adds your bot to their group.

When you add the bot to a group, OpenClaw logs a pairing request:

Pairing request from group -1001234567890 (My Group Chat)

Approve it:

openclaw pairing approve telegram -1001234567890

The negative number is the group's chat ID. Copy it exactly from the logs, including the minus sign. After approving, the bot responds to messages in that group immediately.

Check approved pairings anytime:

openclaw pairing list

If the group does not show up in pending pairings, remove the bot from the group and add it again. That triggers a fresh pairing request.

OpenClaw Telegram requireMention in groups

By default, OpenClaw bots in groups only respond when mentioned by username. This prevents the bot from replying to every message in busy groups. It's intentional behavior, not a bug.

To trigger the bot in a group, mention it:

@YourBotName what is the weather today

Or reply directly to one of the bot's messages.

If you want the bot to respond to all messages in a group (not recommended for active groups), disable requireMention in your config:

{
  "channels": {
    "telegram": {
      "accounts": {
        "default": {
          "requireMention": false
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Restart the gateway after changing this. The Telegram groups guide covers group configuration in more detail, including per-group overrides.

BotFather group privacy mode

Telegram bots have a "Privacy Mode" setting in BotFather that is separate from OpenClaw's configuration. When enabled, Privacy Mode tells Telegram to only deliver messages that mention the bot or are replies to its messages. All other messages are never sent to the bot at all.

This operates at the Telegram API level. Even if you set requireMention: false in OpenClaw, the bot still won't see messages if Privacy Mode is on in BotFather.

To check and change it:

1. Open @BotFather
2. Send /mybots
3. Select your bot
4. Click "Bot Settings" then "Group Privacy"
5. Choose "Turn off" to let the bot see all messages

After changing Privacy Mode, remove the bot from the group and add it again. Telegram only applies the new privacy setting for groups joined after the change.

Both settings must be configured. Privacy Mode controls what Telegram delivers to the bot. requireMention controls what OpenClaw does with the messages it receives. If Privacy Mode is on, the bot never sees the message. If requireMention is on, the bot sees the message but chooses not to respond.

When the bot works in DMs but not in groups

This almost always means the group pairing isn't approved. DMs and groups have separate pairings. Approving your DM doesn't approve any groups.

Quick check:

openclaw pairing list

Look for the group's chat ID in the approved list. If it is not there, check pending:

openclaw pairing pending

Approve it and test again.

If the pairing is approved and the bot still does not respond in the group, check Privacy Mode in BotFather and the requireMention setting.

FAQ

Why does my OpenClaw Telegram bot respond to some group members but not others?

The users it ignores are probably not in allowFrom. In some OpenClaw configurations, allowFrom applies to group messages too, not just DMs. Add their numeric Telegram user IDs to the allowFrom array, or check whether your config scopes allowFrom to DMs only. See the allowFrom guide.

I approved the OpenClaw Telegram pairing but the bot still doesn't respond. What else could it be?

Check three things in order: (1) BotFather's Privacy Mode is turned off, (2) requireMention is set to your preference in openclaw.json, (3) the bot's AI provider API key (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.) is valid and has credits. If all three are correct, restart the gateway with openclaw gateway restart and try again.

Does an OpenClaw Telegram bot need to be a group admin?

Not necessarily. Telegram bots can read and send messages without admin privileges unless the group restricts non-admin posting. Making the bot an admin also lets it pin messages, delete messages, and see the member list, which some OpenClaw features use.

My OpenClaw Telegram bot stopped working after the group was upgraded to a supergroup. Why?

When Telegram upgrades a regular group to a supergroup, the chat ID changes. The old OpenClaw pairing becomes invalid. Check the logs for a new pairing request with the updated ID and approve it with openclaw pairing approve telegram NEW_CHAT_ID. See the group ID guide for more detail on how Telegram chat IDs change during upgrades.

Changelog

• 2026-03-06: Created (split from fix-openclaw-telegram-errors, merged "Bot not responding in groups" and "OpenClaw Telegram Bot Not Responding" sections)