Where to Launch a Telegram Bot: Mini App Store, Bot Lists and Channels
Start inside Telegram itself: set the bot’s profile and commands in BotFather, give every post its own deep link, and if the bot is a mini app, enable the Main Mini App and add media so it can be considered for the Mini App Store. Then list it in a bot directory such as Storebot, share it in niche channels the admins allow, and post a link-ready Show HN.
How does anyone find a Telegram bot?
Four routes cover nearly all of it. A person types the bot’s username into Telegram search. A person taps a t.me link that someone posted. A person sees the bot inside a chat where a friend already uses it. Or, for mini apps, a person finds it in the app listing that Telegram builds into search. Directories and lists matter less than for most products, because the link is the whole install.
That changes what a launch is. You are not asking people to download something; you are asking them to tap once. So the effort goes into three things: a name and description that make sense in a search result, a first message that does something useful at once, and a separate link for every place you post so you can tell which one worked.
Which places should a Telegram bot use?
Platform statements come from Telegram’s own bot pages and the other sites’ pages, read on 13 November 2026, unless a site refused our automated check.
01 BotFather, the bot profile and deep links
The setup bot and the profile fields that act as your store page inside Telegram.
- Cost
- Its bot platform page calls the platform free for users and developers
- Profile
- Commands with descriptions, a menu button and, for mini apps, a Main Mini App with a Launch app button
- Tracking
- The start command can carry parameters through deep links
Everything a visitor sees before pressing Start comes from the profile you set in BotFather, so write the description as a one-sentence promise and fill the command list so the menu explains the bot without a manual. Add demo videos and screenshots to the profile if it is a mini app.
Use deep links to tell sources apart. Give the Reddit post, the channel post and the directory listing each a different start parameter, store it on the first message and count it. That costs ten lines of code and replaces guessing.
Visit BotFather, the bot profile and deep links (core.telegram.org) →
02 Telegram Mini App Store
The 'Apps' tab of Telegram search, where successful mini apps can be featured.
- Selection
- Featured apps are chosen by how they enrich the Telegram ecosystem, per Telegram’s docs
- To improve your chances
- Enable the Main Mini App in BotFather, add high-quality media demos and accept payments in Telegram Stars
- Fit
- Bots with a real interface, such as a shop, a game or a tracker
This only applies if you built a mini app, a web interface opened inside Telegram. A plain chat bot is not in this store. The documented steps are cheap to take, but featuring is Telegram’s decision, so treat it as something that may happen and not as a plan.
Telegram’s docs ask for payments in Stars as one signal. If your product is free, that is a reason to think about whether a small paid tier makes sense, not a reason to invent one.
03 Storebot
A bot directory with categories, a Submit Bot button and listings for Telegram and a second platform.
- Self-description
- Calls itself the world’s largest bot directory, a claim we could not check
- Structure
- Categories such as Tools, Games, Work and Finance, with Recently Added and featured lists
- Submitting
- Through its Submit Bot link; we did not read its review rules
Pick the category a user would browse and not the one that flatters you. A budgeting bot under Finance is found by people who want one; the same bot under Fun is found by nobody. The Recently Added row gives new listings a short window of visibility, so submit when the bot is ready and the description is final.
Give the listing its own deep link. If the directory sends nothing after a month, you have your answer and can drop it.
04 TGStat and niche channels
A catalogue and analytics site for Telegram channels, useful for finding where your users already read.
- Access
- Its pages refused our automated check, so we state only its general purpose
- Use
- Find channels in your bot’s topic and see which are active
- Rule
- Ask the admin first; unsolicited promotion gets you banned
A bot for tracking gym sessions belongs in fitness channels, and an admin may agree to a short post if the bot is free and useful. Message the admin with what it does, one screenshot and the link, and offer to answer questions in the comments.
Do not mass-post. Communities overlap, so one badly received post can follow you into the next group. Two good placements teach you more than twenty rejected ones, and the answer on getting first users for free covers other ways to find them.
05 Hacker News (Show HN)
A place where a Telegram bot is easy to try, since a single link opens it.
- Fit
- A bot that works on first message without sign-up forms beyond Telegram itself
- Guideline
- Something people can try, ideally without barriers such as sign-ups or emails
- Warning
- Newsletters and sign-up pages are off topic
The one-tap install is the strength here, and it is why a bot can do better on Show HN than a product that needs an account. State the technical angle, such as how you handle rate limits, queueing or message formatting, since readers are developers.
Say plainly what your bot stores about users and for how long. A bot sees user ids and messages, and a clear paragraph saves you a thread of suspicion.
06 Post your build ideas (our launch board)
Our free launch board, which gives a bot a public page you can link when a t.me link alone says too little.
- Cost
- Free; no account; no paid placement
- Going live
- One emailed link
- Limit
- Small audience; no promise of reach
Use the t.me address as the product link in the launch form and spend the description on what the bot does and what it stores. The page then gives people a place to ask questions that are not suited to a bot’s chat.
It works for a bot with a public, general use. A private bot built for one community does not need a public page, and the communication ideas board is better as research for what to build next.
Which bot type should lean on which place?
- Utility bot for a group or channel admin: channels and admins first, since the people who install it are the admins and they hang out in admin communities.
- Mini app with a shop or a game: the Mini App Store steps first, then Show HN for the technical story.
- AI chat bot: a Show HN post that states the model and storage choices, then the directory listing.
- Notification or alert bot: a landing page with a visible “Open in Telegram” button, because people searching for the job never see Telegram lists.
The playbook for launching a Telegram bot has the dated plan. Compare it with the Discord bot places if your community may live on both, and use the launch directory traffic calculator once the first sources have sent anything.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official Telegram bot store?
For mini apps, yes: Telegram’s docs describe a Mini App Store in the Apps tab of search, with featured apps chosen by Telegram. For ordinary chat bots we found no official store. Bots are found by username search and shared links, so third-party directories and your own posts do the discovery.
Do I need to pay to list a Telegram bot in a directory?
We could not confirm fees. Storebot has a Submit Bot link and we did not read its terms, and TGStat refused our automated check. Read each submit page, and treat paid placement the way you would anywhere: only after a free listing has shown it sends people who stay.
How can I tell which post sent a user to my bot?
Use deep links. Telegram’s docs show the start command passing parameters, so a link with a different parameter per post lets your bot record where each new user came from. Store the parameter with the first message and count by source. It is a small change that replaces guessing.
Post your build ideas publishes this page and runs a free launch board that competes with some of the sites it names. Facts about other sites came from their own pages on the date shown above; terms, queues and prices change, so confirm on their sites before you decide. About the publisher.