Where to host a Telegram bot so it stays online

The four options side by side

How to set it up on a machine that may sleep

1. Switch the bot from polling to a webhook

   A polling bot only makes outgoing requests, so nothing tells a sleeping machine to wake. A webhook bot waits for Telegram to call it. The code change is in the launch guide: replace run_polling() with run_webhook().

2. Give the bot a public https address

   Telegram calls only https addresses, on port 443, 80, 88 and 8443, with TLS 1.2 or newer. Use your own domain, or the address your host gives the bot's port. On Uno, ask the agent in Uno Work to put the bot's port on the internet.

3. Tell Telegram where to send messages

   Call setWebhook once with the address and a secret. Telegram then sends the secret in the header X-Telegram-Bot-Api-Secret-Token with every message.

   $ curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot$BOT_TOKEN/setWebhook" \
       -d url="https://bot.example.com/telegram" \
       -d secret_token="$WEBHOOK_SECRET"
   {"ok":true,"result":true,"description":"Webhook was set"}

4. Check what Telegram sees

   getWebhookInfo shows the address, how many messages wait and the last error. pending_update_count above zero for a long time means Telegram cannot reach the bot.

   $ curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot$BOT_TOKEN/getWebhookInfo"

5. Test a cold start

   Leave the machine idle until it sleeps, then write to the bot from your phone. The first answer is slower than the rest; the next ones come at the usual speed.

Why a sleeping host suits a quiet bot

Most small bots get a message every few minutes or hours. A VPS bills for every idle hour. A computer that sleeps with nothing to do and wakes on the first message costs the same flat price, and holds the bot's memory and files while it waits. A Telegram message sent to a webhook address on your computer wakes it, and the bot answers.

• Long polling does not fit a sleeping host: a bot on long polling only makes outgoing requests, and an outgoing request does not wake a sleeping computer. Use a webhook, or take a plain VPS.
• The first message after a sleep waits for the wake-up. In our measurement of 3 October 2026 it took a median 118 ms from the request to a computer that answers.
• Budget VPS hosts sell memory cheaper: $0.65–1.6 per GB a month against $4.2–5 on Uno. A bot that needs gigabytes and answers all day is cheaper there.
• Uno computers run in the Netherlands today. Telegram reaches them from anywhere, but a region far from your users adds some milliseconds.

Common problems