Create Telegram Bot - NextJS and Hosting on Vercel - Free

Here's a more comprehensive guide:

1. Create a Telegram Bot:

   • Go to Telegram and search for the BotFather.
   • Start a conversation with BotFather and follow the instructions to create a new bot.
   • Once created, BotFather will provide you with a token. Save this token securely; you'll need it later.

2. Set up a Next.js Project:

   • Install Node.js if you haven't already.
   • Initialize a new Next.js project using create-next-app or any other method you prefer.

3. Set up Telegram Bot API:

   • Use a library like node-telegram-bot-api to interact with the Telegram Bot API. Install it via npm or yarn.
   • Create a new file in your Next.js project to handle the bot logic.
   • Use the Telegram Bot API library to set up a webhook and handle incoming messages.

4. Write Your Telegram Bot Code:

   • Here's a basic example:

// Import necessary modules
const { Telegraf } = require('telegraf');

// Create a new Telegraf bot instance with your bot token
const bot = new Telegraf(process.env.TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN);

// Handle incoming messages
bot.on('text', (ctx) => {
  ctx.reply('Hello! You said: ' + ctx.message.text);
});

// Set up webhook
bot.telegram.setWebhook('https://your-vercel-url.vercel.app/webhook');

// Start listening for incoming messages
bot.startPolling();

1. Deploy Your Next.js Project to Vercel:

   • Sign up for Vercel if you haven't already.
   • Install the Vercel CLI if you haven't already (npm install -g vercel).
   • Run vercel login to log in to your Vercel account via CLI.
   • Navigate to your Next.js project directory in the terminal.
   • Run vercel --prod to deploy your project to Vercel.

2. Set Environment Variables:

   • In your Vercel project settings, set the environment variable TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN to the token you obtained from BotFather.

3. Set Webhook URL using curl:

   • Open a terminal and run the following command, replacing <YOUR_BOT_TOKEN> with your actual bot token and https://your-vercel-url.vercel.app/webhook with your Vercel webhook URL:

   curl -F "url=https://your-vercel-url.vercel.app/webhook" https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/setWebhook

1. Verify Webhook Setup:
   • You can verify that the webhook is set up correctly by visiting the following URL in your browser:

   https://api.telegram.org/bot<YOUR_BOT_TOKEN>/getWebhookInfo

1. Handle Incoming Messages:
   • Ensure that your Next.js server is listening for incoming POST requests on the /webhook endpoint and processing the messages accordingly.

That's it! With these steps, you've set up a webhook for your Telegram bot using Next.js deployed on Vercel. Make sure to handle messages appropriately in your server-side logic.