# Connect Telegram to Luca

Create a Telegram bot, paste one token, and Luca drafts a reply to every DM in your voice. About a minute, no review, no fees, and you approve each send.

> About a minute from start to first drafted reply.

## What Luca does on Telegram

It can:

- Read the direct messages people send your bot
- Draft a reply in your voice for every one of them
- Send a reply the moment you approve it
- Read photos, voice notes, and documents a lead sends

It cannot:

- Message anyone who has not written to your bot first
- Read your personal Telegram account or any group you are in
- Post, forward, or add anyone to a channel

## Before you start

About a minute, once you have these.

- A Telegram account on your phone or desktop
- A name and a username for the bot; the username has to end in 'bot'

## The steps

1. **Open BotFather.** In Telegram, search for @BotFather and start a chat with it. BotFather is Telegram's own bot for making bots.
2. **Create the bot.** Send /newbot. BotFather asks for a display name (what leads see, so use your coaching name) and then a username ending in bot, for example lucasetter_bot.
3. **Copy the token.** BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AAF-long-string. That whole line is the token. Treat it like a password.
4. **Paste it into Luca.** In Luca, go to the Connect a channel step (or Settings -> Channels), pick Telegram, and paste the token. Luca checks it with Telegram and registers the webhook for you.
5. **Send yourself a test DM.** Open your new bot in Telegram and send it a message the way a lead would. It shows up in Luca within a few seconds, with a draft reply waiting for your approval.

## What it costs

Telegram charges nothing for bots. No per-message fee, no volume tier, no billing account to set up.

See every [Luca plan](/pricing) and its limits.

## If something goes wrong

### Why does Luca say the token was rejected?

Copy it again from BotFather and paste the whole line, including the digits before the colon. A trailing space is the usual culprit.

### Why does Luca say the bot is already connected somewhere else?

A bot can belong to one Luca workspace at a time. Create a fresh bot in BotFather with /newbot and use that token.

### The bot is connected, so why does nothing arrive?

Message the bot from a second Telegram account. Telegram does not always deliver a bot the messages you send it from the account that owns it.

Still stuck? Email hello@setluca.com and tell us which step you are on.

## What connecting gives us

- Luca never posts, follows, or comments. It reads DMs and drafts replies.
- Every reply waits in your review queue. Nothing sends until you approve it.
- Your DMs stay inside Luca. Never sold, never shared with other coaches, never used to train outside models.
- Disconnect any time from Settings -> Channels. Access ends the moment you do.

Every reply still waits in your [review queue](/features/review-queue). More on how we protect your accounts: [Trust and account safety](/trust).

Luca is the product; SetLuca is the company that builds it.