How to Retrieve Telegram API Credentials, Chat ID, Message ID, and Topic ID

When working with the Telegram API or Telegram bots, you often need to retrieve various identifiers, such as:

• API ID and API Hash (for authentication)

• Phone Number (to log in)

• Chat ID (to identify a group or user)

• Message ID (to reference a specific message)

• Topic ID (for Telegram supergroup topics)

This guide walks you through step-by-step methods to get all these values using Telegram Web, API requests, and Python scripts

📌 Getting the Last Message from a Bot

If you want to retrieve the most recent message sent to a bot, use the getUpdates API:

curl -X GET "https://api.telegram.org/bot<API_KEY>/getUpdates"

This will return a JSON response containing the Message ID, Chat ID, and other details.

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🚀 Step 1: Get Your API ID and API Hash

1️⃣ Log in to the Telegram Developer Portal

1. Go to https://my.telegram.org/

2. Log in using your Telegram account.

2️⃣ Create a New Application

1. Click on "API Development Tools".

2. Fill out the form (App title, Short name, etc.).

3. Click "Create Application".

3️⃣ Copy Your API Credentials

After creating the application, Telegram will provide:

• API ID (a numeric value)

• API Hash (a long string of letters and numbers)

🔹 Store these securely, as you will use them to authenticate API requests.

📞 Step 2: Get Your Phone Number

You’ll need the phone number associated with your Telegram account in international format (e.g., +123456789).

⚙️ Step 3: Install Required Libraries

To interact with Telegram using Python, install Telethon, a Python library for Telegram API access:

pip install telethon

📡 Step 4: Get Your chat_id and topic_id

🔍 Using Python (Telethon)

The following script logs into Telegram and fetches the Chat ID and Topic ID of a Telegram group.

from telethon import TelegramClient
from telethon.tl.functions.messages import GetDialogFiltersRequest

# Replace with your actual values
api_id = 'YOUR_API_ID'
api_hash = 'YOUR_API_HASH'
phone_number = 'YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER'  # Include country code, e.g., +123456789

# Initialize the client
client = TelegramClient('session_name', api_id, api_hash)

async def main():
    # Connect to Telegram
    await client.start(phone_number)
    print("Logged in successfully!")

    # Get the list of dialogs (chats/groups)
    async for dialog in client.iter_dialogs():
        print(f"Chat Name: {dialog.name}, Chat ID: {dialog.id}")

    # Replace 'Group Name' with the actual group name you want
    group = await client.get_entity("Group Name")
    print(f"Group Chat ID: {group.id}")

    # Get topics in a supergroup
    if group.megagroup:  # Check if it's a supergroup
        topics = await client(GetDialogFiltersRequest())
        for topic in topics:
            print(f"Topic Title: {topic.title}, Topic ID: {topic.id}")

# Run the client
with client:
    client.loop.run_until_complete(main())

📌 Explanation of the Script:

• iter_dialogs(): Lists all chats, private messages, and groups.

• get_entity(): Retrieves a specific chat/group by name or username.

• GetDialogFiltersRequest(): Fetches topics in a supergroup.

✅ Output Example:

Chat Name: My Group, Chat ID: -1001996676648  
Topic Title: Announcements, Topic ID: 1631641  

🎯 Understanding Telegram Chat & Message ID Formats

🏷️ Chat ID Format

When dealing with supergroups, the CHAT_ID format changes:

Old format:

CHAT_ID = 1996676648

New format for supergroups:

CHAT_ID = -1001996676648  # Add "-100" prefix

🔢 Extracting Message ID and Topic ID from a Telegram URL

📍 Method 1: Using Message Links

1. Send a message to the topic you need.

2. Right-click the message and select "Copy message link".

3. Paste the link somewhere, and you’ll see a URL like:

https://t.me/c/1112223334/25/33

🛠️ Breakdown of the URL:

• Chat ID: -1001112223334 (Add -100 if it's a supergroup)

• Message ID: 25 (Second number in the URL)

• Topic ID (message_thread_id): 33 (Last number in the URL)

🕵️‍♂️ Another Way to Get the Topic ID

If the above method doesn’t work, you can inspect the web page:

1. Open Telegram Web and navigate to the group topic.

2. Open the Developer Console (Right-click → Inspect → Console).

3. Locate the topic element in the left sidebar.

4. Look for a data-thread-id attribute.

This data-thread-id is the Topic ID you need.

🔗 Reference

If you're still having trouble, check this StackOverflow post:
How to get Topic ID for a Telegram Group Chat

🎯 Final Thoughts

This guide covered everything you need to start working with Telegram API, including:

✅ Getting API Credentials (API ID, API Hash)
✅ Retrieving Chat ID & Message ID
✅ Extracting Topic ID for Supergroups
✅ Using Python to fetch Chat & Topic IDs
✅ Getting the last message using getUpdates API

Now you’re ready to build Telegram bots, automation scripts, or custom tools! 🚀