What you'll end up with​

• A Telegram bot with your own name and username (for example @acme_help_bot).
• It answers questions using the files you uploaded — PDFs, Word documents, FAQs, even audio and video recordings, which are transcribed automatically.
• You choose the AI model behind it (Claude, GPT, Gemini or Amazon Nova) and can switch any time.
• The same assistant can later answer on your website and in WhatsApp too.

What you need​

• A Telegram account.
• The documents your bot should know: a price list, FAQ, course materials, policies, manuals. Start with one or two good files — you can add more later.
• A free AOVA account.

Step 1. Create the bot in Telegram with @BotFather​

Every Telegram bot is registered through Telegram's official @BotFather.

1. Open @BotFather in Telegram and press Start.
2. Send /newbot.
3. Send the bot's display name — what people see in the chat header, e.g. Acme Help.
4. Send its username — it must be unique and end in bot, e.g. acme_help_bot.
5. BotFather replies with a token that looks like 123456789:AAH.... Copy it.

:::caution Keep the token private Anyone with the token can control your bot. Paste it only into AOVA, and if it ever leaks, send /revoke to @BotFather to issue a new one. :::

Optional, but it makes the bot look trustworthy: /setdescription (the text shown before someone presses Start), /setabouttext and /setuserpic.

Step 2. Create a project and a knowledge base​

Sign in to AOVA and create a project — the folder that will hold your bot's knowledge, agent and channels.

Inside the project, create a knowledge base and click Upload to add your files.

Files are indexed in the background; wait until the status shows a green check before testing. A few tips that make the biggest difference to answer quality:

• One topic per section. Clear headings ("Delivery", "Refunds", "Prices") help the bot find the right passage.
• Write facts down. If a price or rule only lives in your head, the bot can't know it.
• Recordings count. Webinars, lectures and voice notes are transcribed to text — see Add audio and video.

Step 3. Create an agent​

The agent is the assistant itself: an AI model connected to your knowledge base, plus instructions about tone and boundaries.

1. Open the Agents tab and click New agent.
2. Pick the knowledge base you just filled and choose a model. Claude Haiku or Amazon Nova are fast and inexpensive defaults; move to a larger model if answers need more reasoning.
3. Optionally, describe how it should talk: "Answer briefly and politely. If the answer isn't in the documents, say so and suggest contacting support@acme.com."

Click Test to chat with the agent right in the dashboard before connecting Telegram.

Step 4. Connect the Telegram channel​

1. On the agent's page, open the Channels panel and click Add channel.
2. Choose Telegram, give the channel a name and paste the token from Step 1.
3. Click Create.

That's it. Open your bot in Telegram, press Start and ask it something from your documents.

Keep it improving​

• Check the conversations. Every chat appears in Contacts, so you can see what people actually ask — and which questions your documents don't answer yet.
• Fill the gaps. When the bot says it doesn't know something it should, add a short document that covers it. That fixes the answer faster than rewording the instructions.
• Add more channels. The same agent can answer on your website with a chat widget — no extra setup of the knowledge.

FAQ​

Do I need to know how to program? No. Everything above happens in Telegram and the AOVA dashboard.

Will the bot make things up? It answers from the passages it finds in your knowledge base (this approach is called retrieval-augmented generation). If the information isn't there, it follows your instructions — for example, saying it doesn't know. More in How your assistant answers.

What does it cost? There's a free plan to try it with your own documents. After that you pay in credits for the answers the bot actually gives — see pricing.

Can I use it in a Telegram group? AOVA connects to the bot you create; how the bot behaves in groups follows Telegram's own bot settings (such as privacy mode in @BotFather).

Ready to try? Create your Telegram bot for free →

Why Telegram first​

Your students and clients are already in Telegram: course chats, your channel, private messages. A bot there needs no new app, no login and no link to remember — they just write to it. It's also the fastest channel to set up: one token from @BotFather and you're live.

What to put in the knowledge base​

Think of it as everything you'd hand a brilliant new assistant on their first day:

Recordings are billed at 5 credits per minute and shown as an estimate before you upload — see Add audio and video.

Make it sound like you​

In the agent's instructions, describe your style and boundaries. For example:

You are the assistant of the "Confident Negotiation" course. Answer like the author: warm, direct, with a practical example. Answer only from the course materials. If a question needs personal coaching, suggest booking a session at example.com/call.

Instructions shape tone and limits; the facts still come from your materials. If an answer is wrong or missing, the fix is almost always adding or clarifying a document.

Ideas that work well​

• Course companion. Students ask "how does the framework from module 4 apply to…" and get an answer grounded in the lesson itself.
• Pre-sales assistant. Prospective clients learn about your program, format and prices before they ever book a call.
• Your back catalogue, searchable. Years of webinars become something people can actually ask questions to, instead of hours of video nobody rewatches.

Keep control​

Every conversation is saved under Contacts, so you can read what people ask, spot gaps in your materials — and discover questions worth turning into your next post or lesson. You can switch the AI model at any time without rebuilding the knowledge base.

Get started​

The step-by-step setup (BotFather → knowledge base → agent → channel) is in How to create an AI Telegram bot that answers from your documents. It takes about ten minutes, and there's a free plan to try it with your own materials.

Create your assistant for free →

Start from the questions, not the bot​

Before building anything, scroll through your last month of messages and write down the questions that come up most. Then check that each one is answered somewhere in writing. Typical starter set:

• Price list or menu (PDF or spreadsheet exported to PDF).
• Delivery, returns and payment terms.
• Opening hours, address, how to book.
• An FAQ — even a rough one written in 20 minutes beats nothing.

Upload these into a knowledge base. The bot answers from the passages it finds there, so the quality of these files matters more than anything else.

Set boundaries in the agent's instructions​

A good support bot knows what it shouldn't do. For example:

You are the assistant of Acme Flowers. Answer briefly and politely, only from the documents. Never promise discounts or delivery times that are not in the documents. If the customer wants to place an order or has a complaint, give them our phone +44 20 0000 0000 and working hours.

Connect Telegram​

Create a bot with @BotFather, paste its token into a Telegram channel on your agent — the full walkthrough with screenshots is in How to create an AI Telegram bot that answers from your documents.

Run it like a support team would​

• Read the conversations weekly. They're all under Contacts. The questions the bot couldn't answer are your to-do list: add a line to the FAQ and it knows next time.
• Update, don't rebuild. Prices changed? Re-upload the price list — the bot picks up the new version once it's processed.
• Add the website next. The same agent can answer in a chat widget on your site, so customers get the same answers everywhere.

What it costs​

There's a free plan to try it with your own documents. After that you pay in credits for answers the bot actually gives — a typical answer on a fast model costs about 1–2 credits. Details on the pricing page.

Set up your support bot for free →

How it works​

1. You drop a recording into a knowledge base next to your documents.
2. AOVA transcribes the speech to text, with a timestamp at the start of each paragraph.
3. The transcript is indexed like any other document. Your agent — in Telegram, on your website, anywhere — can now answer from it.

The original audio or video isn't kept after transcription; only the text stays in your knowledge base.

Supported files​

Before you upload, the dialog shows each recording's length, the estimated credits and your balance — so there are no surprises.

Good candidates​

• Webinars and lectures — become a Q&A assistant for your course or community.
• Recorded consultations or demos — the explanations you've given a hundred times.
• Internal voice notes and meetings — decisions and know-how your team can search by asking.

Tips for better answers​

• Pair recordings with a short glossary. Speech recognition can mishear names and brand words; a one-page document that spells them correctly fixes that.
• Set the language for short or mixed recordings. Auto-detection works best on longer clips.
• Recordings are answered from words only. The agent sees what was said — not slides, tone or what's on screen. If the slides matter, upload them as a PDF too.

Full details: Add audio and video. To put it all behind a Telegram bot, follow the step-by-step guide.

Upload your first recording →