Reading your own Telegram chats from Claude or ChatGPT (and why a bot can't do it)

"What did I miss on Telegram today?" sounds like the perfect question for an AI assistant. As of November 2026, neither Claude nor ChatGPT has a built-in Telegram connector, and most Telegram integrations you will find don't answer that question at all.

Here is why, and what works.

Bot API vs user account

Telegram has two very different APIs:

• The Bot API. You create a bot, get a token, and the bot receives messages sent to it or posted in groups it was added to. Many "Telegram MCP" connectors use this. It is great for notifications and for talking to a bot, but a bot cannot read your private conversations: it is not you.
• The user API (MTProto). A client signs in as your account, with your phone number and the login code Telegram sends you, like a new device. It sees what your Telegram app sees: private chats, groups, channels, unread counts. To catch up on your own chats, you need the second one.

The self-hosted route

Several open-source MCP servers use the user API. They work, but you create your own API credentials on my.telegram.org, run the server yourself, keep the session file safe, and they usually only run in desktop clients that can launch local processes. Check their tool list too: some expose sending and mark-as-read.

The hosted route

Fezola (disclosure: I work on it) connects your own Telegram account to a remote MCP server, next to your mailboxes and Google Chat, with a few deliberate constraints:

• Read-only. There is no tool to send a message or react, and reading never marks anything as read.
• It is a visible device. It shows up as "Fezola" in Telegram, Settings, Devices, where you can log it out at any time. Disconnecting in Fezola logs it out and erases the session.
• The session is encrypted at rest, and messages are read live, never stored.

What the assistant gets:

• list_recent_telegram: messages received in private chats and, in groups, the ones that mention you or reply to you, since a given time. Each item says whether it is unread and whether you wrote in that chat since (repliedAfter), which is what makes "what still needs my answer?" possible.
• list_telegram_chats: your conversations (people, groups, channels), most recently active first, with unread and mention counts.
• search_telegram: Telegram's own search, across all chats or inside one.
• get_telegram_chat: read a conversation, oldest first, and page back.

Setup

• Create a free account at app.fezola.com (2 sources on the free plan).
• Open Telegram in the menu, Connect Telegram, enter your number in international format, then the code Telegram sends you in the app (and your Telegram password if you use two-step verification).
• Add the connector to your assistant. Claude: Customize, Connectors, + Add, Add custom connector, URL https://api.fezola.com/mcp. ChatGPT (Business and Enterprise/Edu on the web, per OpenAI's help page in November 2026): Plugins → + → Add custom MCP server, the same URL, OAuth, then create it as a plugin. Claude is the simplest way in on other plans.
• Approve access on the consent screen, then ask: "What did I miss on Telegram today?", "Which private messages have I not answered this week?", "Find the address Alex sent me last month."

The step-by-step guide, kept up to date: How to use Telegram in Claude and ChatGPT.