Telegram Bot API returns false on web hosting but works locally

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

I’m building a Telegram bot and running into a weird issue. When I test my PHP code on my local machine, everything works perfectly and I get the expected JSON response from the Telegram API. But when I upload the exact same code to my web server, the API call returns false instead of the data.

Here’s my simple test code:

<?php 
    $apiToken = "123456789:AAF**********-M4yG09SO8I1xL9xF";
    $apiUrl = "https://api.telegram.org/bot".$apiToken;
    
    $response = file_get_contents($apiUrl."/getUpdates");
    
    var_dump($response);
?>

On localhost I get a proper JSON string with all the message data, but on the server it just shows bool(false). Has anyone experienced this before? What could be causing the difference between local and server environments?

2

Check your PHP error logs - they’ll show exactly what’s breaking. When file_get_contents() returns false, there’s usually a suppressed error. Add error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set('display_errors', 1); at the top of your script to see what’s happening. Many hosts have strict SSL certificate verification turned on by default, which breaks external API calls. For testing, try creating a context with SSL verification disabled (don’t do this in production though). Local vs server differences usually come down to PHP config or network restrictions you can’t see right away.

3

maybe ur host is blocking some connections? or file_get_contents is disabled. u could try curl instead, it often works better. also, ensure your server supports SSL, since Telegram API needs https. hope it helps!

4

Had this exact problem last year with my Telegram bot on shared hosting. My host had allow_url_fopen disabled, which blocks file_get_contents() from making HTTP requests. Run phpinfo() to check - if it’s disabled, switch to cURL instead. That usually works even when file_get_contents() is blocked. Could also be your server’s firewall blocking outbound connections to Telegram’s API. Some hosts restrict external API calls for security. Hit up your hosting support and ask if they allow connections to api.telegram.org on port 443.