Telegram bot webhook not working in Laravel

Other Questions Telegram bot
1

I’m building a Telegram bot using Laravel but it’s not sending replies back to users. I set up a webhook endpoint and configured everything but messages aren’t getting responses.

Here’s my route setup:

Route::post('webhook/telegram', [ChatBotController::class, 'handleMessage'])->name('telegram_webhook');

And here’s the controller method:

public function handleMessage() {
    $input = json_decode(file_get_contents('php://input'), true);
    
    if (!$input) {
        return response('Invalid input', 400);
    }
    
    if (!isset($input['update_id']) || !isset($input['message'])) {
        return response('Missing required fields', 400);
    }
    
    $messageData = [
        'chat_id' => $input['message']['chat']['id'],
        'text' => 'Echo: ' . $input['message']['text'],
    ];
    
    $botToken = '123456789:ABCDEF_your_bot_token_here';
    
    file_get_contents('https://api.telegram.org/bot' . $botToken . '/sendMessage?' . http_build_query($messageData));
    
    return response('OK', 200);
}

The webhook was set successfully and I got a positive response from Telegram API. Laravel logs don’t show any errors either. But when I send messages to the bot, nothing comes back. What could be the issue here?

2

First, clear your route cache with php artisan route:clear - I’ve seen cached routes miss newly added webhook endpoints. Also check if you’re behind a reverse proxy or load balancer that might be messing with the request body before it hits Laravel. Log the raw request data right at the start of your method to see what’s actually coming through. Don’t forget CSRF protection - add your webhook route to the exclusion list in VerifyCsrfToken middleware since Telegram won’t have a valid token.

3

I had the same issue with my Laravel Telegram bot. It’s usually SSL certificate verification blocking your requests. Ditch file_get_contents() and use Guzzle HTTP client instead - it handles requests way better. Make sure your webhook URL is publicly accessible and returns a 200 status. Test it in your browser or use ngrok if you’re developing locally. Also check if Telegram blocked your server’s IP and look for firewall settings that might be blocking api.telegram.org.

4

add error handling around your api call - file_get_contents fails silently sometimes. double-check your bot token & permissions too. also log the $input var first to see if telegram’s actually sending valid data to your endpoint.