🏠Private Telegram chat with a gatekeeper bot — free

What's inside

• ProfileThe text before Start and the line in the profile.
• Chat accessA private chat or channel: the bot handles join requests and lets people in by rules — Premium, a Stars payment.

Screens

1. This is a private chat's bot. Request to join via the author's link — the bot handles it by the chat's rules.

How to make a private Telegram group with join requests

A private chat in this template is an ordinary Telegram group that people join through a join-request link instead of an open link. A person opens the link, Telegram shows a “Request to join” button, and the request goes to the group's admins. With a couple of requests a week, approving them by hand is fine. With dozens a day, someone has to answer right away, or people wait for hours and leave.

A gatekeeper bot takes over that job. It becomes an admin of the group, creates the join-request link itself and answers every request by the rule chosen in its admin panel. With no rule set, the bot approves everyone who came through the link, with no waiting. With the “Premium only” rule, only Telegram Premium users get in; everyone else is declined with a short message explaining why.

Join requests also beat an open link because every entry goes through one point. The link the bot created can be shared anywhere, and the entry rule is changed in the admin panel, with no new link and no announcement to members. Today the group lets everyone in, tomorrow only Premium users, and nobody has to be sent a new address.

How to create a group gatekeeper bot without BotFather

The bot is created from the template page in one tap. The button opens Telegram's built-in “Create bot” window, where you only confirm the name. The bot appears on your own account and belongs to you just like a bot made by hand. The difference is that there is no BotFather, no token, no code and no sign-up on the site.

Hosting is ours. There is no server to set up and nothing to keep running on your computer; the bot answers requests around the clock from the moment it is created. Creating it is free, and a free bot carries the “Made with @catalogue_app” signature.

How to link the bot to a group and get a join-request link

The first message the bot sends its owner is the admin panel. You can open it again at any time with /admin. The panel has a “Link a chat or channel” button. It shows the groups where you are an admin; once you pick one, the bot becomes an admin of that group with the right to invite members. Requests cannot be approved without that right, so Telegram asks for it right away, in the same picker.

Right after linking, the bot creates an invite link with join requests and sends it to your DMs. That is the link to share — in a channel, in a profile bio, on a website, in an email to members. Everyone who opens it files a request, and the bot makes the decision. You can link a brand-new group or one that has existed for years; current members stay where they are.

How to let only Telegram Premium users into a group

The admin panel has a “Premium only” toggle. Telegram tells the bot in every request whether the person has Premium. If the toggle is on and the person has Premium, the bot approves the request. If not, the bot declines it and sends the person a DM saying the chat is for Telegram Premium users only. Nobody is left waiting, and the reason is clear at once.

The filter suits communities where Premium is already part of the topic — chats about gifts and collectible usernames, emoji pack makers (custom emoji in messages require Premium), testers of new features. The rule applies to new requests only: the toggle does not touch people already in the group, and it can be switched off again in one tap.

What else the bot's admin panel does

Every text the bot shows can be edited by hand right in Telegram — for example, the greeting a person sees when opening the bot before requesting to join. The bot's language switches between Russian and English. “Stats” shows a summary for the bot, and “Broadcast” sends a message to everyone who has started the bot.

The “Edit with AI” button rebuilds the bot from a plain-language description. For those who prefer to see the whole logic at once, the site has a visual node editor where screens, buttons and the entry rule are drawn as a diagram.

Private group or private channel

Join requests work the same way for groups and channels, and the same bot handles both. The “Private chat” template is set up for a group where members talk to each other: a club, a course chat, a team, a customer community. If only the author posts and everyone else reads, the “Private channel” template fits better. If entry should be paid, there is the “Paid subscription channel” template with a price in Stars.

How to launch

1. Tap “Create bot” on this page — Telegram opens the “Create bot” window; confirm the name.
2. Open the admin panel — the bot sends it as its first message; later, /admin brings it back.
3. Tap “Link a chat or channel” and pick the group — the bot becomes its admin with the right to invite.
4. If only Premium users should get in, turn on the “Premium only” toggle.
5. Share the join-request link the bot sent you — from then on it handles the requests itself.

FAQ

Updated 01.11.2026