Short answer. A Telegram invite link is a t.me/+ address that lets anyone with Telegram join a private group or channel. Every chat starts with one primary link that never expires on its own. Admins can add extra links with an expiry date, a usage cap, a name or admin approval. "This invite link has expired" appears when the link ran out, was revoked, or the person was removed.
A telegram invite link is the one growth tool every admin already has, and it is also the source of a familiar notice that stops people at the door. This guide follows the link through its life: the shape it takes, the settings an admin can put on it, the four ways it stops working, and what the person on the other end sees at each stage.
Every figure below comes from a Telegram page read on 19 October 2026 and named where it is used, under the sourcing rule every Sendhaus guide follows. Where Telegram publishes nothing, the guide says so rather than borrowing a vendor's number.
What a Telegram invite link is, and the shapes it takes
A Telegram invite link is a web address that admits whoever opens it into a private group or channel, with no admin adding them by hand. Telegram's FAQ puts it in one sentence: "Anyone who has Telegram installed will be able to join your group by following this link." The link works outside Telegram too, so it can be posted in email, on a website or on paper.
Search phrasing varies, from invitation link telegram to invite link telegram and plain invite telegram, but the object is the same: one address per chat that admits the people who choose to open it. Telegram invites of this kind replaced the old method of collecting phone numbers and adding people one at a time.
Telegram's developer documentation lists three spellings of the same chat invite. The modern form is t.me/+ followed by a random hash. The older form, still accepted, is t.me/joinchat/ followed by the hash. Inside apps the same invite can travel as tg://join?invite= plus the hash. The API page on invite links adds that telegram.me and telegram.dog work in place of t.me.
A telegram invite link example therefore looks like https://t.me/+AbC123xYz-Example, where everything after the plus sign is the hash the app sends to Telegram's servers. The hash is generated by Telegram and cannot be chosen. That detail matters for anyone searching for a telegram custom invite link, and it is covered in the settings section below.
| Format | Example shape | Opens | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat invite link | t.me/+<hash> | A private group, supergroup or channel | API, deep links |
| Chat invite link, legacy | t.me/joinchat/<hash> | The same, older spelling | API, deep links |
| In-app invite | tg://join?invite=<hash> | The same, inside the app | API, deep links |
| Public username link | t.me/<username> | A public group, channel, bot or person | API, deep links |
| Chat folder link | t.me/addlist/<slug> | A shared folder of several chats | API, deep links |
Only the first three rows are invite links telegram documents as such. A public username link is a permanent address for a public chat and needs no invite at all. Telegram's API notes that "Only supergroups and channels may have a public usernames", so a basic group has to become a supergroup before it can get one.
member_limit one invite link can carry in the Bot API.
Primary and additional invite links on Telegram
Every Telegram group and channel carries one primary invite link from the moment it is created, and admins can add as many additional links as they need. Telegram's API page says "Newly created groups, supergroups and channel already have a default invite link." The primary link has no expiry or cap; additional links can have both, plus a name and an approval step.
Telegram added the second kind in February 2021. The blog post that announced it says "Along with the main invite link, owners and admins can now create additional links with a limited duration, number of uses, or both." The same post gives the reason most admins use them: links are "a quick and easy way to bring 1 or 1 million people to your groups and channels."
Links belong to the admin who made them. The Bot API reference states it plainly: "Each administrator in a chat generates their own invite links. Bots can't use invite links generated by other administrators." When a bot reads a link made by someone else, the second half of the address is replaced with "…". This ownership rule is why two admins of the same group can see different link lists.
| Property | Primary link | Additional link |
|---|---|---|
| Exists from creation | Yes, one per admin who exports it | No, created on demand |
| Expiry date | None | Optional |
| Usage or member cap | None | Optional, 1 to 99,999 in the Bot API |
| Name | None | Optional, 0 to 32 characters, visible to admins only |
| Admin approval | No | Optional, Request Admin Approval |
| When revoked | "a new link is automatically generated" | Stops working; no replacement |
How to create a Telegram invite link, with its five settings
How to create telegram invite link: open the group or channel, tap its name, and go to the invite links section, where the primary link sits with Copy and Share buttons and a Create a New Link option. Telegram's 2021 blog gives the path as "Profile > Edit > Invite Links". Only the owner and admins with the right to invite users see the screen.
The steps are the same whether the question is how to create telegram group invite link or how to create invite link for telegram group from a phone or a desktop. Labels shift slightly between app versions, so the sequence below follows the structure rather than exact wording. Anyone asking how to get invite link telegram offers for an existing chat, or looking for the telegram create invite link button, ends up on the same screen, and a telegram group chat invite link is made there exactly like a channel's.
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Open the chat's info page
Tap the group or channel name at the top. Telegram's FAQ describes the older group path as "Group Info > Add Member > Invite to Group via Link", which still leads to the same link.
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Open Invite Links
From the edit screen, open Invite Links. The primary link appears first. This is how to get telegram group invite link in its simplest form: copy the primary link and stop there.
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Create a new link
For a link with limits, choose the option to create a new link and set any of the five settings in the next table, then save.
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Copy, share or show a QR code
Any link can be copied, shared through the system share sheet, or turned into a QR code. Telegram's blog suggests the code can go "on everything from brochures to billboards".
How to create telegram channel invite link follows the same steps from the channel's edit screen. A telegram channel invite link matters more than a group link once the channel grows, because Telegram's Channels FAQ lets the owner add only "the first 200 subscribers" directly. After that, links and the public username are the only ways in, as set out in the guide covering every supported route for adding members.
| Setting | API field | Telegram's description |
|---|---|---|
| Expiry | expire_date | "Point in time (Unix timestamp) when the link will expire" |
| Usage cap, app and user API | usage_limit | "Maximum number of users that can join using this link" |
| Member cap, Bot API | member_limit | "The maximum number of users that can be members of the chat simultaneously after joining the chat via this invite link; 1-99999" |
| Name | title / name | "Description of the invite link, visible only to administrators" |
| Admin approval | request_needed / creates_join_request | "Whether admin confirmation is required before admitting each separate user into the chat" |
Two of those descriptions differ in a way no other guide points out. The user API counts joins through the link, while the Bot API counts how many people who joined through it are members "simultaneously". Read literally, a bot-made link with a cap of 50 can admit a fifty-first person after someone else leaves. Telegram does not say more than the field text, so test the behaviour before relying on it for a paid seat.
The Bot API also forbids one combination: "If True, member_limit can't be specified." A link with admin approval cannot carry a member cap at the same time. A sixth, paid option exists for channels: a subscription link that charges Telegram Stars every 30 days, priced from 1 to 10,000 Stars.
t.me/+ stays random. A readable address such as t.me/yourbrand requires a public username, which makes the chat public. Telegram's client configuration sets the number of public usernames an account can hold at 10, or 20 with Premium.
How to invite someone to Telegram, a group or a channel
How to invite someone to a telegram group: either add the person from contacts or username search, or send the group's invite link so the person joins alone. The link is the route Telegram built for people outside the contact list. The direct add depends on the other person's privacy setting, which Telegram's API calls "Whether people will be able to invite you to chats".
The same two choices answer how do i invite someone to telegram group, how to invite to telegram group and how to invite people to telegram group. The contact picker suits a handful of known people. The link suits everyone else. Telegram's blog post that introduced group links in April 2015 described the old alternative: "you had to collect everyone's usernames or phone numbers and add them to your group one by one."
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Copy the link
Open the chat, then the invite links screen, and copy the primary link or a purpose-made one.
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Send it where the person is
How to send invite link on telegram: paste the link into a private chat like any other message, or use Share to send it through another app. The steps for sending a message in a DM, group or channel apply unchanged.
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Let the person tap it
The person sees a preview with the chat's name, photo and member count, then taps Join, or Request to Join when approval is on.
How to send telegram group invite link to many people at once is the point where an ordinary task can become a reported one. A link pasted into a group the sender already belongs to, a newsletter or a website reaches people who chose that source. The same link sent one by one to strangers is what Telegram's Spam FAQ describes, covered in the section on where a link turns into spam. For a telegram send invite link campaign to existing subscribers, the routes are compared in the guide to the six supported routes for bulk sends.
How to invite people to telegram channel and how to invite someone to telegram channel follow the same pattern, with one difference: once a channel passes 200 subscribers the owner can no longer add anyone directly, so the link or the public username is the whole answer.
Inviting someone to the app itself
How to invite someone to telegram when the person does not use it yet, or how to invite friends on telegram generally, is a different task. The mobile apps' contacts screen offers an invite option that shares a download link through the phone's own messaging or share sheet; the exact label varies by app version. The person installs Telegram first, then a group link sent afterwards works.
How to invite friends to telegram group combines both steps: invite the friend to the app, then send the group's link. A telegram group invite sent before the friend installs the app still works later, because Telegram's 2015 post says people "can instantly join your Telegram group just by following that link" as soon as they get Telegram. The oddly typed query how-to invite someone to a chat on-telegram has the same answer as all of these.
How long do Telegram invite links last?
How long do telegram invite links last depends on the kind of link. The primary link lasts until an admin revokes or replaces it; Telegram attaches no expiry to it. An additional link lasts until its expiry date, until its usage cap is reached, or until it is revoked, whichever comes first. Telegram publishes no maximum expiry date.
The app offers preset durations when a link is created, and the API accepts any future Unix timestamp. The only documented boundary is an error, EXPIRE_DATE_INVALID, described as "The specified expiration date is invalid." Telegram does not say how far ahead a date may sit before the error appears.
A link also outlives the admin's attention. A primary link posted on a forum in 2023 still admits people in 2026 unless someone revoked it. That is the main reason to give public placements their own additional link: it can expire on schedule and be counted on its own. An invitation link telegram admins print on a flyer should usually be an additional link with an end date for the same reason.
One more case applies to each telegram invite link group admins hand out: if the chat itself is deleted, every link to it stops working, primary and additional alike, because there is no chat left to join.
Why Telegram says this invite link has expired
"This invite link has expired" is the notice Telegram's apps show when the server answers a join attempt with the error INVITE_HASH_EXPIRED, which the API documents in five words: "The invite link has expired." The notice covers more cases than the wording suggests. A time-limited link, a used-up link and a revoked link all end in the same message.
A telegram invite link expired notice therefore says only that the link no longer admits this person. It does not say which of the four causes applied. The table maps each cause to what an admin sees and what fixes it.
| Cause | What the admin sees | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Expiry date passed | The link is listed as expired in Invite Links | Create a new link or edit the date |
| Usage cap reached | The link shows its uses equal to its limit | Raise the limit or create a new link |
| Link revoked | The link sits under revoked links | Send the current link instead |
| Person was removed from the chat | The person appears in the removed users list | Take the person off that list, then resend the link |
The fourth cause surprises admins most. A report on Telegram's own bug tracker describes a member who was removed by accident and then saw "link expired" on every attempt to return; the answer posted there was that the person must be taken off the Removed Users list under the group's permissions first. The removal acts as a ban on rejoining, and the expired wording hides it.
For the person on the other side of telegram this invite link has expired, the fix sits entirely with an admin. Asking for a fresh link is the only step available. The same notice can be phrased in search as this invite link has expired telegram, the invite link has expired telegram, invite link expired telegram or telegram expired invite link, and all of them describe the same server error.
A recurring telegram invite link expired problem in one chat usually points to a setting rather than a fault. A link created with a one-hour preset, a cap of one use, or an admin who regenerates the primary link every week will produce the notice on schedule. Check the link's settings in Invite Links before suspecting the app.
Telegram invite link not working or not opening
A telegram invite link not working without the expired notice usually fails for a different documented reason: the hash was copied wrongly, the person has joined too many chats, a join request is already pending, or the link opened in a browser instead of the app. Each shows its own message, and the API documents the errors behind them.
| Error | Telegram's description | What to do |
|---|---|---|
INVITE_HASH_INVALID | "The invite hash is invalid." | Copy the whole link again; a cut-off hash fails here |
INVITE_HASH_EMPTY | "The invite hash is empty." | The address ends at t.me/+; resend it |
CHANNELS_TOO_MUCH | "You have joined too many channels/supergroups." | Leave some chats; the default cap is 500, or 1,000 with Premium |
INVITE_REQUEST_SENT | "You have successfully requested to join this chat or channel." | Nothing; wait for an admin to approve |
STARS_PAYMENT_REQUIRED | Joining needs a Stars payment | The link is a paid subscription link |
A telegram invite link not opening at all is usually a device problem rather than a Telegram one. A t.me link opened in a browser shows a web page with an Open in Telegram button; if Telegram is not installed, or the phone has not registered Telegram as the handler for those links, nothing further happens. Opening the link from inside the Telegram app, or pasting it into Telegram's own search bar, sidesteps the handler.
Some networks block t.me addresses entirely. Telegram's deep-link documentation lists telegram.me and telegram.dog as equivalent domains, which is useful when one domain is filtered and the other is not.
How to change a Telegram group invite link
How to change telegram group invite link: open Invite Links, open the menu next to the primary link and choose Revoke. The old address stops working, and Telegram issues a new primary link straight away. The Bot API reference says "If the primary link is revoked, a new link is automatically generated", and the FAQ adds that a revoked link "will stop working immediately".
Revoking is the right move after a link leaks to a spam forum or a scraped directory. It does not remove anyone who already joined through the old link, so a leak that brought in unwanted accounts needs a member clean-up as well. Additional links can be edited instead of revoked: the expiry, cap, name and approval setting can all be changed in place, which keeps the address the same.
Telegram keeps revoked links in a separate list so admins can still see who joined through them. The API includes a method to delete revoked links in bulk, which clears that history for good.
Telegram approve new members: join requests
Telegram approve new members works through join requests: an admin turns on Request Admin Approval for an additional link, and anyone who opens it sends a request instead of joining. Telegram's announcement says admins "can view an applicant's public profile pictures and bio, then approve or dismiss their request" from a bar at the top of the chat.
The setting suits a paid community, a customer group or any chat where a scraped link could fill the room with spam accounts. It also changes who gets reported. A person who requested access and was approved chose the chat twice.
Bots can take the work over. A bot with the can_invite_users right calls approveChatJoinRequest or declineChatJoinRequest. The join request object carries a user_chat_id, and the Bot API says "The bot can use this identifier for 5 minutes to send messages until the join request is processed". That window lets a bot ask a screening question before approving, and is one of the few documented cases where a bot may message a person first.
Telegram added AI guardians in June 2026, described on its blog as a way to "screen people before they join your groups". Telegram's announcement gives no criteria for what those guardians check. Building screening bots of this kind is part of the Telegram bots and automation work Sendhaus takes on.
Telegram invite tracker: who came through which link
A telegram invite tracker is built into the app: every link in Invite Links shows how many people joined through it and lists them. Telegram's 2021 blog says admins "can also see which users joined using each invite link to find out where new members came from or which format has been most effective for growth." No third-party tool is needed for the count.
The API exposes the same data. Each exported link carries a usage count and a requested count for pending approvals, and a method returns the list of people who joined through a given link, with the date of each join. For a bot, every new member update can carry the invite_link that was used.
The practical setup is one named link per source: a newsletter, a website footer, a printed QR code, a paid placement. Telegram's link names are visible only to admins, so labels like "footer-oct" cost nothing in public. When the placement is a sponsored message, check the destination rules in how Telegram's own ad platform works before planning a private link for it, since ads carry their own terms for where they may point.
Tracking has limits. A link counts joins, not who stayed or read. Telegram's channel statistics add sources such as search and links for larger channels, but neither tool tells an admin which joiners later muted the chat.
Telegram invite link bot and generator tools
A telegram invite link bot is a bot made an admin in the chat so it can create, edit and revoke links through the Bot API. That is the full extent of what a bot can do with invites. It cannot add anyone, and Telegram's developer introduction says "Bots can't start conversations with users. A user must either add them to a group or send them a message first."
A legitimate bot of this kind issues a one-use link to each paying customer, expires links after an event, or approves requests after a check. Bots that claim to bring people in are a separate product, examined in the guide to what an invite member bot can really bring into a group.
A telegram invite link generator sold or offered online cannot make a working link for a chat the user does not run. Invite hashes are issued by Telegram's servers to an admin account or an admin bot of that specific chat; nothing outside the chat can produce one. Generator sites either wrap the admin's own link in a redirect or QR code, or they are lists of scraped links to other people's chats. A tool that asks for a phone number and login code to "generate" links is logging in as that account, the pattern sorted in the review of message sender tools grouped by what signs in.
| Method | What the reference says |
|---|---|
exportChatInviteLink | "generate a new primary invite link for a chat; any previously generated primary link is revoked" |
createChatInviteLink | "create an additional invite link for a chat" |
editChatInviteLink | "edit a non-primary invite link created by the bot" |
revokeChatInviteLink | "revoke an invite link created by the bot" |
createChatSubscriptionInviteLink | "create a subscription invite link for a channel chat" |
approveChatJoinRequest | "approve a chat join request" |
Paid access is where these methods earn their keep. A course, a signal group or a members' club can sell entry through a subscription link instead of an outside payment page; the wider set of tools is in the overview of Telegram's business features, prices and bots. Signal and trading groups are also where fake invite bots cluster, which the guide to crypto groups and the bots inside them covers.
Where a shared invite link turns into spam
An invite link is spam when it reaches people who did not want it. Telegram's Spam FAQ names invite links directly: for private messages "it really doesn't matter what you send, as long as the receivers find it unwelcome. It could have been a photo, an invite link or a simple 'hello'." The link itself is neutral; the recipient decides. An invite link telegram users receive from a friend who mentioned the group is welcome. The same invite link telegram users receive from an unknown account is the textbook case.
"Please do not send channel links (or other unsolicited messages) to strangers. If they report spam from your account, you may be banned from contacting other people, however good your intentions."Telegram Channels FAQ, telegram.org/faq_channels
An account that sends links to strangers in bulk tends to meet two documented outcomes. Rapid sending triggers rate errors, explained in the guide to flood wait errors and the seconds they carry. Reports from recipients lead to the limited state described in the mutual-contacts-only restriction, in which the account can message only people who saved it.
Tooling sold for this purpose sends a link to thousands of usernames from rotating accounts. The documented position on that practice is summarised in what Telegram documents about mass DMs, and the account-rotation side in the rules on running several Telegram accounts. Sendhaus does not run either. Private messages do have a sanctioned place: the affiliate program's terms and how they treat private chats are set out in DM marketing and Telegram's affiliate program.
The supported alternatives put the link where people already chose to look: a website, an existing customer list, a partner channel, a QR code at a venue, or Telegram's ads. Those routes, with their limits, are collected in promoting a channel within Telegram's rules and in Sendhaus growth and marketing for Telegram. Teams comparing Telegram with SMS or email for a launch can check what a bulk messaging service costs per channel.
What Telegram does not publish about invite links
Telegram documents every field on a link and every error a join can return, but it publishes no numbers for the limits around them. No Telegram page read for this guide states a maximum number of additional links per chat, a maximum expiry date, or how many links an account may send before a spam limit applies.
- Links per chat. No cap on additional links is published in the FAQ, the API pages or the client configuration.
- Maximum expiry. Only the error
EXPIRE_DATE_INVALIDexists; the boundary behind it is not stated. - The exact behaviour of
member_limit. The Bot API text says "simultaneously"; the user API says "join using this link". Telegram does not reconcile the two. - Sending thresholds. No number of links per day separates normal sharing from spam. The Spam FAQ's test is whether recipients find the message unwelcome.
- Leaked links. Telegram publishes no figure for how often private links are scraped into public directories.
Numbers that circulate for these, such as a fixed count of links per admin or a safe daily sending figure, come from vendors and forums. None appears in Telegram's documentation as of 19 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a Telegram invite link that never expires?
Use the primary link. Every group and channel has one from the moment it is created, and Telegram attaches no expiry date or usage cap to it. It stops working only when an admin revokes it, and Telegram then issues a new primary link automatically.
Why does my Telegram invite link say it has expired when I just made it?
Check the link's settings first: a short duration preset or a usage cap of one ends the link quickly. If the settings are fine, the person may be on the chat's removed users list. Removed people see the expired notice until an admin takes them off that list.
Can I choose the text of a Telegram invite link?
No. The part after t.me/+ is a random hash generated by Telegram. An admin can give a link a name of up to 32 characters, but only admins see it. A readable address needs a public username, which makes the group or channel public.
Does revoking an invite link remove the people who joined with it?
No. Revoking stops the address from admitting anyone new, effective immediately, but members who already joined stay in the chat. Admins who want them out remove them separately. The list of who joined through the revoked link stays visible until the revoked links are deleted.
Can a bot send my invite link to people automatically?
Only to people who have already started a chat with the bot or are in a group with it. Telegram's developer introduction says bots cannot start conversations with users. One exception is short: during a pending join request, a bot may message the applicant for 5 minutes.
Is sending a Telegram invite link to strangers allowed?
Telegram asks people not to. Its Channels FAQ says "Please do not send channel links (or other unsolicited messages) to strangers", and its Spam FAQ lists an invite link among the things that count as spam when recipients find it unwelcome. Accounts reported for it can be limited.
Sources
- Telegram FAQ — what an invite link is, the group menu path and immediate revocation.
- Telegram Channels FAQ — the first 200 subscribers and the warning about links sent to strangers.
- Telegram Spam FAQ — invite links in unwelcome private messages.
- Telegram API, invite links — default links, link fields, public usernames and the link format.
- Telegram API, deep links —
t.me/+,joinchat,tg://joinand equivalent domains. - Telegram API, messages.exportChatInvite — usage limit, title, approval and
EXPIRE_DATE_INVALID. - Telegram API, messages.importChatInvite —
INVITE_HASH_EXPIREDand the other join errors. - Telegram API, messages.checkChatInvite — link validity checks.
- Telegram Bot API reference — invite-link methods,
member_limit, join requests and subscription links. - Telegram, Bots: an introduction for developers — "Bots can't start conversations with users."
- Telegram API, client configuration — chat and public-username caps.
- Telegram blog, invite links for groups (2015) — the original group link feature.
- Telegram blog, expiring invite links (2021) — additional links, QR codes and per-link join lists.
- Telegram blog, join requests — Request Admin Approval and link names.
- Telegram blog, June 2026 update — AI guardians for groups.
- Telegram bug tracker, report 30714 — removed members seeing the expired notice.
- Directive 2002/58/EC, Article 13 — consent for unsolicited direct-marketing communications.
Planning links for a launch?
Send the chat, the places the link will go and how the audience opted in. You get a written read on which link settings fit, what Telegram's published limits allow, and where the plan would draw reports.