Telegram Bot API vs MTProto: which one to use

The difference in short

Terms

Bot API

The HTTP interface at api.telegram.org. Each request is /bot<token>/methodName with a JSON response.

MTProto API

The protocol and API built for Telegram clients. Connecting requires an api_id and api_hash from my.telegram.org.

Userbot

A regular user account automated over MTProto. Developer slang, not an official term.

Telethon

A popular Python library for MTProto. Socialift's TelegramAccount client is built on top of it.

Local Bot API server

Running Telegram's open-source Bot API server yourself, which raises file size limits and relaxes webhook restrictions.

The big comparison table

Decision guide: pick by task

Are userbots allowed? What Telegram's rules say

Using both in one project

Often the right answer is “both”: the account reads what bots can't, and the bot handles the customer-facing part.

import asyncio
from socialift import Telegram, TelegramAccount

async def main():
    async with Telegram.from_env() as bot, TelegramAccount.from_env() as account:
        # Account: something a bot can't do — read and search group history
        last = await account.messages("@my_group", limit=100)
        found = await account.search("@my_group", "price", limit=100)

        # Bot: post the report to a channel as the bot (the bot is a channel admin)
        await bot.send_message("@my_channel",
                               f"Read {len(last)} messages, {len(found)} mention 'price'")

asyncio.run(main())

Rate limits: two errors, one except

The Bot API returns 429 with retry_after; MTProto returns FLOOD_WAIT_X. The SDK maps both to RateLimitError; when the wait is known it's in retry_after, otherwise fall back to a fixed pause.

import asyncio
from socialift import RateLimitError

async def send_with_backoff(client, chat, text: str):
    """client is a Telegram or TelegramAccount instance."""
    try:
        return await client.send_message(chat, text)
    except RateLimitError as exc:
        await asyncio.sleep(exc.retry_after or 5)
        return await client.send_message(chat, text)

When a bot isn't enough

• ▸You need messages from before the bot joined, or ones the bot never receives.
• ▸You need the actual member list of a group or channel, not just the count or the admins.
• ▸You need channel statistics or scheduled posts that Telegram sends itself.
• ▸You handle files over 50 MB and can't run a local Bot API server.
• ▸You need user actions such as creating a group or channel or joining a chat by link.