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Group Moderation
TL;DR:
- Add your bot to a group as an admin, then turn on Bots -> your bot -> Moderation -> Moderate groups.
- Pick the rules: links, profanity, forbidden words, forwards, flood, new members, posting as a channel, and an optional AI filter.
- The violating message is always deleted; repeat offenders get the next step of your penalty ladder (warning -> mute -> ban).
- Every action is logged in the Journal, where you can lift a mute or ban in one click.
- No scenario is needed: a bot can do moderation only. Your scenarios keep working in the same groups.
Who this is for
- Community owners who run a Telegram group or a channel with comments.
- Teams that already use a TeleGo bot and want it to keep their groups free of spam.
- When to read: before you connect the bot to a group, or when a rule does not behave as expected.
What you will learn
- How to connect a group (or a channel's comments) and give the bot the right permissions.
- What each rule catches and how to tune it.
- How the penalty ladder and the warning message work.
- How to read the Journal, lift a penalty, and see statistics.
Overview
Moderation is a separate section of your bot's settings — you do not build it in the scenario editor. You switch rules on, choose penalties, and the bot checks every message in the connected groups.
Key concepts
- Moderated group — a Telegram group or supergroup where your bot is an admin and moderation is switched on.
- Rule — a check such as "no links" or "no flood". The first rule a message breaks decides the reason.
- Violation — a message that broke a rule. It is always deleted.
- Penalty ladder — what happens on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd… violation of the same member within a time window.
- Journal — the list of every violation with the member, group, rule, penalty and a short fragment of the message.
How it works
- Someone writes in a moderated group.
- The bot skips messages that are never moderated: group admins, anonymous admins, the linked channel (its automatic forwards and comments posted as the channel), other bots, and service messages. Edited messages are checked again, so "hi" edited into a spam link is caught. An album counts as one message.
- Rules run in this order: Flood -> New members -> Posting as a channel -> Forwards from channels -> Links and invites -> Profanity -> Forbidden words -> AI filter.
- If a rule matches, the bot deletes the message, counts a violation for that member, and applies the matching step of the penalty ladder.
- The bot posts the warning message (if you set one) and writes the event to the Journal.
- If no rule matches, the message continues as usual — your published scenarios still receive it.
TIP
One bot has one set of rules for all its groups. Need different rules for another group? Use a separate bot.
In the UI
Open Bots -> your bot -> Moderation. The page has two tabs: Settings and Journal. The Statistics button in the header opens Analytics -> Group Moderation filtered by this bot.
1. Connect a group
- In the Groups block press Add to group. Telegram opens and suggests adding the bot with the admin rights it needs.
- Choose your group and keep the rights Delete messages and Ban users switched on.
- Return to TeleGo — the group appears in the list within about a minute.
- Turn on Moderate groups at the top of the page and press Save Changes.
Each group in the list shows its status:
| Status | What to do |
|---|---|
| Moderating | Nothing — the group is protected. |
| Make the bot an admin of this group | Promote the bot to admin in Telegram, then press Check again. |
| Give the bot the right to delete messages | Without it the bot cannot moderate the group. |
| Give the bot the right to ban users (needed for mutes and bans) | Messages are still deleted, but mutes and bans fail. |
| Off | The group switch is off. Turn it on to moderate this group. |
| Limit of 5 groups reached | Turn another group off first. |
| The bot is no longer in this group | Add the bot back, or press Remove from list. |
Channels: channel posts are written only by the channel's admins, so there is nothing to moderate there. Comments live in the channel's discussion group — add the bot to that group and it will moderate comments. Such groups are marked Channel comments.
INFO
Up to 5 groups per bot share the same rules. Telegram only sends a bot all group messages when the bot is an admin, so admin rights are required — you do not need to change Privacy Mode in BotFather.
2. Choose rules
Each rule has a switch; its options open below it when it is on. New bots start with Links and invites, Flood and New members switched on.
| Rule | What it deletes | Options |
|---|---|---|
| Links and invites | Links (including hidden links and links in captions), t.me invites and @mentions of other channels and groups (mentions of people stay). | Allowed links and channels — links to these domains and their subdomains, and mentions of these @channels stay, e.g. mysite.com, @mychannel. |
| Profanity | Swear words from your dictionaries, including disguised spellings like "f.u.c.k", repeated letters, look-alike Latin/Cyrillic letters and words spelled out letter by letter. | Dictionaries — see below. |
| Forbidden words | Your own words and phrases. | word = exact word, word* = starts with, *word = ends with, *word* = contains, or a phrase. |
| Forwards from channels | Posts forwarded from other channels and groups. | — |
| Flood | Bursts of messages from one member. | More than 3–30 messages in 5–120 seconds (default: 5 in 10). One burst counts as one violation; the rest of the burst is deleted silently. An album counts as one message. |
| New members | Links and media (photos, videos, files, GIFs, audio, voice and video messages) from members who joined recently — the typical spam-bot first message. | Restriction period: 1 hour to 7 days (default 24 hours). |
| Posting as a channel | Messages sent on behalf of another channel (often used to advertise). | — |
| AI filter | Messages the other rules let through but an AI model classifies as a violation. | What to catch: Spam & ads, Scams, Insults, Adult content. Sensitivity: Normal or Strict (also catches borderline messages). |
Profanity dictionaries
- Built-in dictionaries are available for Russian (including Latin transliteration such as "blyat"), English, Ukrainian, Spanish, Portuguese, German and Turkish. New bots start with Russian and English.
- Click Add language… and pick a built-in language, or type any other language and choose Draft "…" with AI: AI writes a draft list, you review it and press Add dictionary.
- Click a dictionary to edit its words. For built-in dictionaries, your additions and removals are kept on top of the platform list, so you also get our future improvements. Reset to built-in drops your edits.
- The hint under Dictionaries shows how many word forms are checked in total.
WARNING
Review AI-drafted dictionaries before saving: remove ordinary words that would delete normal messages in your community.
AI filter
- Runs last, only when the cheaper rules found nothing, and works in any language.
- Uses your plan's AI tokens. Very short messages are skipped, the same text is checked only once, and each group has a per-minute cap on AI checks.
- If AI is unavailable or your AI tokens run out, messages are not blocked — they simply pass this check.
3. Set penalties
The violating message is always deleted. Then the bot applies the next step for that member:
- Count violations within — 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, 3 days or 7 days. A member who behaves for this long starts from the first step again.
- Steps — up to 6. Each step is a Warning, a Mute (10 minutes to 7 days) or a Ban (1 day to 30 days, or Forever). The last step also applies to every later violation.
- Default ladder: 1st violation — Warning, 2nd — Mute for 1 hour, 3rd — Mute for 1 day, 4th and later — Ban.
Members who post as a channel cannot be muted in Telegram: a mute step becomes a warning, and a ban step bans that channel from posting in the group.
4. Write the warning message
- Text is posted to the group after each violation. Write it in the same editor as bot messages: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, code, spoiler, links and emoji are supported.
- Insert variables with the { } button: Member name, Reason, Warning number and Steps in total. Preview shows how the text will look with sample values.
- Leave the text empty to delete violations silently.
- Delete the warning after 30 seconds, 1 minute or 5 minutes to keep the chat clean.
- To avoid flooding the chat during spam waves, the bot posts at most one warning every few seconds per group; the deletions and penalties still happen.
Press Save Changes — new settings apply right away.
Try the rules safely: test mode
Turn on Test mode (only log) under Moderate groups. The bot checks every message as usual but deletes nothing and penalizes nobody — it only records in the Journal what it would have done, marked Test.
- Use it on a live group to tune dictionaries, allowed links and the AI filter before real moderation.
- Test events are not counted in Analytics -> Group Moderation and cannot be lifted.
- When you switch test mode off, every member starts from the first step of the ladder.
- The AI filter still uses AI tokens in test mode.
5. Use the Journal
The Journal tab lists every violation: time, member, group, rule and reason, penalty, violation number and a fragment of the message.
- Search by member, group or message text; filter by rule, penalty, group and date; sort by any column.
- Lift (on mutes and bans) removes the restriction in Telegram, resets the member's violation counter, and closes all their open penalties in that group.
- A warning icon next to a penalty means Telegram refused an action (usually missing admin rights) — hover it to see which one.
- Events are kept for 90 days.
6. See statistics
Analytics -> Group Moderation shows violations, deleted messages, mutes and bans with a comparison to the previous period, a daily chart, top reasons, top offenders and per-group numbers. Filter by bot and date range.
Examples
Example 1 - Stop spam bots in a public chat
- Goal: New accounts keep posting crypto links and photos right after joining.
- Setup: Turn on New members (24 hours), Links and invites with your site in Allowed links and channels, and the ladder Warning -> Mute 1 day -> Ban.
- Result: A newcomer's first link or photo is deleted, the second attempt mutes them for a day, the third bans them. Your own links stay.
Example 2 - Clean channel comments
- Goal: Keep the comments under your channel posts polite.
- Setup: Add the bot to the channel's discussion group, turn on Profanity (your audience's languages), Posting as a channel, and the AI filter with Insults.
- Result: Swearing and ads posted as other channels are removed; insulting comments the dictionaries miss are caught by AI.
Example 3 - Moderation-only bot
- Goal: You need a moderator bot without any scenarios.
- Setup: Create a bot, connect its token, open Moderation, add it to the group and turn on Moderate groups.
- Result: The bot is activated automatically and shows the Moderation badge instead of Draft.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: The group does not appear in the list
- Cause: The bot was added as a regular member, or Telegram has not delivered the update yet.
- Fix: Make the bot an admin of the group and wait about a minute. Re-adding the bot also works.
- Prevention: Always add the bot with the Add to group button — it requests the right admin rights.
Symptom: Messages are deleted but nobody gets muted or banned
- Cause: The bot does not have the Ban users right.
- Fix: Give the bot this right in the group's admin settings, then press Check again.
- Prevention: Keep both rights when you add the bot.
Symptom: The bot deletes nothing, but the Journal fills up
- Cause: Test mode (only log) is on — the bot only records what it would do (entries are marked Test).
- Fix: Turn test mode off under Moderate groups and press Save Changes.
- Prevention: Use test mode for tuning, then switch it off; the status line says "Test mode in N groups" while it is on.
Symptom: The New members rule lets a newcomer post a photo
- Cause: The member joined before moderation was turned on, or before the bot started tracking joins.
- Fix: Nothing to fix — only members who join while moderation is on are treated as new. Use Links and invites or the AI filter for everyone else.
- Prevention: Turn moderation on before you promote the group.
Symptom: The bot does not moderate at all
- Cause: Moderate groups is off, the group switch is off, the bot is paused, or the bot lacks the delete right.
- Fix: Check the status line at the top of the page and each group's status. If the page says the bot is paused, activate it in the bot header.
- Prevention: Look at the status under Moderate groups after saving: it should say "Active in N groups".
Symptom: Normal messages are deleted as profanity
- Cause: A word in a dictionary also exists in your language as an ordinary word.
- Fix: Open the dictionary, remove that word and save. The Journal shows which rule matched.
- Prevention: Review AI-drafted dictionaries carefully and add only the languages your members use.
FAQ
Can I try moderation without deleting anything?
Yes — turn on Test mode (only log). The bot only writes to the Journal what it would do; nothing changes in the group.
Are admins moderated?
No. Group admins, anonymous admins and the linked channel (its automatic forwards and comments posted as the channel) are never moderated. A newly promoted admin is recognized right away. If Telegram cannot tell who the admins are for a moment, the bot lets messages through rather than risk touching an admin.
What if a spammer sends an album?
The album counts as one violation: the first part that breaks a rule is punished, the other parts are deleted silently.
Two moderator bots in one group?
If another bot or an admin deletes a message first, TeleGo skips it and does not punish the member a second time.
Can one bot moderate several groups?
Yes, up to 5 groups with the same rules. Each group has its own switch.
Do my scenarios still work in moderated groups?
Yes. Only violating messages are stopped; everything else reaches your scenarios as before. Commands like /start@yourbot work in groups.
Does moderation use my plan limits?
Rule checks do not use scenario runs. The AI filter and AI-drafted dictionaries use AI tokens.
Can I undo a ban?
Yes — press Lift in the Journal. The member can write again and their violation counter starts over.
How long is the Journal kept?
90 days.
Related pages
Notes / Limits
- Up to 5 moderated groups per bot; one set of rules per bot.
- Channel posts are not moderated — only comments in the discussion group.
- Warning auto-delete may be skipped if the platform restarts at that moment; the warning then stays in the chat.
- The AI filter is a best-effort check: if AI is unavailable, messages pass instead of being blocked.
- Statistics count violations. Messages deleted silently (the rest of a flood burst or of an album) are not counted separately.