How to Find a User's ID in Telegram

An ID is the numeric identifier of an account, and it never changes — not when you change your name, not when you change your phone number, not after reinstalling the app. It's mostly needed for configuring bots, integrations and access to services, and finding it takes a couple of minutes.

The short answer

The easiest way to get your own ID is through a helper bot: send it any message and it replies with a number. To get someone else's, forward one of their messages to such a bot — provided that person hasn't hidden the link to their profile in forwarded messages.

The second method, without bots: export your account data in the desktop app — your identifier is listed in the export's service file.

What an ID is, and how it differs from a username

The ID — a permanent number assigned to the account at registration. It's unique, never reused, and independent of what you call yourself.
The username (@handle) — an address you choose yourself and can change or lose.
The phone number — how you sign in, hidden from almost everyone by privacy settings.

Which is why bots and services rely on the ID: a person's handle can change tomorrow, while the identifier stays as it is.

Finding your own ID

Through a bot. Search for a bot that reports account information — there are several, and the best-known ones work on the "send anything, get your ID" principle. The reply is instant.
Through a data export. In the desktop app, open the privacy settings and start the Telegram data export. Your identifier is listed in a service file inside the resulting archive.
Through the web version. Open a private chat in a browser and look at the address bar: it shows the other party's numeric identifier. The behaviour depends on the web client's version, so this one doesn't always work.

The first option is quicker; the second is more dependable and requires trusting no third-party bot.

Finding someone else's ID

Find any message from that person in your chat.
Forward it to a bot that reports information about the sender.
The reply contains the message author's numeric identifier.

There's a fundamental limit here: anyone can disable the link to their profile in forwarded messages through the privacy settings. If someone has done that, the forwarded message arrives with no author data, and no bot will produce an identifier. That's deliberate protection rather than a fault, and it can't be worked around.

The same applies to anonymous channel admins and group members posting on behalf of a community: those messages come from the channel, not from a person.

IDs of groups, channels and bots

Groups and channels. Their identifiers are usually written with a prefix and a minus sign at the front — that's how systems tell chats from users. The same bot will show it if you forward a message from the community, as will the web version's address bar.
Bots. Every bot has a numeric ID too; it matches the beginning of the token BotFather issues at creation.
Messages. Individual messages have their own numbers — visible at the end of the link produced by the copy-link function.

How to check the number is right

Identifiers are easy to mix up, especially when several sit in one config. A couple of simple checks save time:

Shape and length. A user identifier is just a number; a chat one starts with a minus. If a negative value ends up in a user field, you've grabbed a group ID.
Cross-check with two bots. Get the number from two different helpers: if they match, use it.
A test message. The most honest check when configuring a bot is sending yourself a notification to that identifier. If it arrives, it's correct.

What an ID doesn't give you

It won't reveal a phone number. The link between identifier and number is kept on Telegram's side and never exposed.
You can't message someone directly by ID. A private chat is opened through a username, a contact or a shared chat.
It grants no access to the account. This is a public technical identifier, not a secret.
No locations or personal details either. Services promising that from an ID are selling fiction or data harvested elsewhere.

Which bots deserve trust

ID bots are harmless by nature: all they need is a message so they can read its technical fields. The danger starts where a bot asks for more.

never enter a login code from SMS or Telegram — no legitimate bot asks for one;
don't hand over your two-step verification cloud password;
be wary of bots promising to "show who viewed your profile" or "recover deleted messages" — the platform has no such capabilities;
if a bot demands your phone number through a "share contact" button, ask yourself why it needs that to return a number.

Where the ID is actually used

Configuring your own bot. Admin lists and access rights are almost always defined by identifiers rather than names.
Integrations and notifications. To have a bot message you or a specific chat, you supply the recipient's ID.
Support requests to services. Many platforms ask for the identifier to link your account.
Keeping tests apart from personal use. Developers typically keep a separate profile for testing bots so their personal ID never ends up in configs and logs. If that needs a second number, the Telegram accounts available on Fire Accs cover it, and the personal account stays out of work scenarios.

For developers: where the ID comes from in the Bot API

In every update a bot receives, the sender's identifier sits in the user field and the chat's identifier in the chat field. For private conversations the two numbers match; for groups and channels they differ.

One detail matters: chat identifiers can be long numbers, and some languages need them stored in a 64-bit type — truncating to 32 bits produces delivery bugs that are miserable to track down.

Common mistakes

Confusing the ID with the username. Services that want an identifier won't accept an @handle.
Assuming anyone's ID is obtainable. The forwarding privacy setting closes that route completely.
Copying the number with stray characters. The minus at the front of a chat identifier is part of the value, not a typo.
Looking for someone's ID through "lookup" services. Those are either scams or built on somebody else's leaked data.
Giving a bot your login code. The fastest way to lose the account entirely.

FAQ

Does the ID change when I change my phone number?

No. The identifier belongs to the account and survives changes of number, name and username.

Will the person know I looked up their ID?

No, there's no notification: you're reading a technical field of a forwarded message.

Can an account be recovered using its ID?

No. Regaining access depends on the phone number and cloud password, not on the identifier.

Why didn't the bot show an ID for a forwarded message?

Most likely the author disabled the link to their profile in forwards. The other possibility is that the message was sent on behalf of a channel.

What does the minus before a chat number mean?

That's how groups and channels are marked: the sign distinguishes them from user identifiers.

Is an ID released after an account is deleted?

No, identifiers aren't reissued, so the number stays unique even for deleted profiles.

Can other people see my ID on my profile?

It isn't displayed in the interface, but it isn't a secret either: anyone you've messaged can obtain it through a bot if they want to.

The takeaway

Your own identifier takes seconds to find through a bot or a data export; someone else's comes from forwarding a message, as long as they haven't hidden the link to their profile. The number itself unlocks nothing — no phone number, no account access — but bots and integrations are built on it precisely because it never changes.