Telegram Link Preview Not Working? How to Fix It

How Telegram generates link previews

Telegram uses its own web preview service to fetch Open Graph metadata when a URL is posted in a chat. It reads og:title, og:description, and og:image — and caches the result per URL.

Unlike Facebook, Telegram does not expose a manual cache-clearing tool. If your metadata is cached with bad data, the fix is either to wait for TTL expiry or to change the URL (e.g., add a query parameter) to force a fresh fetch.

Quick fix checklist

1. Add required OG tags: Telegram requires at minimum og:title and og:image to show a full preview card. Without them, it shows only a bare URL.
2. Use HTTPS: Telegram does not fetch previews over plain HTTP. Both your page URL and the og:image URL must be HTTPS.
3. Use an absolute image URL: relative paths like /og.jpg are invalid. Use https://yourdomain.com/og.jpg.
4. Image must be publicly reachable: Telegram's preview bot fetches images from its own servers. Login walls, IP restrictions, or rate limiting blocks it.
5. Render tags in static HTML: Telegram's crawler does not execute JavaScript. Tags must be in the initial server-rendered HTML.
6. Check image dimensions: Telegram typically shows images in a 1.91:1 ratio. Use 1200×630 px for best results. Very small images (under 200 px) may be omitted.
7. Bust cache by changing URL: if the preview is stuck on old data, append a query parameter (e.g., ?v=2) to force Telegram to re-fetch.
8. Wait for organic cache expiry: Telegram's cache TTL varies but is typically a few hours to a day. Updates may not reflect immediately in all clients.

Telegram bot vs. chat previews

If you are sending links via the Telegram Bot API (sendMessage), note:

• disable_web_page_preview: false must be set (or simply omitted — it defaults to showing previews).
• The preview is generated by Telegram's servers, not the bot. If your OG tags are correct, the preview will appear automatically.
• Bot-sent previews can be slower to appear than user-typed links because Telegram fetches them asynchronously.

Common Telegram gotchas

• No preview in groups vs. DMs: Telegram can behave differently between group chats and DMs depending on privacy settings. In secret chats, all link previews are disabled by default.
• Video previews: Telegram supports og:video for video embeds. If you want a video preview instead of a static image, add the og:video tag with an MP4 or HLS URL.
• Cloudflare or firewall blocking: Telegram's preview service fetches from Telegram's server IPs. If your firewall or CDN has aggressive bot blocking, Telegram may be blocked. Add Telegram's IP ranges to your allowlist or set a permissive User-Agent rule.