How to delete a Telegram bot webhook

Remove the webhook to switch your bot back to long polling (getUpdates), to move it to another server or to stop a broken endpoint from piling up updates.

When you need it

• You run the bot locally with a library that uses getUpdates and see 409 Conflict: can't use getUpdates method while webhook is active; use deleteWebhook to delete the webhook first.
• You are moving the bot to another server or domain.
• The old endpoint is gone and Telegram keeps retrying.

Delete the webhook online

1. Connect the bot with its token.
2. Open Webhook → Danger zone.
3. Tick Drop pending updates if you don't need the queued updates.
4. Press Delete webhook and confirm.

Same with curl

curl -X POST "https://api.telegram.org/bot$BOT_TOKEN/deleteWebhook" \
  --form-string "drop_pending_updates=true"

Then receive updates with long polling:

curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot$BOT_TOKEN/getUpdates?timeout=30"

Only clear the queue

To discard stuck updates but keep the webhook, use Drop pending updates: it calls setWebhook again with the same URL and drop_pending_updates=true. Enter your secret token so it is preserved.

Notes

• deleteWebhook does not affect commands, profile or other settings.
• Without drop_pending_updates the queued updates (kept for up to 24 hours) are returned by the next getUpdates calls.