Troubleshooting guide

Telegram link preview not showing?

Telegram builds a link preview from your page’s Open Graph tags and keeps it for a long time, so an old or missing preview often survives a fix. Here’s what to check, and how to make Telegram fetch your page again.

The check opens on the Telegram preview, with the large or small image Telegram would show.

What Telegram needs

Tags: og:title, og:description, og:image, plus og:site_name above the title
Large image: twitter:card set to summary_large_image, otherwise a small thumbnail
Refresh: Send the link to @WebpageBot in Telegram
Crawler: TelegramBot (like TwitterBot)

Telegram doesn’t document its link previews. These come from developer reports and testing.

Common causes and fixes

1
The tags are missing or added by JavaScript

Telegram reads the HTML your server sends. Without Open Graph tags there’s no preview, and tags a JavaScript framework adds later are never seen.

Fix: Check your page to see which tags the server sends, then copy the generated code into your <head>.
2
The image shows as a small thumbnail

Telegram follows the Twitter Card tags for the layout. Without twitter:card set to summary_large_image, the image is a small square beside the text.

Fix: Add <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">. It also gives you the large card on X and Discord.
3
Telegram is showing an old version

Telegram caches previews for a long time and doesn’t fetch the page again on its own when you change it.

Fix: Send the address to @WebpageBot, which fetches the page again. See the refresh steps below.
4
The image is cached under its old address

Telegram caches images by their address. If you replaced the image but kept the file name, the old picture can stay even after a refresh.

Fix: Upload the new image under a new file name, update og:image, then refresh with @WebpageBot.
5
Bot protection blocks Telegram

Firewalls and bot protection can stop Telegram’s crawler, which identifies itself as TelegramBot (like TwitterBot). The image needs a public https address too.

Fix: Let TelegramBot through your bot protection, and open the image address in a private window to confirm it’s public.
6
The sender removed the preview

Before sending, Telegram lets the sender remove the preview or change its size and position. A link sent that way arrives without the preview you expect.

Fix: Nothing to fix on your page. Send the link again and leave the preview on.

Still seeing the old preview?

Open @WebpageBot in Telegram, start it, and send it your address. It fetches the page again, and new messages get the updated preview. Messages already sent keep their old one.

Refresh it with

Open @WebpageBot ↗

Questions

What people ask when the fixes above don’t explain it.

WebpageBot says the preview was updated, but nothing changed. Why?

Usually the image is cached under its old address, so give the new image a new file name. Site owners also report addresses that stay stuck, often the homepage. Sending the link with ?v=2 at the end makes Telegram treat it as new.

Why does Telegram show a preview for other pages but not my homepage?

Telegram’s bug tracker has reports of a single address, often a site’s root, that never gets a preview while every other page does. Check the tags first, then refresh it with @WebpageBot. If it stays empty, the problem is on Telegram’s side.

Is this the same as Instant View?

No. Instant View opens a whole article inside Telegram and needs a template approved by Telegram. Link previews only need the Open Graph tags covered here.