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Build a Telegram Q&A Bot with Linkup Web Search, GPT-4.1 & Mistral Voice

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Created by: Guillaume Duvernay || duv

Guillaume Duvernay

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Last update 2 days ago

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Create a Telegram bot that answers questions using AI-powered web search from Linkup and an LLM agent (GPT-4.1).

This template handles both text and voice messages (voice transcribed via a Mistral model by default), routes queries through an agent that can call a Linkup tool to fetch up-to-date information from the web, and returns concise, Telegram-friendly replies. A security switch lets you restrict use to a single Telegram username for private testing, or remove the filter to make the bot public.

Who is this for?

  • Anyone needing quick answers: Build a personal assistant that can look up current events, facts, and general knowledge on the web.
  • Support & ops teams: Provide quick, web-sourced answers to user questions without leaving Telegram.
  • Developers & automation engineers: Use this as a reference for integrating agents, transcription, and web search tools inside n8n.
  • No-code builders: Quickly deploy a chat interface that uses Linkup for accurate, source-backed answers from the web.

What it does / What problem does this solve?

  • Provides accurate, source-backed answers: Routes queries to Linkup so replies are grounded in up-to-date web search results instead of the LLM's static knowledge.
  • Handles voice & text transparently: Accepts Telegram voice messages, transcribes them (via the Mistral API node by default), and treats transcripts the same as typed text.
  • Simple agent + tool architecture: Uses a LangChain AI Agent with a Web search tool to separate reasoning from information retrieval.
  • Privacy control: Includes a Myself? filter to restrict access to a specific Telegram username for safe testing.

How it works

  1. Trigger: Telegram Trigger receives incoming messages (text or voice).
  2. Route: Message Router detects voice vs text. Voice files are fetched with Get Audio File.
  3. Transcribe: Mistral transcribe receives the audio file and returns a transcript; the transcript or text is normalized into preset_user_message and consolidated in Consolidate user message.
  4. Agent: AI Agent (GPT-4.1-mini configured) runs with a system prompt that instructs it to call the Web search tool when up-to-date knowledge is required.
  5. Respond: The agent output is sent back to the user via Telegram answer.

How to set up

  1. Create a Linkup account: Sign up at https://linkup.so to get your API key. They offer a free tier with monthly credits.
  2. Add credentials in n8n: Configure Telegram API, OpenAI (or your LLM provider), and Mistral Cloud credentials in n8n.
  3. Configure Linkup tool: In the Web search node, find the "Headers" section. In the Authorization header, replace Bearer <your-linkup-api-key> with your actual Linkup API Key.
  4. Set Telegram privacy (optional): Edit the Myself? If node and replace <Replace with your Telegram username> with your username to restrict access. Remove the node to allow public use.
  5. Adjust transcription (optional): Swap the Mistral transcribe HTTP node for another provider (OpenAI, Whisper, etc.).
  6. Connect LLM: In OpenAI Chat Model node, add your OpenAI API key (or configure another LLM node) and ensure the AI Agent node references this model.
  7. Activate workflow: Activate the workflow and test by messaging your bot in Telegram.

Requirements

  • An n8n instance (cloud or self-hosted)
  • A Telegram Bot token added in n8n credentials
  • A Linkup account and API Key
  • An LLM provider account (OpenAI or equivalent) for the OpenAI Chat Model node
  • A Mistral API key (or other transcription provider) for voice transcription

How to take it further

  • Add provenance & sources: Parse Linkup responses and include short citations or source links in the agent replies.
  • Rich replies: Use Telegram media (images, files) or inline keyboards to create follow-up actions (open web pages, request feedback, escalate to humans).
  • Multi-user access control: Replace the single-username filter with a list or role-based access system (Airtable or Google Sheets lookup) to allow multiple trusted users.
  • Logging & analytics: Save queries and agent responses to Airtable or Google Sheets for monitoring, quality checks, and prompt improvement.