Telegram Link Preview Meta Tags

Which meta tags Telegram reads and how they affect your preview

Open Graph tags

Tag Purpose
og:title Bold title text in the preview
og:description Description text below the title
og:image Preview image
og:url Canonical URL for the page
og:site_name Site name displayed above the title
og:type Content type hint

Twitter Card support

Telegram reads Twitter Card tags, and twitter:card directly controls the preview layout:

  • summary_large_image: large image displayed above the text
  • summary or absent: small thumbnail to the right of the text

Despite being a Twitter-specific tag, twitter:card is one of the most important tags for Telegram previews.

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">

Telegram also falls back to twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image when the corresponding OG tags are missing.

Truncation

  • Title: ~1,023 characters
  • Description: ~170 characters

Front-load the important information in your description.

Recommended minimal setup

For a large-image preview:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Page Title">
<meta property="og:description" content="A concise description under 170 characters.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg">
<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Site">
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">

Instant View

Telegram’s Instant View renders full articles inline using XPath-based templates configured through Telegram’s Instant View Editor, not meta tags. If a template exists for your site, users see a lightning bolt icon on the preview that opens the full article without leaving Telegram.