Can you create a Telegram account from a desktop computer?
No. Telegram's server refuses signup from Desktop and Web apps; a new account needs the official mobile app once. Everything after works from a computer, BotFather and bot tokens included.
No. A new Telegram account cannot be created from Telegram Desktop or Telegram Web. Telegram’s server refuses signup from those apps; the API error behind the refusal, PHONE_NUMBER_APP_SIGNUP_FORBIDDEN (“You can’t sign up using this app”), is in Telegram’s own documentation. Creating the account takes the official mobile app on a phone or tablet, once. Everything after that first signup works fine from a computer: signing in to Desktop by QR code, using web.telegram.org, talking to BotFather, creating bots, copying tokens. So if you are setting up a Telegram bot for an AI agent from your desk, the flow is five minutes on the phone to exist, then back to the computer for all the real work.
What actually happens if you try
Enter a fresh phone number into Telegram Desktop or the web app and the server declines to start signup for it. This is not a client limitation someone forgot to build: it is enforced server-side, and Telegram’s API reference documents the refusal on the login-code method itself: PHONE_NUMBER_APP_SIGNUP_FORBIDDEN, “You can’t sign up using this app.” We hit it ourselves (late August 2026): desktop and web sign-in screens accept an existing account’s number and refuse a new one. The restriction is about which app may register an account, a separate thing from the phone-number requirement itself, which applies everywhere: every Telegram account is anchored to a number that receives a verification code, whichever device you use.
What works from a computer once the account exists
Everything that matters. Telegram Desktop signs in by scanning a QR code with the phone app (no SMS round-trip), and web.telegram.org does the same job with nothing installed. From there, the whole bot workflow is desktop-native: open a chat with BotFather (the official bot that issues bots), run /newbot, name the bot, and copy the bot token it returns, which is precisely the part you want on a computer, because a bot token is a long credential you will paste into a config or a setup screen, and nobody enjoys doing that from a phone keyboard.
The sensible order for an agent setup
If the account is for you (and your agent’s bot will live under it): install Telegram on your phone, sign up with your number, then put the phone down. Sign in to Desktop by QR and do the rest there. Create the bot with BotFather, hand its token to your agent’s channel setup, and note that the bot itself is not an account you sign into: it is an API credential your agent’s gateway uses. What the first message to that fresh bot looks like (the pairing code) has its own decoder, and the Telegram channel guide covers the wiring end to end. No part of the bot workflow needs the phone again.
Why most guides get this wrong
Search for this question and you will find pages of advice about virtual numbers, landlines, and eSIMs, answers to a different question. Those address which number can receive the signup code; they do not change which app is allowed to perform signup, and the app restriction is the one that stops a desktop-only signup regardless of whose number you type. A virtual number plus the official phone app can create an account; a real number typed into the desktop app cannot. If you have no phone or tablet available at all, there is no supported route: the restriction is Telegram’s to lift, and as of late August 2026 it is enforced.