# Nikolai Durov

> Nikolai Durov is co-founder of Telegram. Telegram Bot API on Anchor Terminal, with grades, an about and public profiles.

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- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-10-28

Co-founder, Telegram.

Nikolai Durov is a programmer and mathematician who co-founded VK and later Telegram with his brother Pavel. Telegram's FAQ credits him with the technology, including the custom open data protocol he developed for the app.

## What Nikolai builds

- [Telegram Bot API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/telegram-bot.md), graded E, 43/100, in Messaging APIs. The Telegram Bot API is Telegram's HTTP interface for bot accounts. A bot sends and edits messages, media and polls, manages chats and takes payments, and receives user messages by long polling or webhook, with a token issued by @BotFather. Co-founder, Telegram, researched 2026-10-28.

## Works with

- [Aliaksei Levin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/aliaksei-levin/), Telegram Bot API server contributor/maintainer (GitHub: levlam)
- [Pavel Durov](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/pavel-durov/), Founder and CEO, Telegram

## Questions

### Who is Nikolai Durov?

Nikolai Durov is a programmer and mathematician who co-founded VK and later Telegram with his brother Pavel. Telegram's FAQ credits him with the technology, including the custom open data protocol he developed for the app.

### What does Telegram Messenger Inc. make?

Anchor Terminal lists Telegram Bot API from Telegram Messenger Inc.. The Telegram Bot API is Telegram's HTTP interface for bot accounts. A bot sends and edits messages, media and polls, manages chats and takes payments, and receives user messages by long polling or webhook, with a token issued by @BotFather.

### How are Nikolai's tools graded?

Telegram Bot API is graded E, 43 out of 100, on Anchor Terminal's benchmark, which scores every listing against the same checklist.

## Sources

- https://github.com/tdlib/telegram-bot-api
- https://github.com/levlam
- https://github.com/tdlib/telegram-bot-api/commit/e3e9dd8e5b3d7ab8537cd5a10dc31d5ffa8f82d1
- https://telegram.org/faq
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/telegram-messenger
- https://core.telegram.org/bots/faq
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavel_Durov
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Durov

These are the people building the tools we list, named for their public role in the company or project behind a listing, from public pages, with the date it was researched. They don't work for Anchor Terminal (our own team is on the about page, /about/#author). We show public roles, public profiles and what the listing pages show, nothing private. To correct something, send an about or a photo, or have a page removed, write to privacy@anchorterminal.com.

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