A Telegram secret santa bot where you join in the group and the match arrives by private message

Drawing names out of a hat needs everyone in one room, which is the thing a group chat exists to avoid. The usual online substitute asks for everyone's email address, which makes an office exchange into a data-collection exercise.

SantaDrawProBot runs the draw inside the chat the group already has. Joining is a button. The draw is one command. Every match is delivered as a private message, so the group chat that organised the exchange never contains the answer to it.

Who knows what

The public half is the announcement: budget, currency, exchange date, and a Join button. That message is the only thing the group sees, and it stays useful as a reference for the budget everyone agreed to.

The private half is everything else. When the organiser runs /draw, each participant receives their own match in a private message from the bot. There is no summary posted anywhere, and the organiser does not see the pairings either, which is what lets the organiser take part rather than sitting out as the person who knows.

That design has one hard requirement: the bot can only message somebody who has already started a private chat with it. Participants who have not are skipped from the draw, because a match nobody receives is worse than an exclusion everybody can see.

Wishlists ride the same private channel. /wish sent to the bot in a private chat is forwarded to whoever drew you, and to nobody else.

Running an exchange

1. Add the bot and start one. /santa 25 EUR 2026-12-20 sets budget, currency and exchange date, and posts the Join button.
2. Everybody opens the bot once. Each participant must have a private chat with the bot before the draw, or they cannot be matched.
3. Collect wishlists. Participants send /wish socks, a good book, coffee in their private chat. It reaches only their Santa.
4. Draw. The organiser runs /draw. Joining closes and every participant gets a private message with their match.
5. Clean up. /santa end removes the exchange data early. Otherwise it is deleted automatically thirty days after the exchange date.

Command reference

Free and Pro

One-time 150 Stars for the group. /exclude is the feature most large exchanges actually want, because it is how couples avoid being paired.

What it stores

• Participants, their drawn match, and any wishlist text, stored per exchange, per group, so matches can be delivered and wishlists routed.
• All of it is deleted automatically thirty days after the exchange date, and immediately if the organiser runs /santa end.
• Matches are never written into the group chat. The only copy any participant sees is their own private message.

Questions

Can the organiser see who has who?

No. The organiser runs the draw but receives only their own match, which is what makes it safe for them to participate.

What if somebody has not opened the bot?

They cannot be matched, because the bot has no way to deliver their match privately. Ask everyone to press start before the draw.

How long is the data kept?

Until the exchange date plus thirty days, then deleted automatically. /santa end removes it sooner.

Who can run /draw?

Only the organiser, whoever started the exchange with /santa. That is not necessarily a group admin.

Can we redo a draw?

Only on Pro, with /redraw. On the free tier a draw is final, which is deliberate: an unlimited redraw is a way to peek at the assignment.

Other Telegram bots in this set

• Telegram Birthday Bot Self-service dates, an automatic greeting, and a list of what is coming.
• Telegram Standup Bot No meeting, no thread; three questions privately, one report publicly.
• Telegram Group Stats Bot A leaderboard, a busiest hour, and a list of members who have stopped posting.

All of them are listed alongside the rest of Zovo's free online tools, and the browser-side half of the catalogue is under Chrome extensions.

Want the step-by-step walkthrough? Read Running Secret Santa in Telegram: the full guide on tg.zovo.one.