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MAX bot is silent
The three checks below separate a connection failure from a flow error and from a plan limit. If all three pass, the remaining causes are listed below. How to connect the channel from scratch is in the MAX connection guide.
3 checks in a minute
- MAX channel status. “Channels” → the MAX channel row. CHBT doesn’t check channels in the background; the status changes on events: when you connect the channel, when you click “Reinstall webhook,” and when messages are sent on behalf of the bot. Incoming messages don’t change the MAX channel status, so “Working” reflects the last such event, not a check “right now.” Under “Error” you’ll see the reason. “Invalid MAX token or API unavailable” means that, when connecting or reinstalling, MAX didn’t return the bot’s data for the saved token: the token is incomplete, was replaced in business.max.ru, or MAX didn’t respond at that moment. The text “bot token rejected (401 Unauthorized)” means MAX rejected the token when sending a bot reply, an operator message, or a broadcast; the bot’s owner and admins get an email about this unless it’s turned off in “Notifications.” If the token has changed, connect MAX again with the current token. You can delete the old channel row: its message history stays in “Conversations” as read-only, and its contacts stay in “Contacts.” If the token is definitely valid, or the status shows a different text (MAX’s response to the subscription, a network error), click “Reinstall webhook”: the button rechecks the token and the subscription.
- Message the bot yourself. Open the bot in your MAX app and tap “Start”: MAX sends a bot start event, and CHBT handles it as the
/startcommand. Then send any text. Both messages should appear in “Conversations.” If they appear but there’s no bot reply, the connection is fine — see step 3. If there’s a reply but it’s marked “not delivered,” see the explanation below, after the checks. If they don’t appear and the bot replied with a message about the limit, also see step 3. If they don’t appear and there’s no reply, messages aren’t reaching CHBT: go back to step 1 and click “Reinstall webhook” even if the status is “Working” — CHBT will set up the subscription again using the saved token. - The flow is enabled, triggers are in place, and the limit isn’t reached. “Flows” → the card of the flow you need shows the “Enabled” badge, not “Draft”; you enable a flow with the toggle on its card or in the flow list on “Overview.” In the editor, the flow has a “Command (/start)” trigger for the “Start” button, and “Any message” or “Keywords” for text — without them, the bot stays silent on “hello” by design, not because of an error. The Free plan limit is 30 different contacts who have messaged the bot since the 1st of the month, across all channels combined; one person in MAX and in Telegram counts as two contacts, and the editor’s test chat doesn’t count. Once the limit is reached, the bot talks as usual with people who have already messaged it this month, but replies to a new person only with “We can't reply in this chat right now,” and that person’s message doesn’t appear in “Conversations.” The “N of 30” counter in the “Plan” card on “Overview” and in the “Payment” section shows how many you’ve used — there these contacts are called conversations. The Basic plan removes the limit — 650 ₽/month.
If all three checks pass
- The conversation is with an operator. An “Operator” block fired: the conversation in “Conversations” has the “Operator” status, and the bot stays silent in it on purpose until you click “Return to bot” or “Close.” After “Close,” the person’s next message starts a new conversation with the bot. This also happens to your own test conversation after you test the “Operator” block.
- A pause in the flow. The “Pause” block delays the next step for a set time; to the customer, this looks like silence. Check the delay in the block.
- A keyword intercepted the text. The “Keywords” trigger is checked on every incoming message, even in the middle of a flow: a word in “Contains a word” mode restarts the flow, for example while the bot is collecting a phone number. Switch short words to “Exact match” mode.
- The bot’s reply is marked “not delivered.” The customer’s message reached CHBT, but the bot’s reply didn’t reach the customer: MAX rejected the send or didn’t respond to it. Hover over the label to see the error text in the tooltip. If MAX rejected the token, the channel row switches to “Error” — see step 1.
The easiest way to tell a flow problem from a connection problem is the “Check flow” button in the editor: the test chat works without MAX. Connecting from scratch is covered in the MAX connection guide and in the article how to create a bot in MAX; channel features are on the MAX bot page. If you already have a Telegram bot, you can run the same flow in MAX without moving it. Don’t have a bot yet? Create one for free — MAX is included in the Free plan.