Signing in to Telegram on a computer does not need your number, a code or a password. The computer shows a QR code, your phone reads it, and the session exists.
It is the fastest sign-in on the platform and the one with the sharpest edge: a Telegram login QR code is a key to your account, and the whole method rests on you only ever scanning one you produced yourself.
What you will be able to do
- check_circle Sign in to Telegram Desktop or the web client in a few seconds.
- check_circle Understand why the session keeps working with your phone switched off.
- check_circle Recognise the one situation where scanning a Telegram QR code hands your account to someone else.
- check_circle Clean up afterwards on a computer that is not yours.
The camera is opened from inside Telegram, from the Devices screen — the phone's own camera app will not do anything useful with this code.
qr_code_scanner What the scan actually does
The code on the screen represents a login request that the computer has already made. Scanning it from an account that is signed in is how you say yes to that request. Telegram then issues the computer its own session, and the phone's job is finished.
That is why the desktop keeps working when the phone is off, out of battery or on another continent: it is not a window onto your phone, it is its own client talking to the servers. Nothing is relayed.
The code also refreshes itself while you look at it, so a photograph of it stops being useful almost immediately. That protects against the code leaking. It does not protect against you scanning the wrong one.
Before you point the camera at it
Four screens with a Telegram QR code on them. Three are fine and one is how accounts are taken.
laptop_mac The desktop app on your own machine
public A machine you will walk away from
warning A code someone sent you, or is holding up
devices The camera is not cooperating
One sentence to carry away: a Telegram QR code is a login, so scanning someone else's is signing them in as you.
settings Linking a computer
- Open Telegram on the computer The desktop app or web.telegram.org. The QR code is on the first screen.
- On your phone, go to Settings, then Devices On some versions this is Privacy and Security, Active Sessions. Same screen.
- Tap Link Desktop Device This opens Telegram's own scanner. Point it at the computer.
- Enter your cloud password if asked Only if you have two-step verification set.
- Check the list The new session appears in Devices immediately, with its platform and rough location. That is your record of it.
This page is how a session is created. The curriculum step is how to read and police the list afterwards: what each entry tells you, how to spot one that should not be there, and what to do in the order that actually closes the door.
At a glance
- 1Sign in by QR
Scan the code on the computer from Settings › Devices › Add Device.
- 2Works with phone off
The session runs on its own once signed in.
- 3Never scan sent codes
A QR code someone sends you signs them into your account.
Updated
