diff --git a/src/telegram/bot-message-context.ts b/src/telegram/bot-message-context.ts
index 8d9a722c927..951b381d216 100644
--- a/src/telegram/bot-message-context.ts
+++ b/src/telegram/bot-message-context.ts
@@ -562,7 +562,7 @@ export const buildTelegramMessageContext = async ({
                     logVerbose(
                       `telegram status-reaction available_reactions lookup failed for chat ${chatId}: ${String(err)}`,
                     );
-                    return new Set<string>();
+                    return null;
                   });
                 }
                 const allowedStatusReactionEmojis = await allowedStatusReactionEmojisPromise;
diff --git a/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.test.ts b/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.test.ts
index 09f865a6348..53d13e60ca8 100644
--- a/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.test.ts
+++ b/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.test.ts
@@ -97,6 +97,20 @@ describe("resolveTelegramAllowedEmojiReactions", () => {
 
     expect(result ? Array.from(result) : null).toEqual(["👍"]);
   });
+
+  it("falls back to unrestricted reactions when getChat lookup fails", async () => {
+    const getChat = async () => {
+      throw new Error("lookup failed");
+    };
+
+    const result = await resolveTelegramAllowedEmojiReactions({
+      chat: { id: 1 },
+      chatId: 1,
+      getChat,
+    });
+
+    expect(result).toBeNull();
+  });
 });
 
 describe("resolveTelegramReactionVariant", () => {
diff --git a/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.ts b/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.ts
index fc189f200fa..5f79b1cbadb 100644
--- a/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.ts
+++ b/src/telegram/status-reaction-variants.ts
@@ -200,10 +200,14 @@ export async function resolveTelegramAllowedEmojiReactions(params: {
   }
 
   if (params.getChat) {
-    const chatInfo = await params.getChat(params.chatId);
-    const fromLookup = extractTelegramAllowedEmojiReactions(chatInfo);
-    if (fromLookup !== undefined) {
-      return fromLookup;
+    try {
+      const chatInfo = await params.getChat(params.chatId);
+      const fromLookup = extractTelegramAllowedEmojiReactions(chatInfo);
+      if (fromLookup !== undefined) {
+        return fromLookup;
+      }
+    } catch {
+      return null;
     }
   }