# Telegram Channel Scraper - Posts, Views & Reactions (`benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper`) Actor

Export the posts of public Telegram channels without an account or API keys: text, date, views, reactions, photos, videos, links, forwards and replies. Whole history, a date window or a keyword search inside the channel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Ben](https://apify.com/benthepythondev) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.85 / 1,000 posts

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## ✈️ Telegram Channel Scraper - Posts, Views & Reactions

Export the posts of public Telegram channels: text, date, views, reactions, photos, videos, links, forwards and replies, with the channel's title and subscriber count on every row. Read a channel's whole history, only what is new since a date, or only the posts that match a keyword. No Telegram account, no API keys, no phone number. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel, run on a schedule, call via API, or connect to Make, Zapier or n8n.

### 🔎 What is the Telegram Channel Scraper?

It is an Apify Actor that reads the web preview Telegram itself publishes for public channels, 20 posts per request and without a browser. The default run takes about four seconds. In our test on Apify two channels with 3,623 posts between them were exported back to their first post in under two minutes.

Give it channel names, @handles or `t.me` links. Three inputs decide what you get:

- **Maximum posts per channel** counts from the newest post back. Set it high for the whole history.
- **Posted on or after** stops the run at the first older post. A scheduled run with a date then reads, and charges for, only what is new.
- **Search inside the channels** uses the search Telegram offers inside a channel and returns only matching posts, newest first.

#### What data does it extract?

- **Post:** `id`, `message_id`, `url`, `text`, `posted_at`, `edited`, `author`
- **Reach:** `views`, `reactions` (emoji and count), `reactions_total`
- **Media:** `media_types`, `photo_urls`, `video_urls`, `video_duration_seconds`
- **Links:** `links`, `link_preview_url`, `link_preview_title`, `link_preview_description`, `hashtags`, `mentions`
- **Thread:** `forwarded_from`, `forwarded_from_url`, `reply_to_url`
- **Channel:** `channel`, `channel_title`, `channel_subscribers`, `channel_description`

### ⬇️ Input

| Field | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| `channels` | array | Public channel names, @handles or t.me links |
| `maxResults` | integer | Posts per channel, newest first. 20 by default, up to 100,000 |
| `postedAfter` | date | Only posts from this UTC date on; reading stops at older posts |
| `searchQuery` | string | Only posts matching these words |

#### Example input

Everything two channels posted since September 1:

```json
{
  "channels": ["durov", "https://t.me/bloomberg"],
  "maxResults": 1000,
  "postedAfter": "2026-09-01"
}
```

### ⬆️ Output

A real row (long values are shortened here):

```json
{
  "id": "durov/548",
  "message_id": 548,
  "url": "https://t.me/durov/548",
  "channel": "durov",
  "text": "🤝 Telegram has become the sponsor of Codeforces — the largest competitive programming platform in the world. \n\n ⚡CodeForces organizes over 100 coding contests every year and has 4 million contestants signed up.\n\n🌱 Since 2010, …",
  "posted_at": "2026-09-11T16:04:02+00:00",
  "edited": false,
  "views": 1940000,
  "reactions": [
    {
      "emoji": "⭐",
      "count": 21100
    },
    {
      "emoji": "custom",
      "count": 31000
    },
    {
      "emoji": "custom",
      "count": 8990
    },
    {
      "emoji": "custom",
      "count": 8490
    }
  ],
  "reactions_total": 69580,
  "author": "Pavel Durov",
  "forwarded_from": null,
  "forwarded_from_url": null,
  "reply_to_url": null,
  "media_types": [
    "not_shown_on_web"
  ],
  "photo_urls": [],
  "video_urls": [],
  "video_duration_seconds": null,
  "link_preview_url": "https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/156620",
  "link_preview_title": "Telegram Returns as Title Sponsor of Codeforces!",
  "link_preview_description": "Hi, Codeforces!",
  "links": [
    "https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/156620"
  ],
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "channel_title": "Pavel Durov",
  "channel_subscribers": 10500000,
  "channel_description": "Founder of Telegram.",
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-03T11:52:30.315393+00:00"
}
```

`views` and reaction counts are rounded by Telegram itself above a few thousand (1.94M becomes 1940000). Reactions with a premium custom emoji appear as `custom`, paid stars as `⭐`.

### 💰 How much does it cost?

You pay per saved post, plus a tiny start fee per run.

| Apify plan | Price per 1,000 posts |
|---|---|
| Free | $1.00 |
| Starter | $0.95 |
| Scale | $0.90 |
| Business and above | $0.85 |

The default run (20 posts) costs 2 cents. Set **Maximum cost per run** in the run options and the Actor stops at that amount and says so in the status message.

### 💡 Use cases

- 📰 **News and brand monitoring:** schedule a run with **Posted on or after** and send new posts of the channels you follow to Slack, a sheet or your own database.
- 🔍 **Keyword tracking:** search a set of channels for a product, a ticker or a name and get only the matching posts with their reach.
- 📊 **Channel analysis:** export a channel's history and see what earns views and reactions, how often it posts and whom it forwards.
- 🧠 **Datasets for AI and research:** years of posts with dates, links and engagement, ready for classification or summaries.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need a Telegram account, an API id or a phone number?** No. The Actor reads the preview pages Telegram publishes for public channels and never logs in.

**Which channels work?** Public channels that have Telegram's web preview, which is most of them. Groups, bots, private channels and channels that restrict their content have no preview; the Actor names them in the status message and the `SUMMARY` record, and the run still succeeds with the other channels.

**Does it really reach a channel's first post?** Yes. Posts are read 20 at a time until the channel ends or your limit is reached. A channel with 428 posts was read back to post number 1.

**What does `not_shown_on_web` in `media_types` mean?** Telegram shows a part of that post only in its apps, for example a large video. The text, date, views and reactions are still exported.

**Can I download the photos and videos?** The row has their links. They are Telegram's own temporary links and expire after a while; the Actor does not download or store files.

**Are comments and member lists included?** No. Comments live in a channel's discussion group, and neither they nor subscriber lists are part of the public preview.

**How does the search work?** It is Telegram's own search inside one channel, so it matches the way Telegram does. Each channel in the input is searched separately.

**Does `maxResults` count per channel or per run?** Per channel. To cap the whole run, set **Maximum cost per run**.

**Is it legal to scrape Telegram channels?** The Actor reads only what Telegram shows publicly to any visitor and does not log in. Posts and author names can be personal data, so GDPR, CCPA and similar rules apply to how you store and use them, and Telegram's terms apply to you as well. If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

**Something is missing or broken?** Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with the run ID. Issues are answered within one business day.

### 🔗 You might also like

- [Threads User Posts Scraper](https://apify.com/benthepythondev/threads-user-posts-scraper)
- [Subreddit Posts Scraper](https://apify.com/benthepythondev/subreddit-posts-scraper)
- [Reddit Search Scraper](https://apify.com/benthepythondev/reddit-search-scraper)
- [Instagram Posts Scraper](https://apify.com/benthepythondev/instagram-posts-scraper)
- [TikTok Profile Videos Scraper](https://apify.com/benthepythondev/tiktok-profile-videos-scraper)

**Keywords:** telegram channel scraper, telegram scraper, scrape telegram channel, telegram posts export, telegram channel to csv, telegram channel history, telegram message scraper, telegram views and reactions, telegram channel monitoring, telegram keyword search, telegram news monitoring, telegram scraper without api, telegram scraper no login, telegram channel analytics, telegram dataset

# Actor input Schema

## `channels` (type: `array`):

Public channel names, @handles or t.me links (https://t.me/durov). Links to a single post work too.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Posts to save for each channel, newest first. Set it high to export the whole history.

## `postedAfter` (type: `string`):

Only posts from this UTC date on (YYYY-MM-DD). Reading stops once older posts are reached, so a scheduled run only pays for new ones.

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Optional. Only posts that match these words, using the search Telegram offers inside a channel.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "telegram",
    "durov"
  ],
  "maxResults": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "channels": [
        "telegram",
        "durov"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "channels": [
        "telegram",
        "durov",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "channels": [
    "telegram",
    "durov"
  ]
}' |
apify call benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,benthepythondev/telegram-channel-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/vGxj8F2rKLD4gaKY3/builds/QbbzFh9irMpoCWiaT/openapi.json