# Telegram Channel Scraper – Posts, Search & Monitoring (`bitofacoder/telegram-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape public Telegram channels via the open t.me/s/ web preview — posts, in-channel keyword search, channel info, and an incremental monitor mode that returns only new messages each run. No login, no bot token.

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

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## Telegram Channel Scraper – Posts, Search & Monitoring

Pull posts from any **public** Telegram channel — text, views, dates, forwards, links, and media — as clean CSV/JSON. Then keep it fresh: **monitor mode** returns only the messages posted since your last run, so a scheduled task becomes a live feed instead of a re-scrape.

No login, no bot token, no phone number. Reads Telegram's public `t.me/s/<channel>` web preview.

### What you can do

| Mode | What it does | Fields it uses |
|---|---|---|
| **Channel posts** | Messages from one or more public channels, newest-first. | `channels`, `maxItems` |
| **Search** | In-channel keyword search across each channel. | `channels`, `searchQueries`, `maxItems` |
| **Channel info** | Title, subscribers, description, post/photo/video counts. | `channels` |
| **Monitor** *(incremental)* | Only messages posted **since the last run**, per channel. State persists between runs. | `channels`, `maxItems`, `monitorStoreName` |

### Example input

Latest 100 posts from two channels:

```json
{
  "mode": "channel",
  "channels": ["telegram", "https://t.me/durov"],
  "maxItems": 100
}
````

Track new posts on a schedule (each run returns only what's new):

```json
{
  "mode": "monitor",
  "channels": ["durov", "telegram"],
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

Watch crypto channels for announcement keywords:

```json
{
  "mode": "search",
  "channels": ["binance", "coingecko"],
  "searchQueries": ["listing", "partnership"],
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

`@name`, `name`, `t.me/name`, and `https://t.me/s/name` all work (case-insensitive).

### Scheduled monitoring

To turn `monitor` mode into a live feed: in the Apify Console go to **Schedules → Create**, set an interval (e.g. every 15 minutes), and point it at this Actor with `mode: "monitor"`. Each run stores only the messages posted since the last one. Keep the **same `monitorStoreName`** across runs so the watermark persists, and give a **different** name to each separate monitor task. Pipe the dataset to a webhook/Slack/Sheet via Apify integrations to get alerts.

### Output (per message)

```json
{
  "type": "message",
  "channel": "telegram",
  "id": 123,
  "url": "https://t.me/telegram/123",
  "text": "…",
  "date": "2026-06-22T15:01:34+00:00",
  "views": 1200000,
  "author": null,
  "isForwarded": false,
  "forwardedFrom": null,
  "tags": ["update"],
  "tagList": "update",
  "mentions": [],
  "links": ["https://…"],
  "firstLink": "https://…",
  "media": [{ "type": "photo", "url": "https://…" }],
  "mediaCount": 1,
  "linkPreview": { "url": "…", "siteName": "…", "title": "…", "description": "…" }
}
```

`tagList`, `firstLink`, and `mediaCount` are flat mirrors of the array fields, so CSV/Excel exports are usable without unpacking JSON.

### What this does — and doesn't — return

To keep expectations honest:

- ✅ **Public channel content**: text, date, view count, author signature, forwards, replies, hashtags, mentions, outbound links, media URLs, and link-preview cards. Plus in-channel search, channel info, and incremental monitoring.
- ❌ **Public channels only** — those visible at `t.me/s/<channel>`. Private channels, groups, and user accounts are **not** accessible (the Actor rejects invite links with a clear message).
- ❌ **No member lists, DMs, poll voters, or per-user reactions.** Those require a logged-in account / bot token, which this Actor deliberately does not use. View counts are included; reaction counts are not exposed by the public preview.
- ⚠️ **History depth depends on the public preview.** The Actor pages backward via `?before=`, but coverage is whatever Telegram serves to its web preview — not guaranteed to reach a channel's very first post.

### Notes

- **Proxy is off by default.** The preview pages are public; enable Apify Proxy (or set `requestDelayMs` to ~300–1000) only for large drains or many channels, to spread the per-IP rate limit.
- **`maxTotalItems`** caps results (and charges) across the whole run, independent of the per-channel `maxItems`.
- One bad/private/typo'd channel is logged and skipped — it won't abort the run or lose the other channels' data.
- **How it works / longevity:** this reads Telegram's public `t.me/s/` HTML preview (no API). That preview has been stable for years, but it is an undocumented endpoint — a Telegram markup change can require a parser update (you'll see a "no posts parsed / markup may have changed" warning), and if Telegram ever added JavaScript bot-protection to it, an HTTP-only scraper like this would need a browser-based rework. No reactions or poll-voter data is exposed by the preview.

### Pricing

Pay per result — you're charged once per message (or channel-info record) stored to the dataset. Cap any run with `maxTotalItems`.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to scrape. Each mode uses a different set of fields below.

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

Public channel usernames or t.me links, e.g. \['telegram', 'https://t.me/durov']. The @ and URL parts are optional — 'telegram', '@telegram', and 't.me/telegram' all work.

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Used by 'search' mode. Keywords or phrases to search for inside each channel above.

## `monitorStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store that holds the per-channel watermark (the last message ID seen) across runs. Use a DISTINCT name per monitor — two monitors sharing one name will overwrite each other's state. Don't run two monitors with the same name at the same time.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit of messages per channel (per query, in search mode). Kept low by default for a fast, cheap first run — raise it to pull more history (the public preview reaches roughly the last few hundred to ~1,000 messages).

## `maxTotalItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard ceiling on the total number of results — and pay-per-result charges — across ALL channels in one run. Leave empty for no overall cap.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Optional pause before each page fetch. Leave at 0 for normal runs. Raise to ~300–1000 for large drains or many channels without a proxy, to avoid rate limiting.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Off by default — t.me/s/ preview pages are public. Enable Apify Proxy to rotate IPs and spread the rate limit on large runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "channel",
  "channels": [
    "telegram"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "update"
  ],
  "monitorStoreName": "telegram-monitor-state",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "requestDelayMs": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# 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"
    ],
    "searchQueries": [
        "update"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bitofacoder/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"],
    "searchQueries": ["update"],
}

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

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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"
  ],
  "searchQueries": [
    "update"
  ]
}' |
apify call bitofacoder/telegram-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=bitofacoder/telegram-channel-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Telegram Channel Scraper – Posts, Search & Monitoring",
        "description": "Scrape public Telegram channels via the open t.me/s/ web preview — posts, in-channel keyword search, channel info, and an incremental monitor mode that returns only new messages each run. No login, no bot token.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "Kli6qlmiPx8lYjEos"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/bitofacoder~telegram-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-bitofacoder-telegram-channel-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/bitofacoder~telegram-channel-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-bitofacoder-telegram-channel-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/bitofacoder~telegram-channel-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-bitofacoder-telegram-channel-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "mode",
                    "channels"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "mode": {
                        "title": "Mode",
                        "enum": [
                            "channel",
                            "search",
                            "channelInfo",
                            "monitor"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "What to scrape. Each mode uses a different set of fields below.",
                        "default": "channel"
                    },
                    "channels": {
                        "title": "Channels",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Public channel usernames or t.me links, e.g. ['telegram', 'https://t.me/durov']. The @ and URL parts are optional — 'telegram', '@telegram', and 't.me/telegram' all work.",
                        "default": [
                            "telegram"
                        ],
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "searchQueries": {
                        "title": "Search queries",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Used by 'search' mode. Keywords or phrases to search for inside each channel above.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "monitorStoreName": {
                        "title": "Monitor state store name",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Named key-value store that holds the per-channel watermark (the last message ID seen) across runs. Use a DISTINCT name per monitor — two monitors sharing one name will overwrite each other's state. Don't run two monitors with the same name at the same time.",
                        "default": "telegram-monitor-state"
                    },
                    "maxItems": {
                        "title": "Max items per channel",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Upper limit of messages per channel (per query, in search mode). Kept low by default for a fast, cheap first run — raise it to pull more history (the public preview reaches roughly the last few hundred to ~1,000 messages).",
                        "default": 20
                    },
                    "maxTotalItems": {
                        "title": "Max items total (whole run)",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Hard ceiling on the total number of results — and pay-per-result charges — across ALL channels in one run. Leave empty for no overall cap."
                    },
                    "requestDelayMs": {
                        "title": "Delay between requests (ms)",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Optional pause before each page fetch. Leave at 0 for normal runs. Raise to ~300–1000 for large drains or many channels without a proxy, to avoid rate limiting.",
                        "default": 0
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Off by default — t.me/s/ preview pages are public. Enable Apify Proxy to rotate IPs and spread the rate limit on large runs.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": false
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```