Telegram Channel Intelligence — Messages, Channel Info, Search & Keyword Monitor

Scrape any public Telegram channel's messages, subscriber counts, and analytics. Monitor keywords across channels, discover channels by topic, and extract message history — no API key or login required.

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What It Does

This actor operates in 4 modes, making it the most versatile Telegram intelligence tool on Apify:

Mode	Input	What You Get
channel	Channel username(s)	Full channel profile (name, description, subscriber count, photo) + recent messages
search	Keyword / topic	Ranked list of public channels related to that topic
messages	Channel username(s) + filters	Bulk message history with date range, minimum views, and keyword filters
monitor	Channel username(s) + keywords	Only messages from the last 24h that match your keywords

All modes work with public channels only — no Telegram login, phone number, or Bot API key needed.

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Use Cases

Who	How They Use It
Crypto traders	Monitor signal channels (e.g. @cryptosignals) for buy/sell alerts in real time
Brand managers	Track brand mentions across Telegram communities using keyword monitor mode
Journalists & researchers	Extract full message history from news channels for investigative research
Marketers	Discover top channels in their niche to identify advertising opportunities
Competitive intelligence	Monitor competitor announcement channels for product launches and promotions
AI/ML teams	Collect large text datasets from topic-specific channels for model training

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Example Inputs

Mode: channel — Channel Profile + Messages

{
  "mode": "channel",
  "channels": ["cointelegraph", "bbcnews"],
  "maxMessages": 100,
  "includeChannelInfo": true
}

Mode: search — Discover Channels by Keyword

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "crypto trading signals"
}

Mode: messages — Bulk Message Scraper with Filters

{
  "mode": "messages",
  "channels": ["cointelegraph", "cryptopanic", "wublockchain"],
  "maxMessages": 500,
  "startDate": "2024-06-01",
  "endDate": "2024-06-30",
  "minViews": 1000
}

Mode: monitor — Keyword Alert Monitor

{
  "mode": "monitor",
  "channels": ["cryptosignals", "whaleAlerts", "bitcoinmagazine"],
  "filterKeywords": ["BTC", "bullish", "buy signal", "short squeeze"]
}

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Example Output

Message Record

{
  "type": "message",
  "messageId": "48291",
  "channelUsername": "cointelegraph",
  "channelName": "Cointelegraph",
  "date": "2024-06-15T09:43:00Z",
  "text": "Bitcoin surges past $70K as institutional demand hits record highs. Analysts expect further rally into Q3 as ETF inflows accelerate.",
  "views": 45200,
  "forwards": 890,
  "repliesCount": 143,
  "hasPhoto": true,
  "hasVideo": false,
  "hasDocument": false,
  "photoUrl": "https://cdn5.telegram-cdn.org/file/abc123.jpg",
  "messageUrl": "https://t.me/cointelegraph/48291"
}

{
  "type": "monitor_match",
  "messageId": "12055",
  "channelUsername": "cryptosignals",
  "channelName": "Crypto Signals VIP",
  "date": "2024-06-15T08:17:00Z",
  "text": "🚀 BTC signal: Strong bullish divergence on 4H chart. Entry zone $68,500–$69,000. TP1: $72K. Stop: $67,200.",
  "views": 8910,
  "forwards": 234,
  "repliesCount": 67,
  "hasPhoto": false,
  "hasVideo": false,
  "hasDocument": false,
  "photoUrl": null,
  "messageUrl": "https://t.me/cryptosignals/12055",
  "matchedKeywords": ["BTC", "bullish"]
}

Channel Record

{
  "type": "channel",
  "username": "cointelegraph",
  "name": "Cointelegraph",
  "description": "Covering the latest news and trends in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized technology.",
  "subscriberCount": 987432,
  "subscriberCountText": "987 432 subscribers",
  "profilePhotoUrl": "https://cdn5.telegram-cdn.org/file/ct_photo.jpg",
  "joinUrl": "https://t.me/cointelegraph",
  "isVerified": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2024-06-15T10:00:00.000Z"
}

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Output Fields Reference

Message Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	"message" or "monitor_match"
messageId	string	Telegram message ID
channelUsername	string	Channel username (without @)
channelName	string	Display name of the channel
date	string	ISO 8601 datetime of the message
text	string	Full message text content
views	number | null	View count (null if not public)
forwards	number | null	Number of times forwarded
repliesCount	number | null	Reply count
hasPhoto	boolean	Whether message contains a photo
hasVideo	boolean	Whether message contains a video
hasDocument	boolean	Whether message contains a file
photoUrl	string | null	Direct URL to photo (if available)
messageUrl	string	Direct link to the message on Telegram
matchedKeywords	string[]	(monitor mode only) Keywords found in text

Channel Fields

Field	Type	Description
type	string	"channel"
username	string	Channel username (without @)
name	string	Channel display name
description	string | null	Channel bio/description
subscriberCount	number | null	Subscriber count as integer
subscriberCountText	string | null	Raw subscriber count text from page
profilePhotoUrl	string | null	URL to channel profile photo
joinUrl	string	t.me link to join/view the channel
isVerified	boolean	Whether the channel has a verification badge
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp when data was collected

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Limitations

• Public channels only. Private groups, private channels, and password-protected channels cannot be accessed without a Telegram login. This actor uses Telegram's public web preview (t.me/s/) which only works for public channels.
• ~30 messages per page. Telegram's public preview shows approximately 30 messages per page. Pagination is used to collect more, but very high maxMessages values (1000+) will take several minutes per channel.
• View counts. View counts are only displayed on Telegram for channels (broadcast channels), not groups. Group messages will have views: null.
• No real-time data. There may be a delay of a few minutes between a message being posted and it appearing in the public preview.
• Rate limits. This actor uses polite delays between requests (1–3 seconds) to avoid being rate-limited by Telegram. Very large scrapes will take proportionally longer.
• Search mode accuracy. Search uses Google/DuckDuckGo to discover t.me links for a query. Results depend on how well-indexed those channels are by search engines.

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Pricing

$1.50 per 1,000 results (pay-per-result via Apify's platform charging).

Each channel profile or message counts as one result. You only pay for what you extract.

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Technical Notes

• Built with Apify SDK v3 and Crawlee CheerioCrawler
• Uses https://t.me/s/{username} (Telegram's public server-side rendered preview) — no browser/JavaScript needed
• Rotating desktop User-Agent headers for reliability
• Graceful error handling: private or non-existent channels are skipped with a warning
• TypeScript, ES2022, Node.js ≥ 18 required