Telegram Scraper

What is Telegram Scraper?

Telegram Scraper is an Apify Actor that collects public channel data from Telegram: messages, views, reactions, media links, comments and subscriber counts. Paste usernames or t.me links, press Start, and download one structured row per message. No Telegram account and no API key are needed.

• Bulk input: Add many usernames, channel links, post links or search links, and this Telegram public channel scraper works through them in one run.
• Message-level detail: Each row from this Telegram message scraper carries text, date, views, reactions, forwards, replies, media, links and polls.
• Channel profiles: Telegram channel statistics such as average views, engagement rate and top hashtags can be added to every channel.
• Filters: Narrow the results by date, message ID, keywords, content type, views, reactions and forwards.
• Monitoring: Return only the messages that are new since your previous run.

To start, click Try for free, paste a channel username and press Start.

What data can you extract from Telegram?

You can export Telegram channel data in JSON, CSV or Excel from three tables: Messages, Channels and Comments. Pick the Telegram channel analytics fields you need, or keep them all. The field names below come from the dataset views of each table.

Messages table

The default dataset holds one row per message. Every row from this Telegram channel extractor has the same core fields, and the Output tab groups the fields into Overview, Engagement, Content, Media, Links and polls, and Compact tables. Each message is split into separate fields for text, date, links and media, which is what people usually expect from a Telegram channel parser.

Field	View	Description
channel.username	Overview	Username of the channel the message belongs to
id	Overview	Message ID within the channel
date	Overview	Message date and time in ISO format
text	Overview	Plain text of the message
views	Overview	View count as a number
reactionsTotal	Overview	Total of all reaction counts
contentTypes	Overview	Content types found in the message, such as text, photo, video, poll or link preview
url	Overview	Link to the message on t.me
viewsText	Engagement	View count as Telegram shows it
paidStars	Engagement	Total of paid-star reactions
engagementRate	Engagement	Engagement rate of the message; empty when views are not available
reactions	Engagement	Reaction breakdown with a type and a count for each entry
forwardedFrom	Engagement	Source of a forwarded message: name, username, message ID, link and author
replyTo	Engagement	The message being replied to: message ID, link, author, text and quote
commentsCount	Engagement	Number of comments; filled when comment collection is on
author	Content	Author name shown on the message, when present
edited	Content	True when the message is marked as edited
hasSpoiler	Content	True when the message contains spoiler text
entities	Content	Hashtags, mentions, links, emails, phone numbers, crypto addresses and Telegram channels found in the message; added when extraction is on
matchedKeywords	Content	Keep-keywords that matched; present only when some matched
searchQuery	Content	Search phrase that found the message; present only for search results
textHtml	Content	Formatted message HTML; added when Include message HTML is on
media	Media	Media entries with type, link, thumbnail, duration and file details when Telegram shows them; saved files add localPath
albumMessageIds	Media	IDs of all messages in the same album
mediaNotRendered	Media	True when the public Telegram pages do not show the media
mediaUnavailableReason	Media	Reason given for media that is not shown
links	Links and polls	Links found in the message text
linkPreview	Links and polls	Link preview: link, site name, title, description, image and video links
poll	Links and polls	Poll question, options with percentages, voters and poll type
buttons	Links and polls	Inline buttons with text and link
username	Compact layout	Channel username with an @ prefix
fullName	Compact layout	Channel name
followers	Compact layout	Subscriber count of the channel
bio	Compact layout	Channel description
url	Compact layout	Link to the public page of the channel
message.fulldate	Compact layout	Message date and time in ISO format
message.views	Compact layout	View count as a number
message.description	Compact layout	Plain text of the message
message.image	Compact layout	Link to the first photo of the message
message.video	Compact layout	Link to the first video, GIF or round video of the message
message.link	Compact layout	Link to the message
message.reply	Compact layout	Text of the message being replied to

Channels table

The Channels dataset has one row per channel and holds the profile and the statistics. Subscribers and statistics sit side by side, so you can compare Telegram channel subscribers statistics across many channels at once.

Field	View	Description
username	Overview	Channel username
title	Overview	Channel name
status	Overview	Result of reading the channel: ok, error, not_found, no_public_preview or invalid_input
subscribers	Overview	Subscriber count, exact when available and otherwise rounded
verified	Overview	True when the channel has a verified badge
messagesScraped	Overview	Number of messages saved for the channel
url	Overview	Link to the channel
avatarUrl	Overview	Link to the channel picture
description	Profile	Channel description
profileType	Profile	channel, group, bot or user
subscribersText	Profile	Subscriber count as Telegram shows it
subscribersExact	Profile	True when subscribers is an exact count
members	Profile	Member count of a public group
online	Profile	Online count of a public group, when shown
scam	Profile	True when the channel carries a scam label
fake	Profile	True when the channel carries a fake label
counters	Profile	Counters from the channel header, keyed by name
descriptionLinks	Profile	Links in the channel description
statusMessage	Profile	May explain a missing post or a status other than ok
channelId	Profile	Numeric channel ID
latestMessageId	Profile	ID of the newest message seen
stats.messagesAnalyzed	Statistics	Number of messages analysed
stats.postsPerDay	Statistics	Average posts per day over the analysed period
stats.avgViews	Statistics	Average views per message
stats.medianViews	Statistics	Median views per message
stats.maxViews	Statistics	Highest view count among the analysed messages
stats.avgReactions	Statistics	Average reactions per message
stats.engagementRate	Statistics	Engagement rate across the analysed messages
stats.viewsPerSubscriber	Statistics	Average views relative to the subscriber count
stats.forwardedShare	Statistics	Share of analysed messages that are forwards, from 0 to 1
stats.editedShare	Statistics	Share of analysed messages that were edited, from 0 to 1
stats.topHashtags	Statistics	Up to 10 most used hashtags with counts
stats.topDomains	Statistics	Up to 10 most linked domains with counts
stats.postingWeekdays	Statistics	Message counts per weekday

Comments table

A Telegram comments scraper is useful only when a channel has a discussion group, because that is where the comments live. The Comments dataset holds one row per collected comment.

Field	Description
channel	Username of the channel
postId	ID of the post the comment belongs to
commentId	ID of the comment
date	Comment date and time in ISO format
authorName	Display name of the commenter
authorUsername	Username of the commenter, when available
text	Plain text of the comment
reactions	Reaction breakdown with a type and a count for each entry
replyToCommentId	ID of the comment being replied to
url	Link to the comment

Use cases for Telegram data

• Topic and brand tracking: Run a Telegram keyword search across the channels you follow and keep only the messages that match your words.
• Market research: Collect posts and views from industry channels with a Telegram data scraper and compare them over time.
• Content archiving: Keep a searchable archive of text, media links and link previews by scheduling a Telegram posts scraper.
• Channel benchmarking: Compare average views, engagement rate and posting frequency across several channels.
• Contact and link discovery: Pull hashtags, links, emails, phone numbers and crypto addresses that appear in public message text.
• Audience feedback: Read comments and reactions to see how followers respond to a post.
• Data pipelines: Send clean JSON rows into databases, dashboards or scripts, which a Telegram data extractor makes easier than copying by hand.

How to scrape Telegram channel messages

1. Create a free Apify account.
2. Open Telegram Scraper in Apify Console.
3. Add usernames, channel links, post links or search links to Channels, links or usernames (urls).
4. Set Max messages per channel and any filters, such as dates or keywords.
5. Click Start and watch rows appear while the run is going.
6. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel to export Telegram channel posts into your own tools.

These steps are enough to scrape data from Telegram channel pages without writing code. A single run can also scrape Telegram messages from many channels at once.

Post links such as https://t.me/durov/528 return that single message, a request you may have for a Telegram post scraper.

How to run a Telegram keyword search inside channels

Add one or more phrases to Search inside channels (searchQueries) to collect the messages that match each phrase. You can also paste a search link such as https://t.me/s/durov?q=ton, which this Telegram search scraper handles as a ready-made search.

To filter further, use Keep messages containing (includeKeywords) and Drop messages containing (excludeKeywords). The mode keywordMatch decides whether any or all keep-words must match, keywordRegex treats the lists as regular expressions, and caseSensitive matches letter case exactly.

How to export Telegram channel history by date

Set Messages newer than (dateFrom) and Messages older than (dateTo), or use Messages from the last N days (scrapeLastNDays). Relative values such as 7 days or 2 weeks work as well. A Telegram channel history download can also be limited by message ID with messageIdFrom and messageIdTo.

How to set up Telegram channel monitoring

Turn on Only new messages since last run (incrementalMode) and schedule the Actor in Apify Console. Each run then returns only the messages newer than the newest one seen in your previous run of this mode. For Telegram channel monitoring you can also add a webhookUrl to receive a short JSON summary when a run finishes.

How to download Telegram channel media

Telegram file links expire, so turn on Save media files (downloadMedia) to keep them. Choose the types in Media types to save (photo, video, GIF, voice message, round video or sticker) and set a size limit with maxMediaSizeMB. To download Telegram channel media, open the saved file through the permanent link in localPath.

How much does it cost to scrape Telegram?

Telegram Scraper uses tiered pay-per-event pricing: $2 per 1,000 results on the Free plan, and less on paid plans. Each run also pays a tiny Actor Start event of $0.00005 per run start.

Apify plan	Price per 1,000 results
Free	$2
Bronze	$1.8
Silver	$1.6
Gold / Platinum / Diamond	$1.4

One result is one message row. When you turn messages off, one result is one channel profile row. The Channels and Comments tables are not charged separately. For example, on the Free plan 1,000 results cost $2, plus the start event.

Free plan runs return up to 10 results per run. Paid plans have no per-run cap, and a maximum spend limit that you set on a run stops it cleanly when reached. See the Pricing tab for current rates.

Input

Only urls is required. The example below uses values taken from the input schema (pre-filled or default). It is an example, not a captured run.

{
  "urls": ["durov", "https://t.me/telegram"],
  "collectMessages": true,
  "maxMessagesPerChannel": 10,
  "forwards": "include",
  "outputMode": "messages"
}

This Telegram messages scraper returns the newest messages first within each channel. Tip: keep Max messages per channel low for a first test run. See the Input tab for every option.

Input	What it does
urls	Channel usernames, @handles, channel links, post links or search links
collectMessages	Turn off to get channel profiles only
maxMessagesPerChannel	Newest messages to collect from each channel; 0 means no limit
dateFrom, dateTo, scrapeLastNDays	Date range for messages
messageIdFrom, messageIdTo	Message ID range
searchQueries	Phrases to search inside channels
includeKeywords, excludeKeywords, keywordMatch, keywordRegex, caseSensitive	Keyword filters
contentTypes	Keep only messages with selected content types
minViews, minReactions	Drop messages below these counts
forwards	include, exclude or only forwarded messages
includeServiceMessages	Also return notices such as channel created
exactSubscriberCount	Return the full subscriber number instead of a rounded one
channelStats	Add channel statistics
extractEntities	Add hashtags, mentions, links, emails, phone numbers and crypto addresses
includeHtml	Add the formatted message HTML
collectComments, maxCommentsPerPost	Collect public comments; 0 means all
discoverRelatedChannels, discoveryDepth, maxDiscoveredChannels	Also read channels found in forwards, mentions and links
downloadMedia, mediaTypesToDownload (Media types to save), maxMediaSizeMB	Save media files to the run storage
incrementalMode	Only messages new since the last run
webhookUrl	Receives a short JSON summary when the run finishes
outputMode	messages for the detailed layout or legacy for the compact layout
proxyConfiguration	Optional proxy settings

Output

The scraped results are shown as a dataset in the Storage tab. The table view is for convenience and does not show all the fields.

Use the Output tab for a Telegram channel data download in these formats:

• JSON
• CSV
• Excel

The output has the Messages dataset, a Channels dataset, a Comments dataset when comment collection is on, and saved media files when media saving is on. The Compact result format gives one row per message with profile fields at the top and is chosen with the outputMode input. Example output is not shown on this page because no sample output exists for this Actor yet.

Limitations and error handling

This Telegram channel scraper reads only public channels with visible messages. Private channels, invite links and links that do not point to a channel are rejected, and public groups, bots and user accounts return a channel row with the status no_public_preview.

• Free plan runs return up to 10 results per run.
• Comments can be collected only for channels that have a discussion group.
• Related channel discovery follows 1 to 3 levels and stops at your maxDiscoveredChannels value.
• Some fields can be empty when Telegram does not show them; if the exact subscriber count is not available, the rounded value is used.
• Max messages checked per channel (maxScanned) caps how many messages are checked in a channel when filters are very strict; 0 means no limit.
• A media file larger than maxMediaSizeMB is skipped and noted in downloadError.

Each channel row has a status. Message rows can carry a commentsError when comments could not be loaded.

Status	Meaning	What to do
ok	The channel was read	Nothing
error	The channel page could not be loaded or processed	Run again later
not_found	The username does not exist or is not public	Check the spelling and that the channel is public
no_public_preview	A public group, a bot, a user account or a channel whose public page is disabled by its owner	Use a different public channel
invalid_input	The value in urls is not a valid username or link	Fix the value; the reason is in statusMessage

Integrating Telegram Scraper with other apps

This Telegram scraping tool runs on the Apify platform, so you can schedule runs, start them through the API and read the results in JSON, CSV or Excel. Teams that want a Telegram channel API can start runs with the Apify API and read the dataset items over HTTP. See the API tab for ready-made code snippets.

Use the webhookUrl input for a short summary at the end of each run. The Apify integrations documentation and the scheduling documentation explain how to connect runs with other tools.

More Apify Actors by crawl_craft

This Telegram channel data extractor focuses on one source, so the Actors below are other public data Actors by crawl_craft.

Actor	What it extracts	When to use it
Facebook Posts Search Scraper	Public Facebook posts found by keyword or hashtag, with reactions, comments and shares	Use it when your target is Facebook posts instead of Telegram channels
TikTok Video Scraper	TikTok video captions, hashtags, views, likes, comments, shares and author data	Use it when you have TikTok video links
Google Job Scraper	Google Jobs listings with company, location, salary and apply links	Use it when you need job listings

Is it legal to scrape Telegram?

Telegram Scraper only reads data that channel owners have made publicly available on Telegram and does not access private chats, private channels or accounts. Results can still contain personal data, for example names, usernames or contact details written in public posts and comments. Telegram channel scraping should therefore have a legitimate reason.

Consider GDPR (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) and the terms of the platform, and consult a lawyer if you are unsure. Apify explains the topic in Is web scraping legal? and Ethical web scraping.

FAQ

How much does it cost?

Pricing is tiered pay-per-event: $2 per 1,000 results on the Free plan and less on paid plans (see the table in the pricing section), plus an Actor Start event of $0.00005 per run start. Free plan runs return up to 10 results.

Do I need a Telegram account or API key?

No. Because this Telegram web scraper reads public channel pages, you do not need a Telegram account, a login or an API key.

How many messages can I get?

Set maxMessagesPerChannel to the number you want per channel, or to 0 for no limit. Free plan runs are capped at 10 results. You choose how many posts this Telegram channel posts scraper collects, and the newest messages come first.

Can I get the Telegram channel subscriber count?

Yes. Each channel row has subscribers and subscribersText. With Exact subscriber count (exactSubscriberCount) on, the Actor returns the full number, such as 10459608, instead of a rounded value such as 10.4M. Asking for the Telegram channel subscriber count may still return a rounded value when the exact one is not available.

Can I download photos and videos?

Yes. Every message lists its media entries with type and link, and Save media files stores selected types for you. This Telegram channel media scraper supports photos, videos, GIFs, voice messages, round videos and stickers. Teams that look for a Telegram channel downloader should know that only the types you select are saved, up to your size limit.

Can I collect comments?

Yes, for channels that have a discussion group. Turn on Collect comments (collectComments) and set maxCommentsPerPost. This Telegram comment scraper adds the comments to each message and to the separate Comments table.

Is this different from the Telegram API?

Yes. If you searched for Telegram API channel statistics, note that this Actor needs no API credentials. It reads public pages and calculates statistics from the messages it collects, not owner-only analytics.

Can I scrape private channels or groups?

No. Only public channels with visible messages can be read. Public groups, bots and user accounts return a channel row with a status note instead of messages.

Is this a Telegram crawler?

It does not crawl all of Telegram, because it reads only the channels you list. With Discover related channels on, you get Telegram channel crawler behavior limited to forwards, mentions and links, up to 3 levels deep.

Can I use it with the API?

Yes. A Telegram channel message scraper workflow can start this Actor through the Apify API and read the dataset items afterwards. The API tab shows ready-made snippets.

Your feedback

Found a bug or want a new feature? Open the Issues tab of this Actor on Apify. For custom solutions, write to hello.crawlcraft@gmail.com.