Telegram Channel Scraper

Scrape public Telegram channels — messages, media metadata, view counts, and forwarding stats. No Telegram API key or account login required. Works with any public channel via its t.me URL.

Useful for media monitoring, crypto/finance signal tracking, news aggregation, and audience research.

What data do you get?

Each message record includes:

Field	Type	Description
message_id	integer	Unique message ID within the channel
channel	string	Channel username
date	string	ISO 8601 timestamp
text	string	Full message text
views	integer	View count
forwards	integer	Number of times forwarded
url	string	Direct link to the message
has_photo	boolean	Whether the message contains a photo (when includeMedia is on)
has_video	boolean	Whether the message contains a video
has_document	boolean	Whether the message has an attached document
photo_url	string	Direct URL to the photo (when available)

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
channelUsername	string	Yes	telegram	Channel username without @. Also accepts full t.me URLs.
maxMessages	integer	No	5	Maximum messages to scrape (1–10,000)
dateFrom	string	No	—	Only include messages after this date (ISO format, e.g. 2026-01-01)
dateTo	string	No	—	Only include messages before this date
includeMedia	boolean	No	false	Extract media metadata (photo/video/document flags and URLs)

Example input

{
    "channelUsername": "durov",
    "maxMessages": 50,
    "includeMedia": true
}

Example output

{
    "message_id": 1247,
    "channel": "durov",
    "date": "2026-03-28T10:15:00+00:00",
    "text": "Today we launched the new privacy features that let you control exactly who can see your online status...",
    "views": 182400,
    "forwards": 3210,
    "url": "https://t.me/durov/1247",
    "has_photo": true,
    "photo_url": "https://cdn4.telegram-cdn.org/file/abc123.jpg"
}

Using the Apify API

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("cryptosignals/telegram-channel-scraper").call(run_input={
    "channelUsername": "durov",
    "maxMessages": 100,
    "includeMedia": True,
})

for msg in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"[{msg['date']}] {msg['text'][:80]}... ({msg['views']} views)")

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('cryptosignals/telegram-channel-scraper').call({
    channelUsername: 'durov',
    maxMessages: 100,
    includeMedia: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(msg => console.log(`${msg.date}: ${msg.text.slice(0, 80)}...`));

Tips

• Public channels only — private channels and groups are not accessible without authentication
• Channel username formats — you can use durov, @durov, or https://t.me/durov — all work
• Date filtering — combine dateFrom and dateTo to scrape a specific time range without pulling the entire history
• Media URLs — photo URLs from Telegram CDN may expire. Download them promptly if you need to archive media.

Proxies and rate limits

Telegram's web preview endpoint (t.me/s/) applies per-IP rate limits after sustained scraping, returning 429 errors or temporary bans. Residential proxies rotate through real ISP addresses and stay under per-IP thresholds.

ThorData offers 200M+ residential IPs across 190+ countries — reliable for scraping Telegram channels at scale without hitting rate limits.

Set proxy configuration in your input:

{
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
}

Related scrapers

• Reddit Scraper — Posts, comments and community data
• Bluesky Scraper — Social posts and profiles
• Substack Scraper — Newsletter content and authors
• Hacker News Scraper — Tech stories and discussions

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