# Telegram Channel Scraper: Posts, Views, Reactions & Media (`datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape public Telegram channels: posts with text, date, views, reactions, photos, videos, link previews, forwards and hashtags, plus channel subscribers. In-channel search and date filter. No login, no API keys.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [DataDesk](https://apify.com/datadesk-io) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.80 / 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 & Media

Get **posts from any public Telegram channel** as clean JSON/CSV/Excel: text, date, **views**, **reactions** (emoji and counts, paid Stars), **photos and videos**, link previews, forwards, replies, hashtags, mentions, links and channel info (title, **subscribers**, description, verified badge). Search inside channels and stop at a date. **No login, no phone number, no Telegram API keys, no paid proxy.**

🇪🇸 **Español:** extrae publicaciones de canales públicos de Telegram: texto, fecha, vistas, reacciones, fotos, videos, vistas previas de enlaces, reenvíos, hashtags y datos del canal (suscriptores, descripción). Búsqueda dentro del canal y filtro por fecha. Sin cuenta, sin número de teléfono ni API keys.
🇧🇷 **Português:** extrai posts de canais públicos do Telegram: texto, data, visualizações, reações, fotos, vídeos, prévias de links, encaminhamentos, hashtags e dados do canal (inscritos, descrição). Busca dentro do canal e filtro por data. Sem login, sem número de telefone nem API keys.

### What you get

- 📣 **Many channels in one run**: usernames (`durov`), `@names` or `t.me` links. Duplicates are removed.
- 📰 **Full post data**: text with line breaks and emoji, ISO date, edited flag, views, reactions list + total, paid Stars, media type, photo/video/thumbnail URLs, polls, documents, link preview card, forwarded-from, reply-to, author signature.
- 📊 **Channel data on every row**: title, subscribers, description, photo/video/link/file counts, verified badge, avatar.
- 🔎 **Search inside channels** (`searchQuery`) with Telegram's own search, and **date cut-off** (`postedAfter`) for daily monitoring.
- ⏪ **Deep history**: pages back to the channel's first post (`maxPostsPerChannel` up to 10,000).
- 💸 **$1 per 1,000 posts**, plus $0.005 per run. Runs with no results cost nothing.

### Sources and coverage

| Source | Coverage | Data |
|---|---|---|
| **Telegram public channels (t.me/s/)** | Any public channel | text, date, views, reactions, forwards, media URLs, links |

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** (or **Start**): the prefilled input runs a quick test.
2. Fill in the input fields (see the examples below). Every field is optional.
3. Click **Start** and wait a few seconds to minutes, depending on how many posts you ask for.
4. Open the **Output** tab and export as **JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML**, or read the results via API.

### Input examples

**Two channels (default):**

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

**Search in a channel:**

```json
{"channels": ["durov"], "searchQuery": "update"}
```

**Posts since a date:**

```json
{"channels": ["telegram"], "postedAfter": "2026-10-01", "maxPostsPerChannel": 500}
```

#### Input fields

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `channels` | array | Public Telegram channels: username (durov), @username or a t.me link (https://t.me/durov or https://t.me/s/durov). Private groups, invite links (t.me/+...) and user ac… |
| `maxPostsPerChannel` | integer | Newest posts first. Telegram shows about 20 posts per page; the Actor pages back through the channel history until this cap, the date limit or the first post. |
| `searchQuery` | string | Keep only posts that match this text, using Telegram's own in-channel search (the same as the search box on t.me/s/<channel>). Leave empty for all posts. |
| `postedAfter` | string | Stop when posts are older than this date (YYYY-MM-DD, UTC). Useful for daily monitoring: posts older than the date are never fetched or charged. |
| `maxResults` | integer | Hard cap on posts for the whole run (all channels). Never exceeded. |

### Output example

One row per item. Values below are **example values** from a real test run (long text shortened):

```json
{
  "postId": 552,
  "url": "https://t.me/durov/552",
  "channel": "durov",
  "channelTitle": "Pavel Durov",
  "channelDescription": "Founder of Telegram.",
  "channelSubscribers": 10100000,
  "channelPhotos": 102,
  "channelVideos": 47,
  "channelLinks": 200,
  "channelVerified": true,
  "channelPhotoUrl": "https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/Rv-by29_FZUa8HLahAmsIPxtEWqLqdbFtyNH5xlJ5zB6pxq-K-9w3V1-qlGT-5xujIq7jzjtyl1HbwdH0_PGgSVAaiXf5PDXujFeZg73ohW9C2v…",
  "date": "2026-10-11T14:52:40+00:00",
  "edited": false,
  "text": "✨ Designers × AI\n\n🆕 The mockup era is over. Today’s AI tools give every designer a superpower: you can now craft your ideas, not just draw t…",
  "views": 1960000,
  "viewsText": "1.96M",
  "reactions": ["{…}", "{…}", "…"],
  "reactionsTotal": 32080
  "…": "more fields below"
}
```

Fields a source does not publish are `null`.

#### Output fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `postId` | Post number inside the channel |
| `url` | Public link to the post (t.me/<channel>/<id>) |
| `channel` | Channel username |
| `channelTitle` | Channel display name |
| `channelDescription` | Channel bio/description |
| `channelSubscribers` | Subscriber count shown by Telegram (rounded, e.g. 10.2M -> 10200000) |
| `channelPhotos` | Photos count in the channel |
| `channelVideos` | Videos count in the channel |
| `channelLinks` | Links count in the channel |
| `channelFiles` | Files count in the channel |
| `channelVerified` | True if the channel has the verified badge |
| `channelPhotoUrl` | Channel avatar URL |
| `date` | Publication date and time (ISO 8601, UTC) |
| `edited` | True if the post was edited |
| `text` | Post text (line breaks kept, emoji included) |
| `views` | View count (parsed from Telegram's rounded value, e.g. 5.85M -> 5850000) |
| `viewsText` | View count as shown by Telegram |
| `reactions` | List of reactions: emoji (or customEmojiId for Telegram custom emoji) and count |
| `reactionsTotal` | Sum of all reaction counts (excluding paid stars) |
| `paidStars` | Telegram Stars paid reactions, when shown |
| `mediaType` | none, photo, video, voice, document, poll, sticker or unsupported (media Telegram only shows in the app) |
| `photoUrls` | Photo URLs (Telegram CDN) |
| `videoUrls` | Video file URLs (temporary, tokenized by Telegram) |
| `videoThumbnailUrls` | Video thumbnail URLs |
| `documentTitle` | File name for document posts |
| `poll` | Poll question and options with percentages |
| `linkPreview` | Link preview card: url, siteName, title, description, imageUrl |
| `links` | External links in the post text |
| `hashtags` | Hashtags in the text |
| `mentions` | @mentions in the text |
| `forwardedFrom` | Original channel/user name and link when the post is a forward |
| `replyToUrl` | Link to the post this one replies to |
| `authorSignature` | Author signature, when the channel signs posts |
| `searchQuery` | Search text used (empty when not searching) |
| `scrapedAt` | When the row was collected (UTC) |

The Output tab has a **Posts** view.

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: you pay only for results delivered, no monthly fee.

- **Post** (`post`): **$1.00 per 1,000** ($0.001 each)
- **Actor start:** $0.005 per run

| Run | Posts | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Quick test | 20 | $0.025 |
| Small run | 100 | $0.105 |
| Regular run | 1,000 | $1.005 |
| Large run | 10,000 | $10.005 |

Rows that are not delivered are never charged. Apify's free plan includes monthly credit, and you can set a maximum cost per run in the run options.

### Use cases

Brand and crypto/news monitoring · competitor and market intelligence · OSINT and research datasets · media analytics (views and reactions per post) · feeding AI agents, alerts and dashboards with channel updates.

### Integrations and API

- Export results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the Output tab.
- **Schedule** runs (daily, hourly) and send results to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, n8n, Airbyte or webhooks.
- Call it from code with the [Apify API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/datadesk-io~telegram-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"channels": ["durov", "telegram"], "maxPostsPerChannel": 20}'
```

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper").call(run_input={'channels': ['durov', 'telegram'], 'maxPostsPerChannel': 20})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item.get('url'), item.get('text'))
```

### FAQ

**Do I need a Telegram account, phone number or API ID?** No.
**Can it scrape private groups or members?** No. Only what the public web preview shows.
**Issues?** Report them on the Issues tab. We usually reply within 48 h.

**How fresh is the data?** Live: every run reads the source at that moment. Schedule it to keep a dataset up to date.

**Why did I get fewer posts than the maximum?** The source had fewer matching posts, or duplicates were removed. You only pay for posts delivered.

**Is it legal?** It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using it in line with applicable laws (e.g. GDPR) and the source's terms.

### Limitations

- **Public channels only.** It reads Telegram's public web preview (`t.me/s/<channel>`). Private channels, groups, invite links (`t.me/+...`), user accounts, comments and member lists are not available there, so this Actor does not return them. Channels whose owner disabled the web preview return nothing (and cost nothing); the log says which.
- **Numbers are Telegram's rounded values** (`5.85M` views → 5,850,000). Subscriber counts are rounded the same way.
- **Some reactions are Telegram custom emoji**: those rows carry `customEmojiId` instead of an `emoji` character.
- **Video URLs are temporary** (Telegram signs them). Download them soon after the run if you need the files. Some media (e.g. some music/round videos) is shown by Telegram only in the app: those posts have `mediaType: "unsupported"` but keep text, date and views.
- **No paid proxy.** In our tests (Oct 26, 2026) on Apify, a 12-channel run with 1,650 posts finished in 43 s with no blocks. If Telegram answers 429/5xx, the Actor retries with backoff and then uses the Apify datacenter proxy included in your plan (capped at 40 requests per run); posts already collected are kept.
- Channel posts are public, but they can contain personal data and copyrighted content. Check Telegram's terms and the laws that apply to your use (GDPR/privacy, copyright) before you store or republish them.

### Support

Found a bug, or need a new field, source or filter? Open an issue in the **Issues** tab; we usually answer within 24 hours. Custom data work: datadesk.io@proton.me.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor works as a tool for AI agents through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com). Add it to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client:

`https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper`

Sign in with OAuth or `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>`. Local stdio config:

```json
{"mcpServers": {"telegram": {"command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server", "--tools", "datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper"], "env": {"APIFY_TOKEN": "<token>"}}}}
```

**What goes in → what comes out:** Input: public channel usernames or t.me links, optional in-channel search text, date cut-off and caps. Output: one JSON row per post with text, date, views, reactions, media URLs, link preview, forwards and channel info. Every input is optional and every output field is documented.

**Example prompt:** "Get the last 7 days of posts from @cointelegraph and @tginfo and rank them by views and reactions." Use `maxPostsPerChannel`, `postedAfter` or `maxResults` to cap the cost of one call.

# Actor input Schema

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

Public Telegram channels: username (durov), @username or a t.me link (https://t.me/durov or https://t.me/s/durov). Private groups, invite links (t.me/+...) and user accounts are not supported.

## `maxPostsPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

Newest posts first. Telegram shows about 20 posts per page; the Actor pages back through the channel history until this cap, the date limit or the first post.

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

Keep only posts that match this text, using Telegram's own in-channel search (the same as the search box on t.me/s/<channel>). Leave empty for all posts.

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

Stop when posts are older than this date (YYYY-MM-DD, UTC). Useful for daily monitoring: posts older than the date are never fetched or charged.

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

Hard cap on posts for the whole run (all channels). Never exceeded.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "durov",
    "telegram"
  ],
  "maxPostsPerChannel": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

One row per post (see dataset schema for field descriptions).

# 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": [
        "durov",
        "telegram"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datadesk-io/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": [
        "durov",
        "telegram",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datadesk-io/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": [
    "durov",
    "telegram"
  ]
}' |
apify call datadesk-io/telegram-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,datadesk-io/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/wQEDqhe0gMXfOcLOS/builds/jFvdQ4BYmxZqRg2fT/openapi.json