Telegram Channel Info Scraper

Turn public Telegram channel and group usernames into one structured info row each. Paste handles or t.me URLs and get title, bio, subscriber or member count, verification badge, avatar, media counters, and optional engagement stats from the public preview. No Telegram login, bot token, or phone number.

This Actor is built for analysts and agents that need a size-and-reach check on known public handles before they spend on full message history.

Best fit for this Actor

• Enrich a known list of public Telegram handles with subscriber counts and bios.
• Compare public channel size and recent preview engagement before outreach.
• Feed MCP or CRM workflows with one predictable row per channel.

For full public message history, continue with Telegram Channel Scraper after you finish the size check. For keyword discovery of public channels, start with Telegram Keyword Search Scraper and then return here for info enrichment.

Practical scenario

A growth analyst pastes durov and telegram, keeps includeEngagementStats enabled, and sets maxRecentPosts to 10. The run returns one row per public channel: title, bio, subscriber count, verification, and engagement.avgViews from the public preview sample. A private or unknown handle finishes SUCCEEDED with VALID_EMPTY and no channel-info charge. Handles that clear the size bar are then passed to the message scraper for post history.

Quick start input

{
  "channels": ["durov", "telegram"],
  "includeEngagementStats": true,
  "maxRecentPosts": 10
}

channels accepts bare usernames, @handles, or https://t.me/... / https://t.me/s/... URLs. Duplicate handles are collapsed before any HTTP call.

Input reference

Field	Type	What it controls
channels	array (required)	Public usernames or t.me URLs. Example: durov. Max 100 unique values.
includeEngagementStats	boolean	Sample recent public preview posts for view averages. Default true.
maxRecentPosts	integer	Preview posts sampled for stats only. Default 20, max 50. Post bodies are omitted from the dataset.
maxChannels	integer	Hard cap after dedupe. Default 100.
proxyConfiguration	object	Optional Apify proxy. Enable Residential when Telegram rate-limits direct HTTP.

What data you receive

One dataset item is one public channel or group info row.

{
  "inputChannel": "durov",
  "username": "durov",
  "channelUrl": "https://t.me/durov",
  "title": "Pavel Durov",
  "description": "Official channel",
  "entityType": "channel",
  "isVerified": true,
  "subscriberCount": 1300000,
  "photoCount": 12,
  "videoCount": 4,
  "engagement": {
    "postsSampled": 10,
    "avgViews": 10250,
    "medianViews": 9000,
    "minViews": 8000,
    "maxViews": 12500,
    "lastPostAt": "2026-08-20T15:33:00.000Z",
    "postsPerDay": 1.2
  },
  "provider": "telegram-web-preview",
  "sourceUrl": "https://t.me/s/durov",
  "matchFound": true,
  "outcome": "FOUND",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-21T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Field	Meaning
title + description	Public display name and bio
subscriberCount	Public subscriber or member count
entityType	channel or group when the public counters reveal it
engagement	Sampled preview view averages and lastPostAt when enabled
sourceUrl / provider	Telegram public page and fetch route used for the row

OUTPUT and RUN_SUMMARY in the default key-value store hold outcome, itemsPushed, channelsFound, and chargedEventCounts.

Use through the API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~telegram-channel-info-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"channels":["durov"],"includeEngagementStats":true,"maxRecentPosts":10}'

Download rows as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML from the Dataset tab.

Use with AI agents through Apify MCP

Look up public Telegram channel info for durov and telegram. Return username, title, subscriberCount, isVerified, and engagement.avgViews. Keep the scope to public profile and stats.

Connect via https://mcp.apify.com. Read OUTPUT.outcome and itemsPushed to interpret empty datasets. Cost signal: about $0.005 per found channel plus platform usage. Private or missing handles surface as VALID_EMPTY CLEAR rows without a channel-info charge.

Connect the workflow

• After you confirm channel size, scrape message history with Telegram Channel Scraper.
• When you still need handles to check, discover them with Telegram Keyword Search Scraper.

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay per event plus Apify platform usage. The live Pricing tab is the current source of truth for billing details.

• apify-actor-start: $0.00005 per run
• channel-info: $0.005 per found channel info row

A one-channel prefill is about $0.005 in result events plus a few seconds of Apify platform usage. Missing or private handles have no channel-info charge.

How it works

1. Normalize and deduplicate usernames and t.me URLs.
2. Fetch t.me/s/{username} first, then fall back to t.me/{username} when needed.
3. Parse public counters, bio, verification, and optional preview engagement.
4. Charge channel-info for found rows, then write the dataset item.

Best results

• Pass public usernames or t.me profile URLs rather than invite hashes.
• Keep maxRecentPosts near 10 when you only need a fast engagement sample.
• Enable Apify Residential proxy when Telegram returns repeated rate-limit responses.
• A typo handle finishes SUCCEEDED with VALID_EMPTY and no channel charge.

Builder's note

I found that Telegram's public t.me/s/{username} HTML already exposes subscriber counters and per-post view labels without login, which is enough for a lean info-and-stats product. Keeping message bodies out of this Actor lets agents run a cheap size check first, then call the sibling message scraper only for handles that matter. Preview-first with a profile-page fallback covers channels that omit /s/ counters while staying on plain HTTP.

Legal and responsible use

Use this Actor on public Telegram web preview data you are authorized to process, follow applicable law and Telegram's terms, and keep the output in your own compliance workflow. This Actor is independent of Telegram.

Issues and feature requests: use the Actor Issues tab on Apify.