Telegram Keyword Search Scraper & Monitor

Search public Telegram channels by keyword and get every post that mentions your brand, product, crypto ticker or topic. This Telegram scraper uses Telegram's own search inside each channel, so every result really contains your keyword. Export channel posts with views, reactions, links and media, and monitor new mentions on a schedule. No Telegram account, no API key, no phone number.

What does Telegram Keyword Search Scraper do?

Telegram has no public search across channels. Most Telegram keyword scrapers work around that by asking Google for t.me links and returning whatever post happens to be on that page, which often does not contain your keyword at all.

This Actor searches Telegram directly:

1. It picks the channels. Your keywords are searched in the largest active public Telegram channels from our directory of 1,400+ channels (news, markets, crypto, tech, AI, sport and more, in many languages), plus any channels you name, plus topic channels it finds on the web. The directory is rebuilt every week, so new channels are added and inactive ones dropped.
2. It runs Telegram's own search in every channel and pages back through the results until your time window ends.
3. It checks every post and labels how it matched: the exact phrase, all words, or a related word.
4. It follows the trail. Channels that matching posts forward from or mention are searched too, so you find sources you did not know about.

You get one clean row per post, ready for Excel, Google Sheets, a dashboard, an alerting workflow or an AI agent. With a monitor name and a schedule, new mentions arrive in Slack, a Telegram chat or any webhook automatically.

Use cases

• Brand monitoring and social listening. See every public Telegram post that mentions your company, product or CEO, with reach (views) and engagement (reactions).
• Crypto and stock research. Track tickers, tokens and projects across the biggest crypto and market news channels. Spot narratives early.
• News and OSINT. Follow a person, place or event across hundreds of news channels at once, in English, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Persian and more.
• Competitor and market research. Find where competitors are discussed and which channels drive the conversation.
• Lead and channel discovery. Find active channels that write about your niche, with subscriber counts.
• AI agents and RAG pipelines. Give Claude, ChatGPT or your own agent fresh Telegram context through the Apify API or MCP.

How to search Telegram by keyword

1. Click Try for free.
2. Enter one or more keywords, for example openai or your brand name.
3. Optional: choose channel languages (English is preselected) and a time window like 7 days.
4. Click Start. Matching posts appear in the Matching posts table within about a minute.
5. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read them through the API.

How to monitor Telegram for new mentions

1. Set Monitor name, for example my-brand.
2. Save the input as a Task.
3. Add a Schedule (every hour or every day) to the Task.
4. Get alerts: paste a Slack incoming webhook URL, a Telegram bot token and chat ID, or any webhook URL (Make, Zapier, n8n, your own API). After each run, the new posts are sent there, the most-viewed first.

Each scheduled run returns only posts that are new since the last run with the same monitor name, and you only pay for those. No new posts means no alert and no cost.

Ready-made examples

Start from a working setup and change the keywords:

• Monitor brand mentions on Telegram
• Telegram keyword alerts to Slack or Telegram
• Track crypto token mentions on Telegram
• Bitcoin ETF news from Telegram channels
• Search Telegram for AI news
• Stock market news from Telegram
• Track competitor mentions on Telegram
• OSINT: monitor a topic across Telegram news
• Football transfer news from Telegram
• Find crypto airdrop posts on Telegram

Why this Telegram scraper

	Typical Telegram keyword scrapers	This Actor
Where results come from	Pages Google happened to index	Telegram's own search in each channel
Every result contains the keyword	Often not	Yes, and each result says how it matched
Channels covered	Only indexed pages	1,400+ large channels, your channels, web discovery and forwards
Only new posts on scheduled runs	No	Yes, with a monitor name
Login, API key or phone number	Sometimes	Never
Hidden extra runs	Some start a separate Google search Actor	No

Input

Field	What it does	Default
keywords	Words or phrases to find. Each is searched separately.	required
channels	Public channels you want included (username, @username or t.me link).	none
useDirectory	Search the largest public channels from the built-in directory.	on
directoryChannels	How many directory channels to search per keyword.	150
languages	Only use directory channels in these languages.	all (English preselected in the form)
discoverChannels	Also find topic channels through web search.	on
expandViaForwards	Also search channels that matching posts forward from or mention.	on
since	Time window, like 24 hours, 7 days, 3 months, or a date.	30 days
matchFilter	exact_phrase, all_words or any (includes related words).	all_words
maxResults	Stop after this many posts. Also your cost cap.	200
maxResultsPerChannel	Most posts to take from one channel per keyword.	40
minViews, minSubscribers	Skip small posts or small channels.	0
monitorKey	Monitor name: return only new posts on each run.	none
slackWebhookUrl	Send new posts to Slack (incoming webhook URL). Stored encrypted.	none
telegramBotToken, telegramChatId	Send new posts to a Telegram chat through your bot. The token is stored encrypted.	none
webhookUrl	Send new posts as JSON to any endpoint, Make, Zapier or n8n.	none

Example: brand monitoring in English channels

{
  "keywords": ["notion ai", "notion calendar"],
  "languages": ["en"],
  "since": "7 days",
  "matchFilter": "exact_phrase"
}

Example: hourly crypto ticker monitor in big channels

{
  "keywords": ["solana", "$SOL"],
  "minSubscribers": 50000,
  "monitorKey": "solana-watch",
  "since": "24 hours"
}

Example: only your own channel list

{
  "keywords": ["layoffs"],
  "channels": ["WatcherGuru", "insiderpaper", "https://t.me/s/disclosetv"],
  "useDirectory": false,
  "discoverChannels": false
}

Output

One row per matching Telegram post:

{
  "keywords": ["openai"],
  "matchType": "exact_phrase",
  "channelUsername": "financialjuice",
  "channelTitle": "FinancialJuice",
  "channelSubscribers": 112000,
  "channelVerified": false,
  "discoveredVia": "directory",
  "messageId": 98765,
  "url": "https://t.me/financialjuice/98765",
  "postedAt": "2026-11-08T09:12:40+00:00",
  "text": "OpenAI is in talks to raise new funding ...",
  "views": 18400,
  "reactionsTotal": 96,
  "reactions": [{ "emoji": "🔥", "count": 61 }, { "emoji": "👍", "count": 35 }],
  "isForwarded": false,
  "forwardedFrom": null,
  "links": ["https://example.com/article"],
  "hashtags": [],
  "mentions": [],
  "mediaTypes": ["photo"],
  "isEdited": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-08T10:00:00.000Z"
}

How results match (matchType):

• exact_phrase: the whole keyword appears as you wrote it.
• all_words: every word of the keyword appears.
• related: Telegram's search found it, but not every word is literally there (for example "BTC" for "bitcoin"). Hidden by default.

Run summary. Each run also saves a SUMMARY record in its key-value store: results per keyword, exact matches, total views, the newest post and the top channels. Handy for dashboards and AI agents.

How much does it cost to scrape Telegram?

You pay per result, and only for posts that match:

What	Free plan	Bronze	Silver	Gold and up
Matching post, per 1,000	$3.00	$2.70	$2.40	$2.10
Web channel discovery, per keyword (only when turned on)	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01	$0.01

Examples: 100 matching posts cost $0.30. A daily monitor that finds 20 new mentions costs about $0.06 per day. Channels without matches, filtered-out posts and errors are free. Set Maximum results to cap the cost of any run. Apify's free plan includes monthly credit, so you can try it without paying.

Use it through the API, integrations and AI agents

• API: run the Actor and fetch results with one HTTP call, or use the Apify JavaScript and Python clients.
• Integrations: send results to Google Sheets, Slack, email, Make, Zapier, n8n or a webhook.
• AI agents (MCP): this Actor works as a tool in Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other MCP clients through the Apify MCP server. Ask, for example: "What are Telegram channels saying about Solana in the last 24 hours? Summarize the top 10 posts by views." Keep maxResults small for chat use.

Python example:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("marvinkruell/telegram-keyword-search-scraper").call(
    run_input={"keywords": ["openai"], "languages": ["en"], "since": "7 days", "maxResults": 100}
)
for post in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(post["postedAt"], post["channelTitle"], post["views"], post["url"])

Limits

• Public channels only. Groups, private channels, bots and direct messages need a Telegram login and are out of scope.
• Web preview must be on. A few public channels turn off their web preview; those are skipped automatically.
• Coverage, not all of Telegram. Nobody can search all of Telegram without an account. Coverage comes from the directory, your channels, web discovery and forwards. Add channels you care about to make sure they are included.
• Very new posts can take a few minutes to show up in Telegram's search.

FAQ

Can I search all of Telegram by keyword? Not without logging in; Telegram has no public global search. This Actor gets close by searching 1,400+ of the largest public channels plus channels you add and channels it discovers.

Do I need a Telegram account, API ID or bot token? No. The Actor reads the public web versions of channels (t.me/s/...), the same pages anyone can open in a browser.

How is this different from a Telegram channel scraper? A channel scraper downloads posts from channels you already know. This Actor finds the posts that mention your keyword across many channels, including ones you did not know about. If you only need everything from one channel, put it in channels and use a broad keyword, or use a dedicated channel scraper.

Can I search in Russian, Arabic, Persian or other languages? Yes. Keywords work in any language, and you can limit the channel directory to specific languages.

How often should I run a monitor? Every hour or every day works well. Each run only pays for new posts.

Can I get the results in Excel or Google Sheets? Yes. Download as Excel or CSV from the run, or connect the Google Sheets integration.

Is it legal to scrape Telegram? This Actor reads only public pages that Telegram publishes for everyone on the web, without logging in or bypassing access controls. Personal data can still appear in public posts, so make sure your use complies with laws such as GDPR. If in doubt, ask a lawyer.

Feedback

Found a bug or missing a feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab. Requests for new data fields and channels are welcome.