Telegram Channel Scraper — Messages, Views & Media 🚀

🎉 Turn any public Telegram channel into a clean dataset — messages, views, media, forwards & channel stats, no login required

For crypto researchers, OSINT analysts, marketers and news teams who need Telegram data at scale

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📋 Overview

Track any public Telegram channel without lifting a finger — paste a handle or a t.me link and get every message as structured JSON or CSV.

Why thousands of professionals choose us:

• ✅ Complete message data: text, post date, view count, author, forwards, replies, media and channel stats — 20+ fields per row
• ⚡ Fast or deep: a quick Overview of the newest posts, or a full Crawl back through the channel's entire history
• 🎯 Zero setup: no Telegram account, no phone number, no API token, no bot — just a channel name
• 💰 Pay-per-result: only pay for messages you actually extract, with a free tier to test
• 💎 Bulk-ready: scrape many channels in one run, with optional in-channel keyword search
• ✨ NEW: media URLs (photos + videos) and channel KPIs (subscribers, photos, videos, links) on every message

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✨ Features

• 📨 Full message capture: body text, timestamp, view count and signed author
• 👁️ Engagement metrics: humanized view counts straight from the channel
• 🖼️ Media extraction: every photo and video URL on each post, plus a thumbnail
• 📡 Channel intelligence: title, description, subscriber count, photo/video/link totals on every row
• ↪️ Forwards & replies: see what was forwarded and what a message replies to
• 🔍 In-channel search: narrow results to a keyword inside a channel
• 📜 Full history crawl: walk back through thousands of messages, newest → oldest
• 🌍 Bulk channels: scrape many channels in a single run
• 📊 Clean export: JSON, CSV and Excel directly from the Apify dataset

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🎬 Quick Start

Pick a scrape mode, drop in a channel handle, and run. Results stream into the dataset as they're scraped. Export to JSON, CSV or Excel when done.

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/sian.agency~telegram-channel-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"scrapeMode":"overview","searchMode":"byChannel","channels":["durov"]}'

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🚀 Getting Started (3 Simple Steps)

Step 1: Choose your mode

Pick Overview for the newest messages, or Crawl for the full history.

Step 2: Add your channels

Type one or more channel handles (e.g. durov), or paste t.me URLs.

Step 3: Run

Click Start and watch messages fill the dataset.

That's it! In under a minute, you'll have:

• Structured messages with views, dates and media
• Channel-level stats on every row
• A clean JSON/CSV/Excel export

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📥 Input Configuration

Field	Type	Required	Description
scrapeMode	string	No	overview (newest messages) or crawl (full history)
searchMode	string	No	byChannel (handles) or bySearchUrl (t.me URLs)
channels	array	No	Channel handles, e.g. ["durov"]
searchUrls	array	No	Full t.me URLs to scrape
query	string	No	In-channel keyword search (By Channel mode)
pages	integer	No	Overview depth — preview pages per channel (20 msgs each)
maxResults	integer	No	Crawl limit — total messages per run

Example — newest messages from a channel:

{
  "scrapeMode": "overview",
  "searchMode": "byChannel",
  "channels": ["durov"],
  "pages": 1
}

Example — deep history crawl with keyword search:

{
  "scrapeMode": "crawl",
  "searchMode": "byChannel",
  "channels": ["telegram"],
  "query": "feature",
  "maxResults": 500
}

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📤 Output

Results are saved to the Apify dataset with 20+ fields including:

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Stable <channel>/<id> identifier
url	string	Direct link to the message
text	string	Message body text
date	string	ISO 8601 post timestamp
views	string	Humanized view count (e.g. 3.35M)
author	string	Signed author / owner name
media	array	Photo and video URLs
media_count	number	Number of media items
forwarded_from	string	Original source on a forward
reply_to	string	Quoted text on a reply
channel	string	Channel handle
channel_title	string	Channel display title
subscribers	string	Channel subscriber count
photos_count / videos_count / links_count	string	Channel media totals

Example:

{
  "id": "durov/510",
  "url": "https://t.me/durov/510",
  "text": "With 400 validators across 6 continents, TON is one of the most decentralized blockchain networks on the planet.",
  "date": "2026-05-12T17:28:39+00:00",
  "views": "3.35M",
  "author": "Pavel Durov",
  "media": ["https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/..."],
  "media_count": 2,
  "channel": "durov",
  "channel_title": "Pavel Durov",
  "subscribers": "12M",
  "photos_count": "99",
  "videos_count": "45",
  "links_count": "194"
}

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💼 Use Cases & Examples

1. Crypto & Web3 Alpha Tracking

Crypto researchers monitoring project and trader channels for signals.

Input: A list of crypto channel handles + a keyword like airdrop Output: Every matching message with views and timestamps Use: Spot announcements and momentum before they hit Twitter.

2. Brand & Competitor Monitoring

Marketers watching how brands and rivals post on Telegram.

Input: Competitor channel handles Output: Their posts, engagement and media cadence Use: Benchmark content strategy and posting frequency.

3. OSINT & Research

Analysts and journalists building a searchable archive of a public channel.

Input: A channel handle in Crawl mode Output: The full message history as structured rows Use: Timeline reconstruction and evidence preservation.

4. News Aggregation

News teams pulling breaking updates from official channels.

Input: News channel handles in Overview mode Output: The latest posts with views and links Use: Feed a newsroom dashboard or alerting workflow.

5. Sentiment & Engagement Analysis

Data teams measuring reach and engagement across many channels.

Input: Dozens of channels in one run Output: Messages with view counts and media stats Use: Rank channels by reach and analyze what content performs.

6. Meme & Airdrop Discovery

Traders scanning community channels for early opportunities.

Input: Community channel handles + a keyword search Output: Matching messages with links and media Use: Surface new tokens, mints and giveaways fast.

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🔗 Integration Examples

JavaScript/Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('sian.agency/telegram-channel-scraper').call({
  scrapeMode: 'overview',
  searchMode: 'byChannel',
  channels: ['durov']
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0]);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('YOUR_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('sian.agency/telegram-channel-scraper').call(
    run_input={
        'scrapeMode': 'crawl',
        'searchMode': 'byChannel',
        'channels': ['telegram'],
        'maxResults': 500
    }
)

for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/sian.agency~telegram-channel-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"scrapeMode":"overview","searchMode":"byChannel","channels":["durov"]}'

Automation Workflows (N8N / Zapier / Make)

1. Trigger: Schedule or webhook
2. HTTP Request: Call the actor API
3. Process: Handle the JSON results
4. Action: Save, notify, or transform

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📊 Performance & Pricing

FREE Tier (Try It Now)

• 25 messages per run — full feature access, same quality
• No credit card required
• Perfect for testing and small projects

PAID Tier (Production Ready)

• Unlimited messages per run
• Deep history crawls across many channels
• Pay-per-result: only charged for messages actually extracted

💰 Best price on the market — transparent pay-per-result, no monthly subscription.

🔗 View current pricing

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How many messages can I scrape? A: FREE tier: 25 per run. PAID tier: unlimited.

Q: Does it work with private channels or groups? A: No — only public channels with web preview enabled are supported.

Q: Do I need a Telegram account, bot, or API key? A: No. Just a public channel handle or URL.

Q: What output formats are available? A: JSON, CSV and Excel — export directly from the Apify dataset.

Q: Can I search inside a channel? A: Yes — add a keyword to filter messages to matching posts.

Q: How fresh is the data? A: Every run fetches live from the channel's public preview at that moment.

Q: Is this legal? A: It only extracts publicly available data. See the legal section below.

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🐛 Troubleshooting

No messages returned

• Confirm the channel is public and has web preview enabled
• Try the handle without @ (e.g. durov, not @durov)

Fewer messages than expected

• FREE tier caps runs at 25 messages — switch to PAID for more
• In Overview mode, increase pages; in Crawl mode, raise maxResults

A specific channel is empty

• Some channels disable their public web preview — those can't be scraped

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⚖️ Is it legal to scrape data?

Our actors are ethical and do not extract any private user data, such as email addresses, gender, or location. They only extract what the user has chosen to share publicly. We therefore believe that our actors, when used for ethical purposes by Apify users, are safe.

However, you should be aware that your results could contain personal data. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you're unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers.

You can also read Apify's blog post on the legality of web scraping.

Trademark notice: Telegram is a trademark of Telegram FZ-LLC / Telegram Messenger Inc. This actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Telegram. It only accesses publicly available channel data. All product names, logos, and brands are property of their respective owners.

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🤝 Support

Join our active support community

• For issues or questions, open an issue in the actor's repository
• Check the SIÁN Agency Store for more automation tools
• 📧 apify@sian-agency.online

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