Telegram Group & Channel Scraper

Scrape public Telegram channels and groups without an API key or bot token. Extract messages, views, forwards, media URLs, reactions, member counts, and full channel metadata using web-accessible endpoints only.

Features

• No API key required — scrapes via Telegram's public web preview, no authentication needed
• 3 fallback strategies — t.me/s/ preview, web embed widgets, and directory site metadata
• Full message data — text, date, view count, forward count, author, replies, reactions
• Media extraction — photos, videos, documents, stickers, voice messages, polls, locations
• Channel metadata — name, description, member count, avatar, verified status
• Pagination — automatically loads older messages up to your configured limit
• Date filtering — scrape only messages within a specific date range
• Text search — filter messages by keyword
• Multi-channel — scrape multiple channels in a single run
• Reaction data — emoji reactions with counts per message
• Comment counts — reply counts for channels with discussions enabled
• Deduplication — never scrapes or charges for the same message twice
• Rate limit handling — detects Telegram rate limits and retries gracefully
• Proxy support — optional Apify proxy for large-scale scraping
• Pay-per-event — $0.003 per message scraped

Scraping Strategies

The scraper tries three strategies in order for maximum reliability:

Strategy 1: Public Preview (t.me/s/)

The fastest and most data-rich method. Telegram serves a public preview page at t.me/s/channelname that contains server-rendered HTML with messages, media, view counts, and reactions. Supports pagination via the ?before= parameter.

Strategy 2: Web Embed Widget

If the preview page is unavailable, the scraper falls back to fetching individual message embeds at t.me/channelname/123?embed=1. Slower (one request per message) but works for some channels where the preview is blocked.

Strategy 3: Directory Sites (Metadata Fallback)

If neither web method can retrieve messages (e.g., the channel is restricted), the scraper pulls channel metadata (name, description, member count, category) from third-party directories like TGStat and TelegramChannels.me.

Use Cases

Competitive Intelligence

Monitor competitor Telegram channels to track announcements, product launches, pricing changes, and community engagement.

Market Research

Analyze public discussion channels to understand sentiment, trending topics, and user pain points in your market.

Brand Monitoring

Track mentions and discussions about your brand across multiple Telegram channels and groups.

Crypto & Finance

Monitor crypto project announcement channels for token launches, partnership news, and community sentiment.

Content Aggregation

Collect and analyze content from industry channels to identify trends, popular formats, and engagement patterns.

Academic Research

Gather structured data from public Telegram channels for social media research, communication studies, or information flow analysis.

OSINT & Investigations

Extract publicly available information from Telegram channels for open-source intelligence gathering.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelUrls	Array of strings	(required)	Telegram channel/group URLs or usernames
maxMessages	Integer	500	Max messages per channel (0 = unlimited)
includeMedia	Boolean	true	Extract media URLs (photos, videos, docs)
includeComments	Boolean	false	Extract reply/comment counts
includeReactions	Boolean	true	Extract emoji reaction counts
dateFrom	String	(empty)	Start date filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
dateTo	String	(empty)	End date filter (YYYY-MM-DD)
searchQuery	String	(empty)	Text search filter (case-insensitive)
maxConcurrency	Integer	2	Parallel requests (lower = safer)
proxyConfiguration	Object	(none)	Apify proxy settings

Accepted URL Formats

All of these are valid for channelUrls:

• https://t.me/channelname
• https://t.me/s/channelname
• t.me/channelname
• @channelname
• channelname

Input Examples

Scrape a single channel (latest 100 messages)

{
    "channelUrls": ["https://t.me/durov"],
    "maxMessages": 100,
    "includeMedia": true,
    "includeReactions": true
}

Scrape multiple channels with date filter

{
    "channelUrls": [
        "https://t.me/telegram",
        "t.me/durov",
        "@TelegramTips"
    ],
    "maxMessages": 500,
    "dateFrom": "2025-01-01",
    "dateTo": "2026-03-01",
    "includeComments": true
}

Search for specific keywords

{
    "channelUrls": ["https://t.me/CoinDesk"],
    "maxMessages": 1000,
    "searchQuery": "bitcoin",
    "includeMedia": false
}

Large-scale scrape with proxies

{
    "channelUrls": [
        "https://t.me/channel1",
        "https://t.me/channel2",
        "https://t.me/channel3"
    ],
    "maxMessages": 5000,
    "maxConcurrency": 3,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}

Output

Each message is saved to the default dataset with the following fields:

{
    "channelName": "Durov's Channel",
    "channelDescription": "My personal channel about technology and privacy.",
    "memberCount": 1250000,
    "channelUrl": "https://t.me/durov",
    "isVerified": true,
    "messageId": 312,
    "text": "We just launched a new feature that allows users to...",
    "date": "2026-02-15T14:30:00.000Z",
    "views": 842000,
    "forwards": 12500,
    "author": null,
    "forwardedFrom": null,
    "replyToMessageId": null,
    "mediaUrl": "https://cdn4.telegram-cdn.org/file/abc123.jpg",
    "mediaType": "photo",
    "mediaCaption": null,
    "reactions": [
        { "emoji": "\ud83d\udc4d", "count": 15200 },
        { "emoji": "\u2764\ufe0f", "count": 8400 },
        { "emoji": "\ud83d\udd25", "count": 3100 }
    ],
    "commentCount": null,
    "messageUrl": "https://t.me/durov/312",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-01T10:00:00.000Z",
    "scrapingStrategy": "preview"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
channelName	String	Display name of the channel
channelDescription	String	Channel bio/description
memberCount	Integer	Number of subscribers/members
channelUrl	String	Direct link to the channel
isVerified	Boolean	Whether the channel has a verified badge
messageId	Integer	Telegram message ID (unique within channel)
text	String	Message text content
date	String	Message date in ISO 8601 format
views	Integer	Number of views
forwards	Integer	Number of forwards/shares
author	String	Message author (for group messages)
forwardedFrom	String	Original source if message was forwarded
replyToMessageId	Integer	ID of the message being replied to
mediaUrl	String	URL of attached media (photo, video, etc.)
mediaType	String	Type of media: photo, video, document, sticker, audio, poll, etc.
mediaCaption	String	Caption or title for documents/polls
reactions	Array	Emoji reactions with counts
commentCount	Integer	Number of replies/comments
messageUrl	String	Direct link to the message
scrapedAt	String	Timestamp when the message was scraped
scrapingStrategy	String	Which strategy was used (preview, embed, metadata-only)

Performance Tips

1. Start small — test with maxMessages: 10 before scaling to thousands
2. Use proxies for multiple channels — Telegram rate-limits by IP; residential proxies work best
3. Keep concurrency low — maxConcurrency: 2 is recommended for Telegram
4. Disable media for speed — set includeMedia: false if you only need text data
5. Use date filters — narrow the time range to avoid scraping months of history
6. Use search queries — filter messages server-side equivalent to reduce output volume

Rate Limiting

Telegram rate-limits web scraping based on IP address. This actor handles it by:

• Limiting to 20 requests per minute by default
• Adding delays between pagination requests (1.5 seconds)
• Detecting rate limit responses and retrying with backoff
• Supporting proxy rotation via Apify's proxy infrastructure
• Gracefully falling back to alternative strategies when blocked

If you see rate limit warnings in the logs, consider:

• Reducing maxConcurrency to 1
• Using Apify residential proxies
• Scraping fewer channels per run
• Adding longer delays between runs

Limitations

• Public channels only — this scraper cannot access private channels or groups that require joining
• No user data — individual user profiles and phone numbers are not scraped
• Media URLs may expire — Telegram CDN URLs have limited validity; download media promptly
• View counts approximate — Telegram shows rounded numbers (e.g., "1.2K" instead of "1,234")
• Embed strategy is slower — fetching one message at a time is 10-20x slower than the preview method
• No real-time streaming — this is a batch scraper, not a live monitor

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

This actor uses Apify's pay-per-event pricing model. You are charged $0.003 for each message successfully scraped and saved to the dataset. Channel metadata extraction is free.

Example costs:

• 100 messages = $0.30
• 1,000 messages = $3.00
• 10,000 messages = $30.00

Legal Notice

This actor scrapes only publicly accessible Telegram content through web endpoints. No authentication bypass or private data access is performed. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of this tool complies with Telegram's Terms of Service and all applicable laws and regulations. This tool is designed for legitimate research, monitoring, and analysis purposes.

Integration — Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("sovereigntaylor/telegram-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchTerm": "telegram",
    "maxResults": 50
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{item.get('title', item.get('name', 'N/A'))}")

Integration — JavaScript

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

const run = await client.actor('sovereigntaylor/telegram-scraper').call({
    searchTerm: 'telegram',
    maxResults: 50
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(item => console.log(item.title || item.name || 'N/A'));