# Telegram Channel Search — Topics, Audience & Activity (`telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery`) Actor

Search public Telegram channels by topic and export audience, language, activity and source links from a dated catalog. No Telegram login or live scraping setup required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery.md
- **Developed by:** [TGDen — Telegram Intelligence](https://apify.com/telegrambest) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.00 / 1,000 channels

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 Search — Topics, Audience & Activity

**Find public Telegram channels by words in their names, descriptions and catalog summaries.**

Part of **TGDen — Telegram Intelligence**. No Telegram account, phone number or session is required.

### Try it

Use this input, run the Actor and open its dataset (JSON, CSV or the table view):

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "AI news"
  ],
  "maxChannelsPerQuery": 5
}
```

### Real output

A shortened row read on **23 October 2026** during owner-account acceptance testing. Results change as the corpus changes.

```json
[
  {
    "username": "sprutai_news",
    "title": "Sprut.AI News (Умный Дом | Smart Home)",
    "url": "https://t.me/sprutai_news",
    "summary": "News and updates regarding Smart Home ecosystems like HomeKit and Alice.",
    "subscribers": 8400,
    "avgPostReach": 3897,
    "languages": [
      "ru"
    ],
    "subscribersCheckedAt": "2026-09-10T12:54:19.718718Z"
  }
]
```

The dataset contains the delivered rows. The run's `OUTPUT` record adds counts, an explicit outcome (`results`, `valid_zero_result`, `limited` or `incomplete`), source timings and any stop reason. A source failure fails the run; it is never presented as a successful empty search.

### Cost

**$0.005 per run start + $0.002 per channel delivered.** With the 256 MB memory limit there is one start event. Ten billable results cost about **$0.025** in Actor fees. Zero matches incur only the start fee. Prices and any platform charges shown by Apify at launch are authoritative.

Set **Maximum charge per run** before starting (default $0.50). Delivery stops when the remaining budget cannot pay for another result; duplicate results are not billed twice in a run. Apify free-plan accounts receive at most 50 billable results per run. The amount of data in a snapshot may be larger than your budget permits.

### Freshness and interpretation

Results come from an existing catalog, not a live Telegram check. Use each audience or signal measurement timestamp. Some observations can be weeks old; null means unmeasured. Coverage and matches vary by topic and language.

This is keyword catalog search, not semantic retrieval or a live Telegram crawl. Broad terms such as AI can match adjacent topics. Audience dates are shown explicitly. Activity metrics have no independent measurement date: activityMeasuredAt is null; zero activity is not proof a channel is inactive.

### Why use it

Export comparable audience and description fields for channel research without opening every search result.

This Actor reads public catalog data. It does not join groups, send messages or contact anyone. Verify the source and suitability before outreach or business decisions.

### Watch an example

![TGDen Channel Discovery: a topic goes in, channels with their audience come out](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/uL03GUEIHlMAysGVS/records/channels-motion?signature=1ST8wikxu2q9cvbSlha84)

### API and scheduled runs

Use the same JSON input with the public Actor API. Keep your Apify token in an environment variable.

```bash
curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data @input.json \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/telegrambest~telegram-channel-discovery/run-sync-get-dataset-items?memory=256&timeout=180&maxTotalChargeUsd=0.50"
```

For longer runs use Apify's asynchronous run endpoint and fetch the dataset after completion. Where available, `onlyNew=true` remembers delivered items for this Actor and your account so scheduled searches skip them. Keep it off when you want a full repeatable snapshot.

### The family

[Buyer Search](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-lead-finder) · [Groups](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-group-discovery) · [Similar Groups](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups) · [Channels](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery) · [Bots](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-bot-finder) · [Username Checker](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-entity-enrichment) · [Marketplace Ads](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-classifieds) · [Prices](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-market-prices) · [Demand Map](https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-demand-map)

Questions or a bad result? Open an issue on this Actor and include the run link and expected behavior. Never post tokens or Telegram sessions.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

The topic in the words channels use in their name or description, one per line — e.g. 'AI news', 'crypto trading signals', 'нейросети', 'digital marketing'. Matching is by words over the channel name, description and an English summary of the channel, so an English query also finds many channels written in other languages.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Optional. Keep only channels that post in these languages. Leave empty for all. Put the language here, not in the query: 'AI news' + Russian, not 'Russian AI news'.

## `minSubscribers` (type: `integer`):

Skip channels smaller than this.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Order of the channels that match your query. 'Relevance' keeps the closest matches first; sorting by size can lift big channels that only mention your topic.

## `maxChannelsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit of channels returned for each query. You pay only for channels delivered. On the Apify free plan a run returns at most 50 channels.

## `mustInclude` (type: `array`):

Optional. Keep only channels whose name, description or summary mentions at least one of these words (matched by word start). Add local spellings too: 'Dubai', 'Дубай'.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Skip channels this Actor already delivered to your account in earlier runs — useful for a scheduled search that watches for new channels.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "AI news",
    "нейросети"
  ],
  "minSubscribers": 1000,
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "maxChannelsPerQuery": 30,
  "mustInclude": [
    "Dubai",
    "Дубай"
  ],
  "onlyNew": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Public Telegram channels per query with audience size, activity, language and topic summary

# 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 = {
    "queries": [
        "AI news",
        "crypto trading signals"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery").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 = { "queries": [
        "AI news",
        "crypto trading signals",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery").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 '{
  "queries": [
    "AI news",
    "crypto trading signals"
  ]
}' |
apify call telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,telegrambest/telegram-channel-discovery"
        }
    }
}
```

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/VqjDeYJrmGPorUUmG/builds/E0GCXDJBY8LLhExum/openapi.json