# Telegram Similar Groups — Find Lookalike Communities (`telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups`) Actor

Give known public groups and discover similar communities, ranked by meaning and topic. Includes audience, language, country and source links. Unknown seed groups are reported explicitly.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups.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 $5.00 / 1,000 similar groups

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 Similar Groups — Find Lookalike Communities

**Start with a known public group and find communities with related meaning and topic.**

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
{
  "groups": [
    "@rent_in_dubai"
  ],
  "maxResults": 8
}
```

### Real output

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

```json
[
  {
    "username": "dubairenta",
    "title": "Дубай аренда квартиры",
    "url": "https://t.me/dubairenta",
    "members": 7847,
    "languages": [
      "ru"
    ],
    "country": "ae",
    "matchScore": 0.8425,
    "sameTopicAsSeed": true,
    "groupTopic": "real estate rental",
    "similarTo": [
      "rent_in_dubai"
    ]
  }
]
```

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 + $0.005 per similar group delivered.** With the 256 MB memory limit there is one start event. Ten billable results cost about **$0.055** 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.

A seed must be in the catalog with a group vector. Unknown seeds are listed in OUTPUT.notFound, with no fabricated match. Give several seeds from one niche. Similarity is approximate; mustMention can keep results within a subject.

### Why use it

Explore from real seed communities instead of guessing more search terms. Topic evidence helps distinguish groups sharing an administrator template.

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 Similar Groups: a group you know goes in, groups with the same audience come out](https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/uL03GUEIHlMAysGVS/records/similar-motion?signature=1c5zIIHby8qiCyWySqPyn)

### 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-similar-groups/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

## `groups` (type: `array`):

One or more public Telegram groups: @username, username or a t.me link. Results are similar to all of them at once — give several groups of one niche for a sharper match. Up to 20.

## `similarity` (type: `string`):

'Balanced' keeps groups of the same audience. 'Strict' keeps the closest twins. 'Broad' also brings neighbouring topics of the same place or community.

## `mustMention` (type: `array`):

Optional. Keep only groups whose name or description mentions at least one of these words — e.g. 'rent', 'аренда' to stay in rentals when the seed is a city group. Matching is by word start.

## `minMembers` (type: `integer`):

Skip groups smaller than this.

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

Optional. Two-letter codes, e.g. 'en', 'ru', 'tr'. Empty — any language.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

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

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

Skip (and do not charge for) groups delivered to this account in earlier runs of this Actor. Handy for a scheduled run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "groups": [
    "rent_in_dubai",
    "https://t.me/phuket_rent"
  ],
  "similarity": "balanced",
  "mustMention": [
    "rent",
    "аренда"
  ],
  "minMembers": 300,
  "languages": [
    "en",
    "ru"
  ],
  "maxResults": 50,
  "onlyNew": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Public Telegram groups similar to the seed groups

# 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 = {
    "groups": [
        "rent_in_dubai"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups").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 = { "groups": ["rent_in_dubai"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups").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 '{
  "groups": [
    "rent_in_dubai"
  ]
}' |
apify call telegrambest/telegram-similar-groups --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/g1jC3tRZBhJL2wcaJ/builds/XOkhweapZeMQbuRUb/openapi.json