Telegram Channel Posts Scraper

Bulk-extract recent posts from any public Telegram channel — text, media URLs, views, reactions, author, forwarded-from, and reply context — in clean structured JSON. No Bot API token, no login, no phone number.

Why use this actor

• No Bot API / no login required — works against the public t.me web preview; no BOT_TOKEN, no phone number, no TDLib build to maintain.
• Rich detail per post — message text, media URLs (photos & videos), view counts, reactions, author label, forwarded-from channel, and reply-to context all in one flat record.
• Bulk + paginated — pass a list of channels in one run; the actor paginates back through each channel's history up to your maxPosts cap.
• Per-channel isolation — one bad channel won't fail the run. Missing or restricted channels surface as _error: "not_found" so you can triage failures.
• Stable JSON output suitable for pipelines, spreadsheets, and databases — every row carries _input, _source, _scrapedAt envelope fields so you can join results back to your input list.
• Captures CDN media URLs — direct links to photos and videos so you can mirror or analyze attachments downstream.

How it works

1. You provide a list of public Telegram channels (e.g. durov, @telegram, or https://t.me/durov).
2. The actor opens each channel's public web preview and walks back through the post history, reading the same data the t.me/s/<channel> page shows.
3. Each post is normalized into a flat JSON record and streamed into your dataset, ready to download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

You do not need to manage scrapers, browsers, or rotating IPs — all handled internally.

Input

{
  "channels": [
    "durov",
    "telegram"
  ],
  "maxPosts": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["DATACENTER"]
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
channels	array	List of public Telegram channels to scrape. Accepts bare usernames (durov), @username, or full https://t.me/<username> URLs.
maxPosts	integer	Maximum posts per channel. Default 100. Set to 0 for unlimited (capped by what the public preview exposes).
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify Proxy settings. Datacenter proxy works for most public channels.

Output

Input: durov, maxPosts: 2

{
  "id": 497,
  "channel": "durov",
  "url": "https://t.me/durov/497",
  "text": "France's \"Agency for Secure Documents\" was hacked. Names, addresses, emails, and phone numbers of\n19 million people\n— leaked from a single government database.\nFuture leaks will be even more catastrophic if the French government gets what it wants:\naccess to encrypted chats\nand\nDigital IDs\nof social media users.",
  "datetime": "2026-04-20T22:55:10+00:00",
  "views": "4.54M",
  "author": "Pavel Durov",
  "forwardedFrom": null,
  "replyTo": null,
  "photos": [],
  "videos": [],
  "links": [],
  "reactions": [],
  "_input": "durov",
  "_source": "S1-html",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:39:43.899042+00:00"
}

{
  "id": 498,
  "channel": "durov",
  "url": "https://t.me/durov/498",
  "text": "The apartment in Russia where I lived 20 years ago received a summons for “Suspect P. V. Durov”.\nThey must be suspecting me of defending Articles 29 and 23 of the Russian Constitution — which guarantee freedom of speech and the right to private correspondence.\nProud to be guilty!\n😏",
  "datetime": "2026-04-22T17:06:37+00:00",
  "views": "5.19M",
  "author": "Pavel Durov",
  "forwardedFrom": null,
  "replyTo": null,
  "photos": [
    "https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/CVRdtGiETwFzCQ5efOdFbAKVLiQAxSv8bpnypVOdE6Bn-zenXs0NtKC3UVwF6LMr...jpg"
  ],
  "videos": [],
  "links": [],
  "reactions": [],
  "_input": "durov",
  "_source": "S1-html",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:39:43.899042+00:00"
}

Field	Type	Description
_input	string	The channel value exactly as you supplied it. Use this to join results back to your input list.
_source	string	Internal tag for the path used to fetch the record. S1-html means the post was parsed from the channel's public web preview.
_scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 UTC timestamp when the record was scraped.
id	integer	Telegram's per-channel message ID. Stable and monotonic per channel.
channel	string	Normalized channel username (without @ or URL prefix).
url	string	Canonical message URL (https://t.me/<channel>/<id>).
text	string	Message body. May contain newlines and emoji. null for media-only posts with no caption.
datetime	string	ISO-8601 UTC timestamp the message was posted.
views	string	View count as shown by Telegram (e.g. "2.89M", "153K", "412"). String because Telegram returns it pre-formatted.
author	string	Signed author label when the channel signs posts (e.g. "Pavel Durov"). null for unsigned channels.
forwardedFrom	string	Source channel name if this post is a forward. null for original posts.
replyTo	object	Reference to the message this post replies to ({ "url": "...", "text": "..." }). null if not a reply.
photos	array	Direct CDN URLs for photo attachments. URLs are time-bound — mirror them quickly if you need permanence.
videos	array	Direct CDN URLs for video attachments. Same caveats as photos.
links	array	External URLs found in the message body.
reactions	array	List of reactions on the post ([{ "emoji": "👍", "count": 123 }, ...]). Empty array if reactions are off or none recorded.

Error envelope

Channels that don't exist, are private, or fail to fetch return a structured error instead of crashing the run:

{
  "_input": "this-channel-does-not-exist-xyz",
  "_source": "S1-html",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T10:24:10.012345+00:00",
  "_error": "not_found",
  "_errorDetail": "channel page returned 404"
}

Filter on _error to triage failed rows.

Pricing

This actor is billed per result: $2.50 per 1,000 results. Each post = 1 result. Errors (not-found, restricted) are not billed.

Other Sosmed Actors

Platform	Actor	Best for
Telegram	Telegram Post Detail Scraper	Full single-post detail by URL
Bluesky	Bluesky Account Posts Scraper	Recent posts from any Bluesky handle
Mastodon	Mastodon Account Scraper	Toots + profile data from any instance
Substack	Substack Publication Posts Scraper	Newsletter posts from any publication
YouTube	YouTube Channel Scraper	Uploaded videos for a channel
Reddit	Reddit Subreddit Posts Scraper	Latest / top posts from any subreddit
X (Twitter)	X Account Tweets Scraper	Recent tweets from any handle

Browse the full catalog at apify.com/xtracto.

Notes

• Telegram's public web preview shows only channels marked public. Private (invite-link-only) channels are not accessible via this actor.
• Some channels restrict the public preview (the page shows "If you have Telegram, you can view this channel") — those return an _error envelope.
• The web preview caps at roughly the latest ~100 messages per pagination window; very large channels may need scheduled incremental runs to backfill history.
• View counts are updated lazily; for old messages they reflect the count at the time of scraping, not real-time.
• Photo and video URLs are CDN-signed and time-bound — mirror them downstream if you need permanence.
• For large jobs (>20 channels), enable the Apify Proxy to avoid per-IP rate limits.