Telegram Channel Scraper - No API Key Needed

Extract messages, views, reactions, and media from any public Telegram channel — no API key, no proxy, no browser needed.

This actor uses Telegram's public web preview endpoint (t.me/s/) to extract data using lightweight HTTP requests. No headless browser, no Telegram Bot API token, no proxy required. Fast, reliable, and cost-effective.

Key Features

• No API key required — works with Telegram's public web endpoint
• No proxy needed — the endpoint is publicly accessible
• No browser — pure HTTP requests, runs on minimal 256MB RAM
• Full message data — text, views, dates, authors, forwards, replies
• Media extraction — photos, videos, stickers, GIFs, documents, voice messages
• Reactions support — extract emoji reactions with counts
• Channel metadata — title, description, avatar, subscriber count
• Date filtering — extract messages within a specific date range
• Multi-channel — scrape multiple channels in a single run
• Flexible input — accepts full URLs, short URLs, or just channel names

Use Cases

• Crypto & DeFi Research — Monitor signal channels, track project announcements, analyze sentiment across crypto Telegram groups
• Brand Monitoring — Track mentions of your brand across public Telegram communities and news channels
• OSINT & Intelligence — Research public channels for investigative analysis and threat intelligence
• Content Aggregation — Collect and organize content from multiple channels for newsletters or dashboards
• Academic Research — Analyze public discourse patterns, information spread, and community dynamics
• Competitive Intelligence — Monitor competitor announcements, product launches, and community engagement

Input Example

{
    "channelUrls": [
        "https://t.me/s/durov",
        "t.me/techcrunch",
        "coindesk"
    ],
    "maxMessages": 50,
    "includeMedia": true,
    "startDate": "2026-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-04-09"
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
channelUrls	array of strings	Yes	—	Telegram channel URLs or names
maxMessages	integer	No	100	Max messages to extract per channel
includeMedia	boolean	No	true	Extract media URLs (photos, videos)
startDate	string	No	—	Only messages after this date (ISO format)
endDate	string	No	—	Only messages before this date (ISO format)

Output Example

Each message is stored as an individual item in the Apify dataset:

{
    "channel_name": "durov",
    "channel_title": "Durov's Channel",
    "message_id": 350,
    "date": "2026-04-05T18:30:00+00:00",
    "text": "Today we're launching a new feature that will change how people communicate...",
    "views": "2.1M",
    "views_numeric": 2100000,
    "link": "https://t.me/durov/350",
    "author": null,
    "forwarded_from": null,
    "reply_to_message_id": null,
    "media_type": "photo",
    "media_url": "https://cdn4.telegram-cdn.org/file/...",
    "reactions": [
        {"emoji": "\ud83d\udc4d", "count": 42000},
        {"emoji": "\u2764\ufe0f", "count": 15000}
    ],
    "scraped_at": "2026-04-09T15:00:00+00:00"
}

Pricing

This actor uses Pay Per Event pricing. You are charged $0.005 per message extracted.

Messages	Cost
100	$0.50
500	$2.50
1,000	$5.00
10,000	$50.00

Platform costs (compute and storage) are billed separately by Apify at standard rates. This actor is optimized to run on minimal resources (256MB RAM).

FAQ

Does this require a Telegram API key?

No. This actor uses Telegram's public web preview at t.me/s/ which requires no authentication. You don't need to create a Telegram app, get an API key, or provide any credentials.

Can it scrape private channels or groups?

No. This actor can only scrape public channels that have a web preview enabled. Private channels, groups, and channels that have disabled their web preview are not accessible.

Does it need proxies?

No. The Telegram web preview endpoint is publicly accessible and doesn't require proxies. The actor includes respectful rate limiting (1-2 second delays between requests) to avoid being blocked.

What's the rate limit?

The actor makes requests with a 1-2 second delay between them to be respectful of Telegram's servers. If rate-limited (HTTP 429), it automatically retries with exponential backoff. For most channels, you can extract 100 messages in under 30 seconds.

What formats can I export the data in?

Apify supports exporting datasets in JSON, CSV, Excel (XLSX), and XML formats. You can also access the data via the Apify API, integrate with Google Sheets, or connect to 2,000+ apps via webhooks and integrations.

Other Scrapers by Zhorex

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• Phone Number Validator — Validate and format phone numbers with carrier and location data

Legal Disclaimer

This actor only accesses publicly available data through Telegram's public web preview (t.me/s/). No authentication is bypassed, no private data is accessed, and no terms of service are violated. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of extracted data complies with applicable laws and Telegram's Terms of Service.

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