How to use it: 3 steps
- Make a free Apify accountApify is the cloud platform where our tools run. The free plan gives you $5 of usage every month, no credit card needed. You pay Apify, not us.
- Paste your input and press StartNo code needed: you fill in a form (the input). It already has a working example. For example:
durovin Channels. Each start is one run. - Download the resultsWhen the run ends, the results are in a table (the dataset). Open Output, press Export and pick Excel or CSV. JSON and the API are there too.
This tool is an Apify Actor: a small program that runs on Apify. You can also run it on a schedule, for example every Monday. New to it? Read how it works, step by step and the 8 words you need first.
What it does
Scrape posts from public Telegram channels with no login, no phone number and no API keys, and get clean JSON rows with text, date, view count as a number, media links, reactions, forwards and channel info with the exact subscriber count.
Good for
- Follow what a list of public news, crypto or brand channels posted today.
- Build a dataset of posts with text, views, reactions, media and links.
- Find posts about a keyword or #hashtag inside many channels at once.
- Get subscriber counts and descriptions of many channels.
- Send only new posts to a spreadsheet, a chat or an AI agent every hour.
Not a good fit
- Only public channels that have a web preview. Private channels, invite links (
t.me/+...), groups, chats, users and bots are not supported. - No comments, no member or subscriber lists, no DMs, no global Telegram search: only posts of the channels you give.
- Telegram rounds view and reaction counts on the web (for example
830K). The Actor turns them into numbers (830000); it cannot make them more exact than Telegram shows. - Videos: the web preview usually gives only a preview image, not the video file. Photo links work, but all media links are temporary.
- One run reads about 1,800 posts in full; at about 4.5 minutes it stops and keeps what it has (see Limits).
Who uses it
News and crypto analysts
Follow what many public channels posted today.
Marketing teams
Compare channels by views and subscriber counts.
AI builders
Send only new posts to an AI agent every hour.
Price
Pay per event: you pay for each result the tool saves, plus a small start fee for each run. The price includes Apify platform costs. Apify bills you, not us. Prices below are for the Apify free plan.
| What you pay for | Price | When |
|---|---|---|
| Start fee | $0.0001 | Charged once per run. This tool uses 1 GB of memory or less by default; more memory costs more. |
| Post row | $0.002 (from $0.0004 on paid Apify plans) | One public post saved to the dataset with text, date, views, media, reactions and links. |
| Channel checked | $0.002 (from $0.001 on paid Apify plans) | One channel looked up: a channel row with title, description, subscribers and counters, or a not_found row. Channels that fail with an error are free. |
Examples
- One result: about $0.0021.
- 1,000 results: about $2.00.
- Every day 100 results, for 30 days: about $6.00 a month.
Free to try: the Apify free plan gives you $5 of usage every month, no credit card needed. That is enough for about 2,400 results.
Prices checked on 24 October 2026. See the current price on Apify.
Questions
Do I need a Telegram account or API ID?
No. The tool reads the public web preview that anyone can open.
Can I scrape private channels or groups?
No. Only public channels with a web preview work.
Why are view counts rounded?
Telegram shows rounded counts on the web, like 830K. Subscriber counts can be exact.
How many posts can one run get?
About 1,800 posts per run. Split big lists into several runs.
Why are views like 830000 and not exact?
Telegram shows rounded counts on the web (830K). The Actor gives you the number (views) and the original text (viewsText). Exact view counts are not public.
Can I get comments, members or posts from private channels?
No. These are not in the public web preview.
Are the counts live?
Views, reactions and subscribers are as they were at fetchedAt. Run again to refresh them.
Is scraping Telegram allowed?
The Actor reads only public pages that Telegram shows without login, at a slow rate, and does not bypass any login or CAPTCHA. You are responsible for how you collect, store and reuse the content, including personal data and authors' rights, under Telegram's terms and the laws that apply to you.
Details
Step by step on Apify
- Open the Input tab.
- Add one or more channels to Channels (
channels), for exampledurovandtelegram(this is the prefill). - Keep Max posts per channel (
maxPostsPerChannel) at 20, or set a higher number. - Click Start.
- Open the Output tab: the Posts view shows the post columns (channel, date, text, views, media); the Channels view shows the channel columns (status, title, subscribers). Both views list all rows; the Row type column tells posts and channels apart.
Use cases
| Task | Input | You get | Key fields | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly news or crypto monitoring | channels + onlyNew | post | date, text, url, views | Schedule + webhook, Google Sheets, Slack |
| Post engagement research | channels + maxPostsPerChannel | post | views, reactions, forwardedFrom | CSV / Excel export |
| Keyword tracking | channels + searchQuery + since | post | text, date, searchQuery | API, spreadsheet |
| Channel directory | channels + includeChannelInfo | channel | subscribers, title, description, verified | API, spreadsheet |
| AI agent context | channels (small) | post | text, date, url | MCP |
Tips for better results
- Turn on only-new for hourly or daily schedules.
- Use search inside channels to find a keyword or hashtag.
- Download media files soon; Telegram media links expire.
Limits and good to know
- Up to 100 channels per run and 1,000 posts per channel. Telegram's web preview gives about 20 posts per page, and the Actor reads about one page per second
- Each run stops reading Telegram after about 4.5 minutes, whatever the run timeout is. That is enough for about 1,800 posts. If the time runs out, saved rows stay, the run is
CAPPED, the channel being read iscappedand the rest areunprocessed. Split large lists into several runs - If you set a maximum cost per run, the Actor stops before going over it: rows already saved stay, the run is
SUCCEEDEDwithCAPPEDinRUN_SUMMARY - View, reaction and subscriber texts are rounded by Telegram; only
subscriberswithincludeChannelInfois exact - Media links (
telesco.pe) expire after some time. Download the files soon if you need them
For developers
Sample result
One result from a real test run, in JSON. Real values change from run to run. In Excel or CSV each field is a column.
{
"recordType": "post",
"channel": "durov",
"channelTitle": "Pavel Durov",
"postId": 552,
"url": "https://t.me/durov/552",
"date": "2026-10-11T14:52:40+00:00",
"edited": false,
"text": "✨ Designers × AI\n\n🆕 The mockup era is over. …",
"author": "Pavel Durov",
"views": 830000,
"viewsText": "830K",
"forwardedFrom": "Telegram Designers",
"forwardedFromUrl": "https://t.me/designers/266",
"replyToPostId": null,
"replyToUrl": null,
"mediaType": "video",
"mediaUrl": "https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/…",
"media": [
{
"type": "video",
"url": null,
"thumbnailUrl": "https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/…",
"durationText": "1:15",
"title": null
}
],
"linkPreview": null,
"poll": null,
"links": ["https://t.me/designers"],
"hashtags": [],
"reactions": [
{ "emoji": "⭐", "paid": true, "count": 5280, "countText": "5.28K" },
{ "emoji": "custom:5936157098181135162", "paid": false, "count": 10700, "countText": "10.7K" }
],
"searchQuery": null,
"sourceUrl": "https://t.me/s/durov",
"fetchedAt": "2026-10-14T15:01:48.976Z"
}Use it from code
Actor ID: cliqtomedia/telegram-channel-scraper. You need your Apify API token from Apify Console → Settings → API & Integrations.
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("cliqtomedia/telegram-channel-scraper").call(run_input={
"channels": [
"durov",
"telegram"
],
"maxPostsPerChannel": 20
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item)curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cliqtomedia~telegram-channel-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"channels": ["durov", "telegram"], "maxPostsPerChannel": 20}'# pip install langchain-apify
# set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment
from langchain_apify import ApifyActorsTool
tool = ApifyActorsTool("cliqtomedia/telegram-channel-scraper")
result = tool.invoke({"run_input": {"channels": ["durov", "telegram"], "maxPostsPerChannel": 20}})
print(result)The cURL call waits for the results, up to 300 seconds. For longer runs, start a run (/runs) and get the results with a webhook or by checking the run. Apify API docs. LlamaIndex, MCP for AI agents and the JavaScript client: AI agents & MCP.
Data fields (40)
| Field | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
recordType | string | Row type: post or channel. |
status | string | Channel rows: complete, not_found, error (the source failed) or capped (cut short by the run time or request limit; free). Post rows have no status. |
statusCode | string | Channel rows: NOT_FOUND, NO_PUBLIC_PREVIEW, RATE_LIMITED, SOURCE_SCHEMA_CHANGED, ...; null when complete. |
statusReason | string | Plain-English reason for not_found and error rows; null when complete. |
channel | string | Channel username, e.g. durov. |
channelTitle | string | Channel display name (post rows). |
postId | integer | Post number inside the channel. |
url | string | Link to the post (https://t.me/<channel>/<postId>) or to the channel. |
date | string | Publication time, ISO 8601 UTC. |
edited | boolean | true if the post was edited. |
text | string | Post text with line breaks; empty for media-only posts. |
author | string | Author signature, when the channel signs posts. |
views | integer | View count; Telegram rounds large numbers (827K becomes 827000). |
viewsText | string | View count exactly as Telegram shows it, e.g. 827K. |
forwardedFrom | string | Name of the original channel or user for forwarded posts. |
forwardedFromUrl | string | Link to the original post or channel for forwarded posts. |
replyToPostId | integer | ID of the post this post replies to, inside the same channel. |
replyToUrl | string | Link to the replied post. |
mediaType | string | photo, video, round_video, album, document, audio, voice, sticker, poll, location, unsupported, or null for text posts. |
mediaUrl | string | Preview image of the first media item (temporary Telegram CDN link). |
media | array | All media items: type, url (when the preview exposes the file), thumbnailUrl, durationText, title. |
linkPreview | object | Link preview card: url, siteName, title, description, imageUrl. |
poll | object | Poll: question, type, votersText, options with percent. |
links | array | Links in the post text. |
hashtags | array | Hashtags in the post text. |
reactions | array | Reactions: emoji (or custom:<id>, ⭐ for paid), count, countText. |
searchQuery | string | Your searchQuery, when the post came from a channel search. |
title | string | Channel title (channel rows). |
description | string | Channel description (channel rows). |
verified | boolean | Channel has the verified badge. |
avatarUrl | string | Channel avatar image (temporary Telegram CDN link). |
subscribers | integer | Exact subscriber count from the channel page; null when unavailable. |
subscribersText | string | Rounded subscriber count shown on the preview, e.g. 10.4M. |
photos | integer | Photos in the channel (rounded by Telegram). |
videos | integer | Videos in the channel (rounded by Telegram). |
files | integer | Files in the channel (rounded by Telegram). |
linksShared | integer | Links shared in the channel (rounded by Telegram). |
postsReturned | integer | Error rows: posts saved for this channel before the error. |
sourceUrl | string | The t.me page the row was read from. |
fetchedAt | string | When the row was scraped, ISO 8601 UTC. |
Input settings (7)
The main fields of the input form. With the API you send them as JSON.
| Setting | Name in the API | Type | Example value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Channels required | channels | array | ["durov", "telegram"] |
| Max posts per channel | maxPostsPerChannel | integer | 20 |
| Only posts since | since | string | |
| Search inside channels | searchQuery | string | |
| Exact subscriber count | includeChannelInfo | boolean | true |
| Only new posts since the last run | onlyNew | boolean | false |
| Monitoring name | stateKey | string |
Use cases with this tool
Each guide shows all the steps and the other tools.