# Telegram Channel Scraper — Public Posts & Channel Info (`andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape public Telegram channel posts and info — text, links, views, media, dates — with no login, phone number, or API keys. Clean JSON, pay per post. Reliable public-channel data for monitoring, research and AI.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Andreas Lund Helstrøm](https://apify.com/andreaslh) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Developer tools, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 95.7% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 posts

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Telegram Channel Scraper — Public Posts & Channel Info

Extract posts from **public Telegram channels** — fast, reliable, and with no login, no phone number, no API keys, and no bot setup. This scraper reads Telegram's own public web preview, so you get clean structured JSON straight into spreadsheets, dashboards, databases, or AI pipelines.

### What you get

**Per post:**

- Message text (line breaks preserved) and all outbound links
- Post ID, direct `t.me` URL, and timestamp (ISO 8601)
- View count
- Photos and video URLs, round-video / document flags
- Link-preview card (title, description, site, URL)
- Forwarded-from and reply indicators, author signature

**Per channel (channel-info):**

- Title, @username, description
- Subscriber count, and photo/video/link totals
- Channel avatar

### Why this scraper

- **No credentials, ever** — no Telegram account, phone number, API ID, or bot token. It reads only what Telegram publishes openly at `t.me/s/<channel>`.
- **Reliable** — talks to a stable public endpoint, not a fragile logged-in session, so runs succeed and don't get you rate-limited into oblivion.
- **Clean output** — flat, consistent fields ready for analysis, with numbers already parsed (`1.35M` → `1350000`).
- **Pay per item** — charged only for posts/channels actually returned, capped by your settings.
- **AI-agent ready** — callable by agents and LLM workflows via Apify's MCP integration.

### Quick start

Scrape recent posts from a few channels:

```json
{
    "operation": "channel-posts",
    "channels": ["telegram", "@durov", "https://t.me/blog"],
    "maxItemsPerChannel": 200
}
```

Monitor channels for a keyword:

```json
{
    "operation": "channel-posts",
    "channels": ["durov", "telegram"],
    "keyword": "update",
    "maxItemsPerChannel": 100
}
```

Just get channel stats:

```json
{
    "operation": "channel-info",
    "channels": ["telegram", "durov"]
}
```

#### Example output (post)

```json
{
    "id": 435,
    "channel": "telegram",
    "url": "https://t.me/telegram/435",
    "date": "2026-04-09T07:01:44+00:00",
    "text": "AI Text Editor. The message bar now has a built-in editor…",
    "outLinks": [],
    "views": 1350000,
    "author": null,
    "isForwarded": false,
    "photos": [],
    "videos": ["https://cdn…/video.mp4"],
    "linkPreview": null
}
```

### Use cases

- **Brand & topic monitoring** — track mentions across public channels with the keyword filter.
- **Crypto / news / OSINT** — collect timestamped public-channel posts for research and alerting.
- **Content analytics** — study posting cadence, view counts, and formats in your niche.
- **Datasets for AI** — feed clean public broadcast text into LLM and research pipelines.

### Scope, fair use & privacy

This actor accesses **only public channels** — the same content anyone can view (and search engines can index) at `t.me/s/<channel>`, which channel owners have chosen to broadcast publicly. It **cannot** access private channels, group chats, direct messages, or user accounts, by design — which also keeps it on the right side of Telegram's terms and data-protection rules. It paces requests politely and retries gently on rate limits. Please use the output lawfully and respect the rights of channel owners.

### Troubleshooting

- **"Channel not found"** — the channel is private, deleted, or the name is misspelled. Only public channels with a `t.me/s/` preview work; try opening `https://t.me/s/<channel>` in a browser to confirm.
- **Fewer posts than expected** — the channel simply has fewer public posts, or your `maxItemsPerChannel` cap was reached.
- **Missing a field** — not every post has views/media/links; the scraper returns what's present and leaves the rest null.

Missing a feature or hit a bug? Open an issue on the actor page — it gets a fast response.

# Actor input Schema

## `operation` (type: `string`):

Scrape channel posts, or just fetch channel info (subscribers, description).

## `channels` (type: `array`):

Public Telegram channels as username, @handle, or t.me link (e.g. telegram, @durov, https://t.me/durov). Private channels and user accounts are not accessible.

## `keyword` (type: `string`):

Only return posts whose text contains this word or phrase (case-insensitive). Applies to the channel-posts operation.

## `maxItemsPerChannel` (type: `integer`):

How many posts to fetch per channel, newest first. You are only charged for posts actually returned.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "operation": "channel-posts",
  "channels": [
    "telegram"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerChannel": 200
}
```

# 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 = {
    "channels": [
        "telegram"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper").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 = { "channels": ["telegram"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "channels": [
    "telegram"
  ]
}' |
apify call andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=andreaslh/telegram-channel-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/AhxvIRiBbS7q8eAsS/builds/84HYIxwTUXHObW2Qn/openapi.json