# Telegram Channel Scraper - Public Posts, No Login (`dami_studio/telegram-channel-scraper`) Actor

Scrape public Telegram channels for post text, date, views and author. You also get media links and the subscriber count. No bot token and no phone number needed. Telegram shows every public channel as a plain web page, and this reads that page. $1.50 per 1,000 posts.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dami\_studio/telegram-channel-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Dami's Studio](https://apify.com/dami_studio) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News, Integrations
- **Stats:** 5 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

$1.50 / 1,000 post returneds

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?

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

Reading a Telegram channel from code normally costs you a bot token, or a phone number wired into an MTProto client. Neither appears anywhere in this actor.

Telegram publishes a plain web version of every public channel at `t.me/s/<name>`. This reads that page and works backwards through the history, newest post first, until it hits your `maxItems` or reaches the channel's very first message.

### Input

```json
{
  "channels": ["durov", "@telegram", "https://t.me/tginfo"],
  "maxItems": 500,
  "includeChannelInfoRow": true
}
```

| Field | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `channels` | — | Username, `@handle` or `t.me` link. All three forms work. |
| `maxItems` | 100 | Posts per channel, up to 10,000. |
| `includeChannelInfoRow` | true | Emits one summary row per channel before its posts. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | off | Optional. The preview is a public endpoint with no anti-bot, so leave it off unless a high-volume run hits IP rate limits. |
| `notionConnector` / `notionParentId` | — | Optional delivery into Notion via an Apify MCP connector. |

### What you get per post

```json
{
  "ok": true,
  "rowType": "post",
  "channel": "durov",
  "messageId": 505,
  "postUrl": "https://t.me/durov/505",
  "text": "TON is #1 in annual staking rewards…",
  "date": "2026-05-08T17:41:53.000Z",
  "views": "3.76M",
  "author": "Pavel Durov",
  "hasMedia": true,
  "mediaType": "photo",
  "mediaUrl": "https://cdn4.telesco.pe/file/%E2%80%A6",
  "link": null,
  "channelTitle": "Pavel Durov",
  "subscribers": "11.1M"
}
```

`mediaType` is one of `photo`, `video`, `roundvideo`, `voice`, `sticker`, `document`, or `null`. `link` is the forwarded-from link or the link-preview target, when the post has one.

The channel info row, when enabled, carries `channelTitle`, `channelUsername`, `channelDescription`, `subscribers`, `photosCount`, `videosCount`, `linksCount` and `postsReturned`. The channel title and subscriber count are stapled onto every post row as well, so you can skip the info row and still have them.

### Limits worth knowing

- **Public channels only.** Private channels, groups, and channels with the web preview switched off return a `NOT_FOUND` row. There's no way around that without an account, and this actor doesn't use one.
- **`views` is a display string**, not a number. Telegram renders `3.76M`, so that's what you get. Parse it yourself if you need arithmetic.
- **The preview shows what it shows.** `text` is null on media-only posts, `views` is null on small or old channels, `author` is null on the many channels that don't sign posts, and `link` is null unless the post is a forward or has a link preview.
- **`mediaUrl` is a thumbnail**, not the original file. For photos and video covers it's the preview image Telegram serves; voice and document posts have no URL at all.
- **Paging goes backwards** through roughly 16 to 20 posts per request until it reaches `maxItems` or the channel's first message. A big channel at `maxItems: 10000` is a long run.
- **Posts are deduplicated by message id**, so you're never billed twice for one message.

### Billing

**$1.50 per 1,000 posts** ($0.0015 each). Flat on every plan.

Only post rows are charged. The channel info row is free, so the title, description and subscriber count cost you nothing. Diagnostic rows — `BAD_INPUT`, `NOT_FOUND`, `NO_RESULTS`, network errors — are free too, which means pointing it at a private channel or a dead handle costs nothing at all.

### When something comes back empty

- **`NOT_FOUND` or `NO_RESULTS`** — the channel is private, deleted, a group, or has its web preview disabled. Check that `t.me/s/<name>` opens in a browser.
- **`BAD_INPUT`** — no usable channel in the list.
- **`RATE_LIMITED` on a big run** — lower `maxItems` or turn the proxy on to spread requests across addresses.

# Actor input Schema

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

Public Telegram channels to scrape. Each entry can be a username (durov), an @handle (@durov), or a full link (https://t.me/durov). Only public channels with a web preview at t.me/s/<name> work — private channels and groups do not.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of posts to collect for each channel. The actor pages back through older posts (about 16-20 per page) until it reaches this number or runs out of messages.

## `includeChannelInfoRow` (type: `boolean`):

When on, the actor pushes one summary row per channel (title, subscribers, counts) before its posts. Channel title and subscriber count are also attached to every post row regardless of this setting.

## `notionConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Write each post as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless.

## `notionParentId` (type: `string`):

Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. The t.me web preview is a public endpoint with no anti-bot, so a proxy is NOT required and adds no benefit by default. Leave it off unless you hit IP rate limits on high-volume runs, in which case enabling Apify Proxy (datacenter is fine) can help.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "channels": [
    "telegram",
    "durov"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "includeChannelInfoRow": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Scraped rows are stored in the default dataset (one row per result). Blocked/empty/error runs return a single uncharged diagnostic row instead.

# 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",
        "durov"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dami_studio/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",
        "durov",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dami_studio/telegram-channel-scraper").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 '{
  "channels": [
    "telegram",
    "durov"
  ]
}' |
apify call dami_studio/telegram-channel-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/Oo3OyYWd8RGGbeaXw/builds/S7uoJeXyTkvQFak95/openapi.json