Telegram Channel Scraper (No Login)

A Telegram channel scraper that extracts public channel messages without API credentials. No API key, no phone number, no Telegram account, and no tdlib/Bot API setup needed.

Extract Telegram messages, post views, reactions, media URLs, forwarded-from info, and channel metadata from t.me/s/{channel} server-rendered preview pages. Export the results as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

What You Can Scrape From Telegram Channels

• No credentials required -- works on any public Telegram channel via server-rendered HTML
• Full message data -- text, HTML, date, view count, author signature, direct link
• Media extraction -- photo URLs and video URLs from each message
• Reactions -- emoji reactions with counts (e.g., thumbs_up 1.26K)
• Forwarded messages -- source channel name and URL for forwarded posts
• Channel metadata -- title, description, subscriber count, profile photo URL
• Pagination -- automatically loads older messages page by page
• Multi-channel -- scrape multiple channels in a single run

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
channelUsernames	string[]	["durov"]	Channel usernames to scrape (without @)
maxItems	integer	50	Max messages per channel (0 = no limit)
includeChannelInfo	boolean	true	Include channel metadata in each record

Output Fields

Each record contains:

Field	Description
channelUsername	Channel username (e.g., durov)
channelTitle	Channel display title
channelDescription	Channel description text
channelPhotoUrl	Channel profile photo URL
channelSubscribers	Subscriber count (e.g., 10.2M)
messageId	Numeric message ID
messageDate	ISO 8601 date (e.g., 2026-04-09T14:09:27+00:00)
messageText	Plain text content
messageHtml	HTML-formatted content
messageViews	View count (e.g., 3.69M)
messageAuthor	Post author signature (if enabled on channel)
messageLink	Direct t.me link to the message
messageMediaType	photo, video, or none
messageMediaUrl	URL of attached media
messageReactions	Array of reaction strings (e.g., ["thumbs_up 1.26K", "heart 106"])
messageForwardedFrom	Source channel name (if forwarded)
messageForwardedFromUrl	Original message URL (if forwarded)

Example Output

{
  "channelUsername": "durov",
  "channelTitle": "Pavel Durov",
  "channelSubscribers": "10.2M",
  "messageId": 482,
  "messageDate": "2026-04-09T14:09:27+00:00",
  "messageText": "Telegram has reached a milestone...",
  "messageViews": "2.25M",
  "messageAuthor": "Pavel Durov",
  "messageLink": "https://t.me/durov/482",
  "messageMediaType": "none",
  "messageMediaUrl": "",
  "messageReactions": ["thumbs_up 3.77K", "heart 380"],
  "messageForwardedFrom": "",
  "messageForwardedFromUrl": ""
}

How It Works

1. Fetches https://t.me/s/{channel} which returns the latest ~20 messages as server-rendered HTML
2. Extracts message data using CSS selectors (Cheerio)
3. Paginates backwards using ?before={message_id} to load older messages
4. Stops when maxItems is reached or no more messages are available

Limitations

• Public channels only -- private channels and groups are not accessible via t.me/s/
• View counts -- displayed as formatted strings (e.g., "3.69M"), not raw numbers
• Media -- extracts URLs but does not download media files
• Reactions -- returned as formatted strings, not structured objects (per Apify dataset schema rules)
• Rate limiting -- t.me rate-limits by IP; for large-scale scraping (1000+ messages), consider using proxy rotation

FAQ

How do I scrape a Telegram channel without an API key or phone number? Point this actor at any public channel username. It reads the t.me/s/{channel} preview page directly, so there is no Bot API token, tdlib build, or phone-number login involved.

Can I export Telegram channel messages to CSV or Excel? Yes. Every run produces a dataset you can download as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Apify run page or pull through the API.

Does this work on private Telegram channels or groups? No. Only public channels with a t.me/s/ preview are accessible. Private channels and groups are not exposed without a logged-in account.

Can I scrape views, reactions, and forwarded messages from a Telegram channel? Yes. Each message record includes the view count, reaction strings with counts, and the source channel name and URL for forwarded posts.

Cost

Pay-per-event pricing: $0.10 per actor start + $0.001 per message scraped.

Need More Features?

If you need additional fields, date range filtering, or a custom scraper for another platform, file an issue or get in touch. We customize scrapers to suit your needs.