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100 free credits. No credit card required

Telegram Scraper API

Telegram API: 3 endpoints for public channel profiles, paginated post history, and single posts by URL. Subscriber counts come back exact, media arrives as playable CDN URLs, and every call costs 1 credit. No bot token, no phone number, no MTProto session.

TL;DR

The Telegram API by SocialCrawl returns Telegram data as structured JSON: 3 endpoints behind one x-api-key, from 1 credit per call. It shares one unified schema with 63 other platforms, so the same client code works everywhere.

Live demo

Try the Telegram API in your browser

Type a real handle, run a real request, see the JSON SocialCrawl returns. No signup, no key. Same response shape you get in production.

Returns a public Telegram channel or group profile: display name, description, avatar URL, verified badge, and an exact subscriber count.

Use it when you have a handle and want the channel snapshot, or to confirm a channel is public before paging its posts.

Try the Telegram Profile API

See real data before writing a single line

GET/v1/telegram/profile

Public Telegram handle, with or without the leading @, or a t.me channel URL

Endpoints

What data does the Telegram API return?

Every endpoint returns structured JSON in a unified envelope. Computed fields such as engagement rate and content category are included only where the endpoint supports them and the required source inputs are present.

Last updated September 2026

Maintained by the SocialCrawl team, reviewed September 2026

Profilestandard

Get Telegram channel profile

Profile Postsstandard

List Telegram channel posts

Poststandard

Get Telegram post

What you get

What Telegram data can you get?

Every Telegram endpoint uses the same response envelope, so one parser handles the whole platform. These are fields returned by current public responses, subject to each endpoint's documented cache window.

Quickstart

How to scrape Telegram in 3 steps

No proxies, no headless browsers, no login sessions. Send one authenticated GET request and read structured JSON back.

  1. 1

    Get a free API key

    Create an account and copy your key from the dashboard. Signup includes 100 free credits, and no card is required.

  2. 2

    Call the Profile endpoint

    Send a GET request with your key in the x-api-key header. Here is the full Telegram Profile request:

    curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
      "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/telegram/profile?handle=telegram"
  3. 3

    Read the unified JSON

    The response comes back in the shared SocialCrawl schema. Where the endpoint supports them and the required source inputs are present, fields such as engagement_rate and content_category are filled in too. Your client can rely on the shared envelope while treating enriched fields as optional.

Requirements and limits

Requirements and limits

Everything you need to know before your first Telegram call.

Authentication
One API key, passed in the x-api-key request header. No OAuth flow, no app review, and no per-platform credentials to manage.
Pagination
List endpoints return a next_cursor and a has_more flag. Pass the cursor back to page through results, with the same contract on every platform.
Credits
Calls start at 1 credits and are deducted per request. Every account starts with 100 free credits, and credits never expire.
Rate limits
Two ceilings, both per API key and identical on every plan: 600 requests per minute and 50 simultaneous requests. Neither costs you a credit when it rejects a request, and past them your credit balance is the only throttle.
Pricing

How much does the Telegram API cost?

Simple credit-based pricing with no subscription. You pay per call, and the exact credit cost of every Telegram endpoint is listed below.

EndpointCredits per call
Profile1 credit
Profile Posts1 credit
Post1 credit

Every account starts with 100 free credits, and no card is required.

At credit-pack pricing that works out to roughly £0.002 to £0.006 per call, and credits never expire.

Developer First

How do you scrape social media data in seconds?

The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 64 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.

One schema, every platform

Query 64 platforms with identical response structures. Write your integration once.

Computed fields, not just scraped

When an endpoint supports these metrics and the source provides the required inputs, the normalized record includes engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category, and language. Ready to use.

See your data before you code

Visual Data Explorer. Paste any URL, get rich result cards, sortable tables, CSV export.

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/tiktok/profile',
    params={'handle': 'charlidamelio'},
    headers={'x-api-key': 'sc_YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json()
[ .JSON ]
{
  "success": true,
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "data": {
    "author": {
      "username": "charlidamelio",
      "followers": 152400000
    },
    "engagement": {
      "likes": 12400000000,
      "engagement_rate": 0.087
    },
    "metadata": {
      "language": "en",
      "content_category": "lifestyle"
    }
  }
}
+ 64 platforms
One API, 64 platforms

How does SocialCrawl handle 64 different platforms?

Social media scraping is hard. Schema normalization, authentication, rate limits, pagination. We handle all of it before your data arrives.

One schema, every platform

Write once, query them all.

64 platforms return 64 different JSON shapes. We normalize every response into one consistent structure.

Ready-to-use metrics

Metrics ready before you ask.

Normalized records include supported metrics such as engagement rate, estimated reach, content category, and language when the required source inputs are available.

Consistent pagination

One cursor, every platform.

Every platform paginates differently. We give you one consistent cursor-based system.

Freshness you control

Fresh when it matters. Free on repeat.

Cache misses fetch current public data. Identical requests are cached for 2 to 30 minutes by data type and cost 0 credits on a hit; send Cache-Control: no-cache for a billed refresh.

Things you'll never build

Auth, proxies, and rate limits, handled

Platform authentication, IP rotation, and rate limit management are all abstracted away. Just send a GET request.

Start for free
Reviews

What developers say

Rated 4.9 out of 5 from 200 developer reviews
The unified schema saved us weeks of integration work. One parser handles every platform.
Alex Chen, Full-Stack Developer
Our agents process social data from 64 platforms with zero platform-specific logic. One schema, end to end.
Sarah Kim, AI Engineer, AgentFlow
I paste an influencer's URL and get everything (followers, engagement rate, content categories) without touching code.
James Rivera, Marketing Director
We switched from building our own scrapers. SocialCrawl handles the hard stuff, we focus on insights.
Maria Santos, CTO, DataPulse
The computed fields alone (engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category) saved us an entire data pipeline.
David Park, Lead Data Scientist
Comparison

How does SocialCrawl compare to Official Telegram API for Telegram data?

Same Telegram data, two very different paths. Auth, rate limits, schema, and cost, side by side.

Read any public channel

SocialCrawl
Yes, by handle or t.me URL
Official Telegram API
Bot API reads only channels your bot administers

Credentials needed

SocialCrawl
One x-api-key
Official Telegram API
Bot token, or an account on a real phone number for MTProto

Post history

SocialCrawl
Cursor pagination through the whole public archive
Official Telegram API
Bot API cannot read history it did not receive live

Media

SocialCrawl
Playable CDN URLs on every photo and video
Official Telegram API
File ids that need a second authenticated download call

Response shape

SocialCrawl
Same canonical JSON as every other platform
Official Telegram API
Raw MTProto objects with protocol flags and int64 ids

Rate limits

SocialCrawl
Standard account limits, no per-channel throttle
Official Telegram API
Per-bot and per-chat flood limits enforced by Telegram
Quick answers

How much does Telegram scraping cost?

SocialCrawl uses credit-based pricing: you pay per API call, and most Telegram endpoints cost just a few credits. Every account starts with 100 free credits. No subscriptions, no compute units, no credit card required.

See pricing

Is Telegram scraping legal?

SocialCrawl returns publicly available Telegram data. Courts have generally upheld scraping public data, most notably in hiQ v. LinkedIn, but compliance depends on your use case and jurisdiction. You are responsible for following applicable laws and platform terms.

Glossary

Common Telegram scraping terms

The phrases developers search for when they need Telegram data, and what each one means with SocialCrawl.

Telegram scraper API
A Telegram scraper API returns Telegram data as structured JSON without you running any scraping infrastructure. SocialCrawl handles the proxies, parsing, and format changes, so you call an endpoint and get clean fields back. Pricing starts at 1 credits per call.
Telegram data API
A Telegram data API is a programmatic way to read public Telegram data on demand. SocialCrawl exposes 3 Telegram endpoints behind one x-api-key, all sharing the same unified schema, so your integration never has to change per platform.
scrape Telegram
To scrape Telegram is to extract its public data programmatically instead of by hand. With SocialCrawl you scrape Telegram by sending a single authenticated request, and the response is normalised into the same JSON shape used across every platform.
Read the full API reference
FAQ

Have a question? We got answers

Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.

Contact us
How do I scrape Telegram channel data with an API?
SocialCrawl exposes 3 Telegram endpoints: channel profile, channel post history, and a single post by URL. Send a GET request with your x-api-key and a channel handle or t.me URL, and you get normalized JSON back. There is no bot token to create, no phone number to register, and no MTProto session to keep alive.
Do I need a Telegram bot token or a phone number?
No. The official Bot API only reads channels your bot administers, and MTProto requires an account registered to a real phone number. SocialCrawl reads the public channel surface directly, so you can pull any public channel you have the handle for without holding credentials of your own.
Which Telegram channels can I read?
Public channels and groups that expose a public preview page. Private channels, invite-only groups, and channels whose owner has disabled the public preview are not readable and return a clear not-found response rather than an empty result you would have to guess about.
Are Telegram view and reaction counts exact?
Subscriber counts on the channel profile are exact. View and reaction counts on individual posts are rounded to three significant figures by Telegram's own public surface, so a post showing 931,193 views reads as 931,000. Use them for ranking and comparison rather than for hour-by-hour delta tracking.
How do I page through a channel's whole history?
Pass the cursor from each response back on the next call until it comes back absent. Page size varies because photo albums count as one post and service messages are skipped, so a short page is not the end of the channel. A full walk of a 546-message channel returned 426 posts across 24 pages with no duplicate rows.
What does the Telegram API cost?
All 3 Telegram endpoints cost 1 credit per call. Cached responses and not-found lookups are free, and new accounts start with 100 credits, so you can test the whole surface before paying anything.
Is scraping Telegram data legal?
SocialCrawl returns publicly available Telegram data and does not access private or login-gated content. Whether scraping fits your project depends on your use case and jurisdiction. You are responsible for complying with Telegram's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws such as GDPR and CCPA. This is general information, not legal advice.
Telegram scraping API vs the official Telegram API: what's the difference?
With SocialCrawl there is no app review or approval queue. Sign up and call Telegram endpoints immediately with a single x-api-key. Responses share one unified schema with every other SocialCrawl platform, and credit-based pricing replaces per-platform quotas. Official APIs are still the right choice for posting and other write actions: SocialCrawl is read-only data.

Ask AI about SocialCrawl

Ready to start scraping Telegram data?

Get your API key and access all 3 Telegram endpoints in under 60 seconds.

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