Is the Telegram API free? Bot API, MTProto and limits (2026)

November 8, 2026

Short answer

Yes. Both of Telegram's developer APIs are free: the Bot API, with a token from @BotFather, and the full MTProto API, with an api_id from my.telegram.org. The limits are about access, not price: a bot only sees chats it is a member of and only new updates, while an MTProto client acts as a user account, with one api_id per phone number and permanent bans for abuse.

Telegram's API terms open with it: developers may use the API and source code "free of charge". The only paid item for developers is paid broadcasts for very large bots. What decides your project is which of the two APIs you use and what each can see. For collection methods in detail, see Telegram channel scraper.

The two APIs

	Bot API	MTProto API (Telegram API)
Access	Message @BotFather, run /newbot, get a token	Log in at my.telegram.org, open API development tools, get api_id and api_hash
Price	Free; paid broadcasts cost 0.1 Stars per message above the free rate	Free
Acts as	A bot	A user account tied to a phone number
Reads	Messages in chats and channels the bot is a member of	What that user can see, including public channel history
History	No. Updates wait at most 24 hours to be fetched	Yes, through history methods
Main limits	About 1 message a second per chat, 20 a minute per group, about 30 a second in bulk	One api_id per phone number; flood waits; bans for abuse

Sources: the bot tutorial, bots FAQ, Bot API reference and obtaining api_id.

The Bot API

A bot gets updates through getUpdates or a webhook. Telegram keeps undelivered updates for at most 24 hours, and a bot cannot see messages from other bots. With privacy mode on, a bot in a group sees only commands, replies to it and a few other cases; with privacy mode off, or as an admin, it sees all messages except other bots'. Bots receive all messages from channels they are a member of.

curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/getUpdates"

The only money involved: bulk sending above about 30 messages a second needs paid broadcasts, up to 1,000 a second, at 0.1 Stars per message over the free rate. Turning it on requires at least 100,000 Stars and 100,000 monthly active users.

The MTProto API

This is the full client protocol, used by libraries such as Telethon. It can read the history of public channels as a logged-in user. The terms that come with it are strict:

Each phone number can hold one api_id.
Accounts using unofficial clients are placed under observation, and flooding, spam or faking subscriber and view counts can get you "banned forever".
Section 1.5 of the API terms prohibits using data from Telegram to train or develop AI and machine learning models.
If your app shows channel content, it must support Telegram's official sponsored messages.
Your app name cannot include "Telegram" unless it starts with "Unofficial".

Worked example: 300 public channels

You want daily subscriber counts and new posts with views for 300 public channels. A bot sees only channels it has been added to, so it cannot follow channels run by other people unless their admins add it. An MTProto script can read them, but it runs on one phone number's account, and a ban takes that account with it. Spread reads over the day and log flood-wait errors.

Which one fits you

Your own channel or group, new messages only: a bot. Free and low risk.
History of public channels for research, at modest volume: MTProto with Telethon, on a dedicated number, without AI training.
A quick look at a public channel: its web preview at t.me/s/CHANNEL, covered in our channel guide.
Hundreds of channels without a user account at risk: a data API.

Doing it with ScrapeIO

ScrapeIO reads public channels without a phone number or session: the telegram channel API for name, description, subscribers and media counts, the telegram channel posts API for the latest posts with views, and the telegram post API for one post. The 300-channel daily job is 600 calls, about 18,000 a month, or roughly $34 at the Starter rate. Agents can use the Telegram MCP server.

Sources

Checked on 8 November 2026 from each vendor's own pages. Prices and limits change; follow the links before you decide.

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