How to Scrape Public Telegram Channels in 2026

November 8, 2026

Public Telegram channels carry news, crypto calls, product updates and creator content, often before it shows up anywhere else. Collecting their posts is straightforward if you pick the right route. This guide compares the three main methods, with code and the rules Telegram sets for each. It covers public channels only; private groups and chats are out of scope.

Method 1: the public web preview

Every public channel has a web preview at https://t.me/s/CHANNEL. It needs no login and shows the channel's name, description, subscriber count and its latest posts with view counts. In our check on 8 November 2026, the page showed 20 posts, and adding ?before=POST_ID returned the 20 before that. Each post block carries a data-post attribute like telegram/441, a time element with an ISO date, the text, and the views.

import re, requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

def count(s):
    s = s.strip().upper()
    mult = {"K": 1e3, "M": 1e6, "B": 1e9}.get(s[-1:], 1)
    return int(float(s.rstrip("KMB")) * mult)

def page(channel, before=None):
    url = f"https://t.me/s/{channel}" + (f"?before={before}" if before else "")
    soup = BeautifulSoup(requests.get(url, timeout=20).text, "html.parser")
    posts = []
    for m in soup.select(".tgme_widget_message[data-post]"):
        text = m.select_one(".tgme_widget_message_text")
        views = m.select_one(".tgme_widget_message_views")
        when = m.select_one(".tgme_widget_message_date time")
        posts.append({
            "id": int(m["data-post"].split("/")[1]),
            "text": text.get_text(" ", strip=True) if text else "",
            "views": count(views.text) if views else None,
            "created_at": when["datetime"] if when else None,
        })
    return posts

Know the limits. Counts are rounded, so "1.66M" is all you get. Some media types render as "not supported" in the preview. Channels can turn the preview off. And it only works for public channels with a username.

Method 2: an MTProto client such as Telethon

For full history, exact counts, media and replies, developers use Telegram's own client protocol through a library. Telethon is the best known; its GitHub repository says it has moved to Codeberg. The quick start shows the pattern:

from telethon import TelegramClient

client = TelegramClient("session", API_ID, API_HASH)

async def main():
    async for msg in client.iter_messages("channel_username", limit=200):
        print(msg.id, msg.date, msg.views, (msg.text or "")[:80])

with client:
    client.loop.run_until_complete(main())

This route runs as a logged-in Telegram user, so read Telegram's rules first. Its API ID page says:

• You get an api_id and api_hash at my.telegram.org, and each phone number can have only one api_id.
• All third-party clients must follow the API Terms of Service.
• Accounts that sign in with unofficial clients are automatically put under observation.
• Using the API for flooding, spam or faking subscriber and view counts gets you banned forever.

Use a dedicated account, go slowly, and respect the waits Telegram sends back. Pyrogram, another popular library, is archived on GitHub, so prefer a maintained one for new work.

Method 3: a bot

The Bot API is the easiest to run, but it can only see what it is in. Telegram's bot FAQ says bots receive all messages from channels where they are a member. That makes bots right for channels you run or partners who add your bot, and useless for monitoring channels you do not control.

Which method to use

Telegram data quirks

• Post IDs are per channel. telegram/441 and durov/441 are different posts. Always store the channel with the ID.
• Channels get renamed. The username in the URL can change. With an MTProto client you get a numeric channel ID that does not; store it when you can.
• Forwards carry their source. Many channels repost others. Record the original channel so you do not count one story ten times.
• Albums can be several messages. A post with many photos may arrive as a group of messages, with the caption on one of them.
• Views keep growing. A post's views after one hour and after one week are very different numbers. Compare posts at the same age.

A monitoring checklist

1. Key posts by channel plus post ID; IDs only go up, so store the highest one you have seen.
2. Re-read posts after 24 and 72 hours if you track view growth.
3. Keep edits: compare text when you re-read and store versions.
4. Record the subscriber count daily to compute views per subscriber.

Doing it with ScrapeIO

If you want the web preview data without maintaining a parser, the Telegram channel API returns name, description, subscribers and media counts, the channel posts API returns the latest posts with views and a cursor, and the Telegram post API reads one post by URL. No Telegram account is involved. See the Telegram endpoints.

Sources

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

• https://core.telegram.org/api/obtaining_api_id
• https://core.telegram.org/bots/faq
• https://docs.telethon.dev/en/stable/basic/quick-start.html
• https://github.com/LonamiWebs/Telethon
• https://github.com/pyrogram/pyrogram