Best Telegram data APIs, 2026Every main way to get Telegram channel data.Telegram’s Bot API and Telegram API, its public channel pages and the main channel data APIs, compared on what they return, how they charge and how you connect.
An editorial comparison of what each vendor publishes, checked 25 Sept 2026. Monocrawl is ours and listed first. How we compared
What are you building?
New posts and view counts from the public channels you followA data API that reads a public channel’s posts with their views. They differ most in how they charge.
Post histories and reactions, and where each post was forwarded fromAn option that pages back through a channel’s posts with their reactions and where each was forwarded from. TGStat and Telemetr.io also search their own post archives.
Views and reactions on the posts you paid to placeAn option that looks up a single post. TGStat and Telemetr.io also chart a post’s views over time.
An AI agent that looks up channels and postsAn option with an MCP server that reaches Telegram data, so the agent can call it directly.
Subscriber growth, reach and mentions over timeTGStat or Telemetr.io, which keep their own history of channels’ subscribers, reach and mentions. Telegram’s own statistics are for a channel’s admins.
6options compared
2with an MCP server
6free to start
24sources, checked 25 Sept 2026
Four routes
Telegram’s Bot API delivers new posts to bots in the channels they belong to, and its Telegram API serves apps that log in as a Telegram user. Public channels also have web pages you can read or embed. Data APIs return public channels and posts with an API key.
Telegram Bot API
Telegram API (MTProto) and TDLib
Telegram’s public channel pages
Monocrawl and the vendors below
What they return
What each option lists on its own pages, and how you connect.
| Telegram data | Connect | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Option | Channels | Subscribers | Channel posts | Single posts | Views | Reactions | Forwarded from | REST API | MCP server | Sources |
| MonocrawlOur product | Our API | |||||||||
| Telegram Bot APIOfficial, bots | – | – | – | 1234 | ||||||
| Telegram API (MTProto)Official, user accounts | – | 56789 | ||||||||
| ApifyTelegram Scraper actor | – | – | – | 1011121314 | ||||||
| Telemetr.ioTelegram analytics API | – | 1516171819 | ||||||||
| TGStatTelegram analytics API | – | 2021222324 | ||||||||
Pricing
A request, a result, a record and a unit are not the same size, and allowances reset on different schedules. Price your own workload with each vendor.
One key and one response format across 70+ platforms, with monitors for alerts.
Monthly plans
Free to use. You register a bot with @BotFather to get its token.
Worth knowingA bot receives each new post in channels where it is a member; Telegram keeps undelivered updates for up to 24 hours.
Free to use
Free to use, with your own api_id from my.telegram.org.
Each phone number can have one api_id.
Worth knowingNeeds a Telegram user account and phone number, and its terms bar using Telegram data to train or deploy AI models.
Free to use
$5 per 1,000 results on the free plan
From $1.25 per 1,000 on the Business plan. Starter plan $19 a month.
Worth knowingApify’s own actor returns a channel’s profile and, if you ask, its messages back to a date you set.
$5 of usage a month
$25 a month for its Pro plan, billed monthly
100 credits, 10,000 requests and 100 channels a month; a request costs 0.001 credits and each new channel 0.8. $19 a month billed yearly.
Worth knowingYou get API keys from its Telegram bot, using a Telegram account linked to Telemetr.io; post search needs the Advanced or Team plan.
Free plan: 10 credits and 1,000 requests a month, verified channels only
₽2,100 for its S plan: 30 channels and 6,000 requests a month
Each paid period is 30 days from payment. The S plan reads 60 days of a channel’s posts and 10 days of metric history.
Worth knowingReads its own archive of public channels and posts, with subscriber and reach history on paid plans.
Free plan: 50 requests a month on 2 channels you own
Try a call
The same request in cURL, TypeScript or Python, and the recorded response for @telegram: the verified channel Telegram News, with 9,499,147 subscribers and 228 videos. No Telegram account, bot token or api_id.
GET /v1/telegram/channelcurl "https://www.monocrawl.com/v1/telegram/channel?handle=telegram" \
-H "x-api-key: mn_your_key_here"Telegram News
@telegram
Selected public fields from the recorded response. Live values will differ.
Channel2 creditsA page of channel posts2 creditsOne post2 credits2.1sMedian response in our benchmark. 22 September 2026 catalogue benchmark. Median of recorded endpoint timings across 636 operations with a successful HTTP response. Includes network time; individual requests vary.
Questions
Telegram offers two, both free of charge. Its Bot API delivers a channel’s new posts to a bot that is a member of the channel, and keeps undelivered updates for at most 24 hours. Its Telegram API (MTProto), used directly or through TDLib, reads public channels’ posts, views and reactions, but logs in as a Telegram user with a phone number. Telegram says accounts that log in through unofficial clients are put under observation, and its API terms bar using Telegram data to train or deploy AI models.
Telegram’s own Bot API and Telegram API are free of charge, within the limits above. For data APIs, Monocrawl gives 1,000 credits every month, Apify $5 of usage a month, Telemetr.io a free plan with 10 credits and 1,000 requests a month for verified channels, and TGStat a free plan with 50 requests a month for two channels you own.
In a browser, yes: Telegram shows a public channel’s recent posts with their view counts at t.me/s/ followed by the channel’s name, and its post widget embeds single posts from public channels. Both are web pages, not an API. With Monocrawl you send your API key with a channel’s handle or a post’s link and get the channel, its posts or one post back as JSON, with no Telegram account, bot or phone number.
Telegram’s own statistics, such as follower growth and views, shares and reactions per post, come through the Telegram API, and only for admins of channels above a size Telegram sets. For the public channels they track, TGStat and Telemetr.io keep their own history of subscribers, reach and engagement rate. Monocrawl returns a channel’s current subscribers, and each post’s views and reactions.
Not with Monocrawl: you send your Monocrawl API key with a channel handle or post link and get public data back, with no Telegram account, bot token or api_id. Telemetr.io issues its API keys through its Telegram bot, to a Telegram account linked to Telemetr.io. Telegram’s own Bot API needs a bot registered with @BotFather, and its Telegram API a user account with a phone number and your own api_id.
Monocrawl and Apify publish their own MCP servers that reach Telegram data, so assistants such as Claude or Cursor can call them directly. TGStat, Telemetr.io and Telegram’s own APIs list no MCP server on the pages we checked.
Method
What’s includedTelegram’s own Bot API and Telegram API, plus Telegram channel data and analytics APIs that come up across Telegram channel API and scraper API searches, document their API and publish their pricing or a free plan.
What we comparedWhat each vendor publishes about its Telegram data, pricing, free allowance and access, read on its own pages. “Best” here means worth comparing, not a ranking from tests: we have not run their APIs.
About MonocrawlMonocrawl is our product and is listed first. Its details come from our live plans and catalogue.
1,000 free credits every month. No card required.
Start free