Telegram API for channel data and reach
Read any public Telegram channel by username: subscribers, description, post volume, and measured reach per post rather than a guess derived from subscriber count. No bot token, no MTProto session, no client to keep alive.
- Endpoints for Telegram
- 47
- Free to start
- 500 requests
- Paid from
- $69/ 30 days
One request, no application
Send a key, get an answer. Every endpoint on this page uses the same header, the same envelope and the same error codes as the other six platforms.
curl "https://api.playersells.com/v2/accounts/telegram/durov" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $PLAYERSELLS_API_KEY"What the Telegram API returns
- channel username, title and description
- subscriber count
- post count and recent post volume
- measured reach per post, and the percentile band it falls in
- verified and scam flags where Telegram publishes them
- subscriber history for channels in the catalog
Where the data comes from
Two of our own collectors: an MTProto client for depth and the public t.me preview pages for breadth. Reach comes from view counts on real posts, aggregated into percentile bands so a channel can be compared against its own size class.
What this API cannot do
- Private channels and groups are not readable at all, by anyone, and are reported as not found rather than as empty.
- Reach is measured on public channels with visible view counts. A channel that hides views reports reach as null, never as zero.
- Direct messages, member lists and admin data are out of reach and always will be.
Telegram endpoints
19 built specifically for Telegram, plus 28 that cover every platform.
Specific to Telegram
| Endpoint | What it does | Scope |
|---|---|---|
GET/accounts/{platform}/{handle} | Check one account against our catalog | directory:read |
GET/accounts/{platform}/{handle}/livelive | Check one account live, at the source | scrape:live |
GET/accounts/resolve | Find one handle on every platform at once | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform} | List and filter a catalog | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform}/{id} | One account or channel | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform}/{id}/growth | Daily audience history | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform}/{id}/followers | Inbound graph edges | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform}/{id}/following | Outbound graph edges | directory:read |
POST/directory/{platform}/bulk | Resolve up to 100 records at once | directory:read |
GET/directory/{platform}/facets | Distribution of the catalog | directory:read |
GET/directory/search | Search every platform at once | directory:read |
GET/people/lookup | Find one handle across every catalog | directory:read |
GET/people/search | Find accounts matching audience and engagement criteria | directory:read |
GET/scrape/telegram/channellive | Live Telegram channel read | scrape:live |
GET/scrape/telegram/verifylive | Prove ownership of a Telegram channel | scrape:live |
GET/insights/telegram/{username}/reach | How many subscribers actually see a Telegram post | insights:read |
GET/insights/telegram/reach-bands | The reach percentile ladders every Telegram score is read against | insights:read |
GET/marketplace/listings | Browse active marketplace listings | marketplace:read |
GET/tools/audience-finder | Search the Telegram, TikTok and X catalog | tools:use |
Across all platforms
| Endpoint | What it does | Scope |
|---|---|---|
GET/accounts/platforms | What a check can answer, per platform | directory:read |
POST/accounts/check | Check up to 50 accounts at once | directory:read |
GET/directory | Catalog capability map | directory:read |
GET/scrape/status | Live backend health and capacity | scrape:live |
GET/insights/audience | Who follows an account, and what they have in common | insights:read |
GET/research/findings | Findings the research engine is willing to state | research:read |
GET/research/findings/{id} | One finding with its full test history | research:read |
GET/research/runs | Research pass history | research:read |
GET/research/events | The research changelog | research:read |
GET/engines | Operational health of every insight engine | engines:read |
GET/engines/{key} | One engine in detail | engines:read |
GET/marketplace/listings/{id} | Get one public listing | marketplace:read |
GET/marketplace/stats | Platform totals | marketplace:read |
GET/marketplace/leaderboard | Best-selling sellers | marketplace:read |
GET/marketplace/pricing | Live fee schedule and boost packages | marketplace:read |
GET/tools | List every analysis tool | tools:use |
POST/tools/valuationlive | Value an X account | tools:use |
POST/tools/shadowban-checklive | Check an X account for visibility filtering | tools:use |
POST/tools/follower-auditlive | Audit an X account's followers for fakes | tools:use |
POST/tools/engagement-calculatorlive | Measure an X account's engagement rate | tools:use |
POST/tools/best-posting-timelive | Find when an X account should post | tools:use |
POST/tools/algorithm-scorelive | Score an X account against the ranking signals | tools:use |
POST/tools/bio-optimizerlive | Score and rewrite an X bio (AI) | tools:use |
POST/tools/profile-roastlive | Roast and fix an X profile (AI) | tools:use |
POST/tools/tweet-analyzerlive | Analyze a single X post | tools:use |
POST/tools/mention-checkerlive | See who is mentioning an X account | tools:use |
POST/tools/growth-simulator | Project how long a follower target takes | tools:use |
GET/tools/profile-piclive | Fetch an X profile picture URL | tools:use |
Telegram API questions
Do I need a bot token or an MTProto client?
No. Reading channel data through this API needs an API key and nothing else. We run the MTProto side ourselves so you do not have to keep a session alive, handle flood waits, or manage a bot that has to be added to every channel you want to read.
What does Telegram reach actually mean here?
The average view count across a channel's recent public posts, and the percentile band that average falls into for channels of a similar size. It is measured from real posts, not estimated from subscriber count, which is why a channel with a large but inactive audience scores lower than its subscriber number suggests.
Can I verify who owns a Telegram channel?
Yes. The owner puts a short code in the channel description and you call the verification endpoint with the username and the code. It reads the description live through the Bot API and returns true or false plus the text it matched.
The same API, on six other platforms
One key, one envelope, one bill. Reading a second platform is a different path, not a different integration.