Export Telegram posts to JSON or CSV

This guide turns a small public Telegram channel sample into an Apify dataset. It uses no Telegram login in widget mode; you do need an Apify account and an appropriate run budget.

1. Copy a bounded starting input

Replace durov with the public channel you are authorized to collect. Do not paste a private invite, Telegram session or API token into this input.

{
  "channels": ["durov"],
  "maxPosts": 5,
  "messagePreview": true,
  "maxChargeUsd": 0.01
}

2. Start the Actor yourself on Apify

1. Open Telegram Channel Scraper on Apify.
2. Paste the JSON into its input editor and set the platform run spending limit.
3. Start the run. Copying an example on this site does not start or bill a run.
4. Wait for a terminal status, then open the dataset and RUN_SUMMARY.

3. Inspect before exporting

The dataset mixes channel context and message rows. The limit is up to five messages, not a guarantee of five rows. Filter on recordType in your spreadsheet or downstream processing when you want messages only. Dataset views are column projections, not row-type filters.

Keep url, canonicalId, date and textHash. Dates are UTC; widget views are rounded source estimates. A missing field is not zero. Read coverage and warning codes before calling the export complete.

4. Download JSON or CSV

Use Apify's dataset export controls to download JSON, JSONL or CSV. JSON retains structured arrays such as reactions; CSV is convenient for a table, but nested fields may need further processing. Upsert messages by canonicalId, not a bare numeric post ID shared across different channels.

What does the small sample cost?

At the fixed catalog, five saved billable messages plus startup are 5 × $0.00030 + $0.00005 = $0.00155. This is arithmetic, not a minimum charge or a guaranteed result count. maxChargeUsd covers custom events, not startup; the current Apify Pricing tab is authoritative.

Next: a repeatable digest

For scheduled collection, use the Telegram monitoring guide. It explains the initial baseline, new-message billing, text edits and changes-only output. Neither workflow downloads media files or bypasses private-channel access.