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Telegram

Telegram channels print their subscriber count on their public t.me page, and groups print their member count the same way. Reading those numbers from code means choosing between two official APIs, neither built for this.

What the official API asks of you

The Bot API needs a bot created through BotFather and its token. It is built for bots that take part in conversations, not for watching public channels and groups from the outside.

The full client API goes deeper, but it signs in as a real Telegram account tied to a phone number, with app credentials, session storage, and a client library to keep up to date. That is a lot of machinery for a subscriber count.

What Metrika gives you for Telegram

Send the name from a t.me link and get back the count and verified status. Channels and groups share the same kind of address, so the type says which one you mean: account for a channel, community for a group. t.me/durov is the channel durov.

bash 
$ curl -X POST https://metrika.run/api/v1/resources/search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"resources": [{"platform": "telegram", "type": "account", "identifier": "durov"}, {"platform": "telegram", "type": "community", "identifier": "rubylang"}]}'

Both come back under metrics as followers, the common name for an audience, with a semantic field of subscribers for channels and members for groups. Verified status comes back under attributes.

The same request shape everywhere

Telegram is one of many platforms Metrika supports, alongside Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, GitHub, Twitch, Kick, Snapchat, Pinterest, Discord, Reddit, Spotify, and SoundCloud. The request you write here is the request you write for all of them, and that matters because a channel is usually one outlet among several. The same publisher has an X account, a YouTube channel, and an Instagram profile, and the useful view is all of them side by side. One token, one response shape, up to ten resources in a single call, mixing platforms freely.

What Metrika is not

Metrika is read-only and public-only. It will not read messages, list members, report views on individual posts, or see private channels and groups. If you need that, the official APIs are the right tool for the job.

Getting started

Create an account, generate an API key from your dashboard, and you get up to 500 requests per month at no cost, no credit card required. The docs cover authentication and response formats.

Get started with Metrika

Create a free account and start pulling social media datapoints in minutes. The free tier includes 500 requests per month, no credit card required.

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