Channel

When to use this

Use it to size up or track a channel. subscribers is exact, straight from the channel's t.me page. counters (photos, videos, files, links) are rounded by Telegram.

Channels that turned their web preview off still return their name, bio and subscribers, with previewEnabled: false and counters: null; their posts can't be read.

Unknown usernames, and usernames that belong to a person, bot or group, return 404 not_found.

Example request

Copy one and replace YOUR_API_KEY with your API key (get one free). The code versions read the key from the LURKAPI_API_KEY environment variable instead.

curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel?handle=telegram" \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY"

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  handle: "telegram",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.LURKAPI_API_KEY },
});
const data = await res.json();
if (!data.success) throw new Error(`${data.code}: ${data.error}`);
console.log(data);

import os
import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel",
    params={
        "handle": "telegram",
    },
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["LURKAPI_API_KEY"]},
    timeout=60,
)
data = res.json()
if not data["success"]:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{data['code']}: {data['error']}")
print(data)

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
	"time"
)

func main() {
	params := url.Values{}
	params.Set("handle", "telegram")
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel?"+params.Encode(), nil)
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("LURKAPI_API_KEY"))

	client := &http.Client{Timeout: 60 * time.Second}
	res, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()

	var data map[string]any
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
	if data["success"] != true {
		panic(fmt.Sprintf("%v: %v", data["code"], data["error"]))
	}
	out, _ := json.MarshalIndent(data, "", "  ")
	fmt.Println(string(out))
}

<?php
$params = http_build_query([
    'handle' => 'telegram',
]);
$context = stream_context_create(['http' => [
    'header' => 'x-api-key: ' . getenv('LURKAPI_API_KEY'),
    'timeout' => 60,
    'ignore_errors' => true,
]]);
$body = file_get_contents('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel?' . $params, false, $context);
$data = json_decode($body, true);
if (!$data['success']) {
    throw new Exception("{$data['code']}: {$data['error']}");
}
print_r($data);

require 'json'
require 'net/http'

uri = URI('https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/telegram/channel')
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form(
  'handle' => 'telegram',
)
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req['x-api-key'] = ENV.fetch('LURKAPI_API_KEY')
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == 'https', read_timeout: 60) do |http|
  http.request(req)
end
data = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{data['code']}: #{data['error']}" unless data['success']
puts JSON.pretty_generate(data)

Parameters

Add them to the URL after a ?, as in ?handle=telegram. Join several with &.

Example response

A real response, captured from the live API. Lists are trimmed to a couple of items, and long text such as media links is cut short with ….

{
  "success": true,
  "credits_remaining": 999968,
  "credits_charged": 1,
  "username": "telegram",
  "title": "Telegram News",
  "description": "The official Telegram on Telegram. Much recursion. Very Telegram. Wow.",
  "photoUrl": "https://cdn1.telesco.pe/file/RVgtx-SeGUFdb1FvECn6bWCxrbnYjx6wIA-zmZ9aUbT…",
  "verified": true,
  "subscribers": 9432976,
  "counters": {
    "photos": 16,
    "videos": 228,
    "files": null,
    "links": 378
  },
  "previewEnabled": true,
  "url": "https://t.me/telegram"
}

Response fields

Every field in a successful response, and what it means. null means there's no value.

Cost and freshness

Each call costs 1 credit. Calls turned away before they reach the platform (invalid parameters, a key or balance problem, a rate limit) are free, and so are 5xx errors. A not_found is charged, since the platform was checked. How charging works.

Answers are cached for up to 1 hour. A repeat call within that time can return the same data, and costs the same.

Errors

A failed call returns success: false, an error message, a code your program can check, and a docs link. These are the errors this endpoint can return. All error codes.

Use it in Claude

Connect LurkAPI to Claude and ask in plain English. This endpoint is the telegram_channel tool. For example:

Use LurkAPI's telegram_channel tool with handle "telegram", then summarize what you find.

Claude calls telegram_channel with arguments like these, and each call costs 1 credit:

{"handle": "telegram"}

To save tokens, tool results leave out empty fields, keep one URL per image or video, and give transcripts as plain text unless you pass timestamps=true. A result over 45,000 characters comes in parts. Its _note gives the offset for the next part, and later parts are free for 15 minutes. Pass trim=false for the full response.