Frequently asked questions
Short answers to what people ask most.
How is the name spelled?ChatCrawler, in Latin script, one word. A crawler is the program a search engine uses to walk the web and build its index; ours walks public Telegram instead of websites. In Cyrillic the name is usually written ЧатКраулер.
What is ChatCrawler?A search engine for public Telegram. We discover public groups and channels, crawl their open feeds and index their public posts — the way a web search engine indexes open websites.
Where does the data come from?From the official Telegram API and only from venues anyone can open and read without an invitation. Leaked, hacked and purchased databases are not used.
Can I see private conversations?No. Private chats, secret chats, closed and invite-only groups are out of reach. If reading requires an invitation, it is not in the index.
Do you show phone numbers, documents, addresses?No. The index holds only what Telegram publishes itself: the venue title, the username, public posts.
How do I find a person by username?Enter a @username or an ID — the author card opens: username history, which open venues the person posted in, statistics of public posts.
How do I find channels and groups by topic?Through the catalog: topics, filters by type and language, ordering by activity, members and growth.
How fresh is the index?Crawling runs continuously. The date of the last indexed post is shown on each venue card.
How do I remove a page from the index?The process is on the removal page: an account owner or venue admin proves the right by writing from the relevant account, third parties send a formal request.