Telegram Statistics 2026: Users, Bots, Mini Apps and API Limits

28 Telegram statistics with sources. Telegram is a private company that does not publish audited figures, so the user and revenue numbers are what its founder Pavel Durov has stated publicly; we say so on each row. The bot and platform numbers come from Telegram's own documentation and blog.

For businesses, the bot numbers matter more than the headline user count. More than half of Telegram's users touch mini apps every month and the platform hosts over ten million bots, which means Telegram users are unusually comfortable doing things inside a bot: ordering, booking, paying, getting support.

Download the data (CSV).

If you run a project community on Telegram, the crypto community support bot guide shows how to keep a busy group answered without flooding it.

Durov's March 2025 post put Telegram at significantly over a billion monthly users and called it the second most popular messaging app in the world outside China. The engagement figures in the same post, 21 opens and 41 minutes a day on average, are higher than most people expect from a messenger and reflect how much of Telegram's use happens in channels and groups rather than one-to-one chats.

A note on the many Telegram user counts you will find elsewhere: we found pages quoting 900 million, 950 million and various country breakdowns with no traceable source. Telegram's own Bot Features documentation still refers to 950 million users in its mini app section, which likely predates the billion milestone. We use the founder's dated statement and label it as such.

2024 was Telegram's first profitable year since it began monetizing, according to Durov's December 2024 post: revenue over $1 billion, Premium subscribers tripled to more than 12 million, and advertising revenue up several times. In March 2025 he put 2024 profit at $547 million. These are company statements without published accounts, so treat them as indicative.

Monetization matters to bot builders because it funds the platform features businesses use: Telegram Stars for digital goods, paid broadcasts for high-volume sending and the Bot API 10 features that keep arriving. Our Telegram bot for business guide covers which of them are worth using.

The bot platform is Telegram's real differentiator. It is free for users and developers, has no approval process for a basic bot, and supports full web apps (mini apps) inside the chat. Telegram's own figures show mini app use growing from 400 million monthly users when Stars launched in June 2024 to over 500 million.

Getting a bot running takes minutes: get a token from BotFather, set commands, and connect it to a webhook or a no-code builder. Our guide to building a Telegram bot without coding walks through the whole path, and the free token checker and webhook checker catch the most common setup mistakes.

The sending limits are the ones that surprise new bot owners. About one message per second to a single chat and 20 per minute to a group are soft limits enforced with HTTP 429 and a retry_after value, documented in our 429 Too Many Requests reference. For broadcasts above roughly 30 messages per second, Telegram offers paid broadcasts priced in Stars.

The full list, with every limit linked to Telegram's documentation, is in our Telegram limits reference. When something goes wrong, the Telegram error directory covers each Bot API error, from 401 Unauthorized for a bad token to 409 Conflict when a webhook and getUpdates collide.

Across our Telegram error pages, a few problems account for most bot failures:

• Silent bot in groups. Privacy mode stops the bot seeing ordinary group messages. Covered in Telegram bot not responding.
• Users who blocked the bot. 403 Forbidden: bot was blocked by the user is normal at scale; stop messaging those users.
• Backlogs after downtime. Telegram keeps undelivered updates for 24 hours; see pending update count.
• Messages too long. Text over 4,096 characters fails with message is too long.

The Telegram Bot API error codes guide lists every error with its fix.

The usage patterns behind these numbers suggest where a business bot fits on Telegram: customer support in a private chat, community management in groups and channels, commerce through mini apps and Stars, and notifications to people who opted in. Our guides cover Telegram support bots and business use cases, and the Telegram templates are ready-made starting points. The Telegram link generator and keyboard builder help with entry points and buttons.

For how Telegram compares with other channels, see our WhatsApp Business statistics and Discord statistics, and the cross-channel view in chatbot statistics 2026.

• June 24, 2015: Telegram launches its Bot Platform.
• June 2024: Telegram Stars launch for digital goods; 400 million users interact with bots and mini apps monthly.
• 2024: Mini apps reach 500 million monthly users.
• December 2024: Durov reports Telegram's first profitable year, revenue over $1 billion and Premium tripled to 12 million.
• March 2025: Durov says Telegram has significantly over 1 billion monthly users.
• April 2026: Bot API 9.6 adds Managed Bots, which let one bot create and manage others.
• July 14, 2026: Bot API 10.2 ships; 10.3 is the latest version at our last check in November 2026.

Bot API versions and dates come from the Bot API changelog. Our Bot API 10 guide covers what the latest versions add.

Telegram is cheaper and more open; WhatsApp reaches more people in most markets. Many businesses run both from one inbox; see the WhatsApp channel page and WhatsApp statistics.

Telegram has no annual report, so estimates fill the gap. We excluded:

Telegram publishes no annual report. User, revenue and subscriber figures are Durov's own public statements; where we could not open his original post, we cite the news agency that quoted it (TASS and Interfax) and say so. Bot and mini app figures come from Telegram's blog and its Bot Platform and Bot Features documentation. API limits come from the Bot API reference and Bots FAQ, which we check for our limits reference; the last full check was August 2026. We excluded estimates found only on aggregator sites.

Sources:

• Pavel Durov, reported by TASS (Mar 2025)
• Pavel Durov, reported by Interfax (Dec 2024)
• Telegram Bot Platform page (2026)
• Telegram Bot Features docs (2026)
• Telegram blog: Stars (Jun 2024)
• Telegram blog: Mini App Bar (2024)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)
• Telegram Bot API docs (checked Aug 2026)

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