# Telegram search engine: which ones still find channels, groups and messages (verified 9 September 2026)

Telegram's built-in search matches public channel names and ranks by subscriber count. External Telegram search engines exist to find channels and posts by keyword. They fall into two families: Google-based custom searches over t.me (Telegago) and crawler engines with their own index (Telemetry, TGStat, Lyzem, telehunt, XTEA). In-app search bots (@ChatSearchRobot, @TgScanRobot) query undisclosed directories from inside Telegram.

## Tested status on 9 September 2026
- Telegago (Google custom search, cse.google.com, maintained by The OSINT Newsletter): working, no account needed; searches only what Google crawled from public t.me previews; cannot see private groups or new channels. Verdict: use it first.
- Telemetry (telemetryapp.io): working; self-reports 1.23 million public channels and 4.11 billion searchable messages; full-text search with AND, OR, wildcards, phrase match; CSV export and REST API; free tier limited, sign-up to unlock. Verdict: strongest index, public channels only.
- TGStat (tgstat.com): working; channel and group catalogue with subscriber and reach analytics, Russian origin, English site; deeper views ask you to sign in. Verdict: analytics catalogue, not a search engine.
- Lyzem (lyzem.com): working; a test query returned 1,150 results in 15 ms with 25 channel links per page. Verdict: useful second index, no history.
- telehunt.org: HTTP 522 origin error at 08:37 UTC. Verdict: do not rely on it.
- XTEA (xtea.io): loads; Chinese-language project unchanged since January 2020. Verdict: do not rely on it.
- @ChatSearchRobot and @TgScanRobot: responding; sources undisclosed. Verdict: convenience only.

## What no engine can see
Group messages are not published on the web, so no search engine indexes them. Private channels have no public preview. Secret chats are end-to-end encrypted and stored only on the two devices. A "Telegram message search" is in practice a search of public broadcast channels via their t.me/s/<channel> previews.

## Deleted posts
Only an engine that stored a copy before deletion can show a deleted channel post; Telemetry keeps copies of indexed posts, Google-based search and catalogues do not.

## The Telegram trail on Reddit
Reddit posts and comments mentioning Telegram in THINKPOL's archive: 14.1 million in 2024 (peak), 7.6 million in 2025, 5.2 million in 2026 to 9 September. Among the 50 most recent Reddit comments containing "t.me/" on 9 September 2026, most were AutoModerator messages pointing members to a community's Telegram group, including backup channels for NSFW and piracy subreddits. When a subreddit is banned, its migration path to Telegram is already in the archive.

## What THINKPOL adds
THINKPOL does not index Telegram. It holds 30 billion Reddit posts and comments captured at publication since 2005, including content later deleted or removed, searchable in under 300 ms, EU-hosted. For Telegram work it returns the invite links, handles and channel names posted on Reddit, including in deleted posts and banned subreddits, and which Reddit accounts posted them. Free tool: https://think-pol.com/tools/reddit-search?q=t.me%2F. Native Telegram coverage is the next platform on THINKPOL's roadmap.

Source: https://think-pol.com/telegram-search-engine