Export Telegram group members using Telethon — admin auth required for full member visibility. Session and export history are stored in Redis, so you can run the tool on any device from just a .env file (no re-login, no copying session/CSV files).

How to use

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/tiennm99/export-telegram-group-members.git

Install requirements:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Create a new Telegram app at https://my.telegram.org and get the api_id and api_hash.
Create a free Redis database (e.g. Upstash) and copy its rediss:// connection URL.
Copy .env.example to .env and fill in REDIS_URL.
Store Telegram config in Redis:

python configure.py

configure.py prompts for api_id, api_hash, phone, and group IDs. The stored group IDs remain available to commands that use configured defaults, such as compare.py.

Crawl one or more groups by ID:

python crawl.py <group_id> [<group_id> ...]

For example:

python crawl.py -1001234567890 -1009876543210

Only the group IDs supplied to this command are crawled; the stored group list is not used. The first crawl asks for the Telegram login code once, then stores the session in Redis. Any later run — on any device pointed at the same Redis — reuses the Redis config and session, and does not prompt again.

Compare two crawls

Compare membership changes for one group between two saved crawls with the git-diff-style terminal output:

python compare.py <group_id> <time1> <time2>

If time1 and time2 are omitted, the command compares the latest two crawls for that group:

python compare.py <group_id>

If group_id is also omitted, the command uses the first group in the stored configuration:

python compare.py

Export a crawl to CSV

Export one group's saved crawl from Redis:

python export.py [group_id] [timecrawl]

When timecrawl is omitted, the latest crawl for the group is exported. When both arguments are omitted, the first group in the stored configuration and its latest crawl are used. An explicit crawl time must use yyyymmddhhmmss format:

python export.py -1001234567890 20260724120000

CSV files are written to:

output/<group-id>-<yyyymmddhhmmss>.csv

Each file contains the columns id, username, first_name, and last_name. Formula-like Telegram text is prefixed with an apostrophe for safe spreadsheet opening. On POSIX systems, the output/ directory is created with 0700 permissions and each CSV file is written with 0600 permissions. The output/ directory is ignored by Git.

Configuration

Variable	Description
`REDIS_URL`	Redis connection string (`rediss://default:<password>@<host>:<port>`)

Telegram api_id, api_hash, phone, and group_ids are stored in Redis by configure.py.

How data is stored

All data lives in Redis under the telegram-export prefix. No key references another, so deleting any key can never corrupt another's state:

telegram-export:config                         -> JSON config:
                                 { api_id, api_hash, phone, group_ids }
telegram-export:session                        -> StringSession string (login)
telegram-export:group:<group_id>:<yyyymmddhhmmss> -> one group's export as JSON:
                                 { group_id, title, time,
                                   members: [{ id, username, first_name, last_name }] }

Each group is written as its own key per run; all groups in one run share the same yyyymmddhhmmss timestamp. Read the history programmatically:

from common import list_exports

for rec in list_exports():       # sorted by (time, group_id)
    print(rec['time'], rec['group_id'], rec['title'], len(rec['members']), 'members')

Rate limits and visibility notes

Telegram limits how fast you can fetch participants; large groups may take longer.
For supergroups, only admins can retrieve the full member list — regular members see a partial list or get an error.
For private groups where you are not a member, access will be denied.

Security

The session string grants full access to your Telegram account. It lives only in Redis (use a TLS rediss:// URL) and is never written to disk or committed to git.
.env is git-ignored. Never commit your REDIS_URL or session string.

License

Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE.