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

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.