Launched in 2013 by Pavel and Nikolai Durov, Telegram has grown into one of the largest cloud-based messaging platforms, with over 950 million active users as of July 2024. Competing with major apps like WhatsApp, Telegram stands out for its innovative features and user-centric design.

Unlike most messaging apps, Telegram doesn’t require phone numbers. Users can chat, call, video call, and interact using only usernames, offering a unique and straightforward way to communicate.

Telegram’s evolution has redefined how we perceive messaging platforms. Here are verified insights showcasing the app’s transformative impact on the communication market and its growing dominance. 

Telegram Monthly Active User Count

In July 2024, Telegram reached an all-time high with approximately 950 million monthly active users.

This marked a significant increase from July 2023, which had 800 million users. For comparison, in 2014, the platform’s highest monthly active user count was 35 million.

This data indicates that Telegram’s user base has grown substantially over the years, reflecting its increasing popularity and widespread adoption.

Month User Count
Mar 2014 35 million
Dec 2014 50 million
Sep 2015 60 million
Feb 2016 100 million
Dec 2017 160 million
Mar 2018 200 million
Apr 2020 400 million
Apr 2022 500 million
Nov 2022 700 million
Jul 2023 800 million
Apr 2024 900 million
Jul 2024 950 million

Telegram Premium User Statistics

In 2023, Telegram Premium had approximately 1 million subscribers.

This number grew significantly in 2024, reaching 5 million by January and continuing to rise.

As of September 2024, the total number of premium subscribers has reached 10 million. This trend indicates strong and ongoing growth in Telegram Premium’s user base.

Jul 2022 0.15 million
Aug 2022 0.26 million
Dec 2022 1 million
Oct 2023 3.5 million
Dec 2023 4 million
Jan 2024 5 million
Sept 2024 10 million

Telegram Users’ Demographic

As of 2024, Telegram has 58.09% male users and 41.91% female users.

Most users, 31.31%, are aged 25 to 34, while 24.57% are between 18 and 24. Additionally, 19.59% of Telegram users are over 35 years old.

In summary, Telegram’s user base is predominantly male, with a significant proportion in the 24 to 35 age range.

Telegram User Statistics By Country

Telegram is a global app with users from various regions. The majority of its users, about 38%, are from Asia.

Europe follows with 27%, Latin America with 21%, and the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region with 8%. This distribution highlights Asia as the dominant user base for Telegram.

Telegram App Download By Different Countries

As of September 2024, India leads in Telegram app downloads with 104.04 million.

Russia follows with 34.4 million downloads. Indonesia, the United States, and Brazil rank next, with 27.21 million, 26.85 million, and 21.94 million downloads, respectively. This data highlights India’s dominant position in Telegram’s global user base.

Country Telegram App Downloads (Million)
India 104.04
Russia 34.4
Indonesia 27.21
United States 26.85
Brazil 21.94
Egypt 14.85
Vietnam 11.84
Mexico 11.61
Ukraine 10.76
Turkey 9.79
Philippines 9.57
Nigeria 8.47
Kazakhstan 7.58
France 6.52
Malaysia 6.37
Colombia 6.13
Saudi Arabia 5.88
Spain 5.57
Germany 5.04
Italy 4.73

Number Of Telegram Apps Downloaded

As of September 2024, Telegram has reached 1 billion downloads. This is a significant increase from the 409.5 million downloads in 2023, representing a 144.2% growth in just one year.

Year Number of Telegram Downloads
2019 141.5 million
2020 326.31 million
2021 382.92 million
2022 367.23 million
2023 409.5 million
2024 1 billion

In February 2024, Telegram was downloaded 34.33 million times.

This slightly decreased from January 2024, when downloads totaled 36.87 million.

October 2023 saw the highest number of downloads ever for Telegram, reaching 42.61 million.

Month – Year Number of Downloads
Feb 2024 34.33 million
Jan 2024 36.87 million
Dec 2023 35.02 million
Nov 2023 36.92 million
Oct 2023 42.61 million
Sept 2023 36.28 million
Aug 2023 38.25 million
Jul 2023 33.97 million
June 2023 32.19 million
May 2023 32.86 million
Apr 2023 29.74 million
Mar 2023 29.31 million
Feb 2023 28.47 million

Telegram App Downloads’ Regional Analysis

In Q4 2023, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) led with the most Telegram downloads, hitting 46.17 million.

Coming in second, the Asia Pacific region saw 44.45 million downloads, while North and Latin America combined recorded 23.93 million.

The table below shows the data for the past quarter.

Quarter APAC EMEA NALA
Q4 2023 44.45 million 46.17 million 23.93 million
Q3 2023 44.99 million 40.74 million 22.77 million
Q2 2023 38.57 million 34.96 million 21.26 million
Q1 2023 38.07 million 33.77 million 19.8 million
Q4 2022 39.94 million 33.29 million 17.53 million
Q3 2022 38.24 million 30.77 million 17.89 million
Q2 2022 42.25 million 33.54 million 17.74 million
Q1 2022 44.89 million 33.01 million 18.14 million
Q4 2021 46.94 million 32.48 million 19.17 million
Q3 2021 40.16 million 26.7 million 17.91 million

Telegram Popularity & Market Share

According to reports, till April 2024, Telegram ranks as the 8th most popular social network globally based on monthly active users.

Competing with 68 other apps in the instant messaging space, Telegram holds a 43.50% market share based on its user base.

Industries Using Telegram

As of 2024, 34 renowned companies use Telegram.

Data indicates that most corporate Telegram users are from the Information Technology and Services sector, accounting for 27% of Telegram’s corporate clients. Of the 34 companies, 10 are in this sector.

The Internet and Computer Software industries follow, with 4 and 3 companies representing 10% and 7% of Telegram’s corporate user base.

Industry Number of Companies Using Telegram
Information Technology & Services 10
Internet 4
Computer Software 3
Construction 2
Marketing & Advertising 1
Education Management 1
Human Resource 1
Broadcast Media 1
Media Production 1
Defense & Space 1

Most companies using Telegram are based in the United States.

Following the U.S., the Russian Federation and India have also increasingly adopted the cloud-based messaging app.

Country Number of Companies Using Telegram
United States 16
Russian Federation 2
India 2
Ireland 1
South Africa 1
Croatia 1
Madagascar 1
United Kingdom 1
Singapore 1
Virgin Islands, U.S. 1

Telegram Revenue Statistics

In February 2024, Telegram generated $6.1 million in in-app revenue, up by $0.6 million from January 2024. Of this total, $4.86 million came from the Apple App Store and $1.22 million from the Google Play Store.

In 2023, Telegram reported a total revenue of $45 million, primarily from its premium model.

However, by September 2024, the company had generated $342 million in revenue with operating costs of $107 million. Telegram’s balance sheet also indicates that it is holding digital assets worth $400 million.

Telegram’s revenue and asset growth in 2024 reflects a significant increase in operational scale and financial stability compared to previous years.

Month – Year Apple App Store Google Play Store
Feb 2024 $4.86 million $1.22 million
Jan 2024 $4.44 million $1.14 million
Dec 2023 $3.87 million $0.97 million
Nov 2023 $3.35 million $0.82 million
Oct 2023 $3.18 million $0.79 million
Sept 2023 $2.94 million $0.78 million
Aug 2023 $3.09 million $0.73 million
Jul 2023 $2.86 million $0.63 million
Jun 2023 $2.30 million $0.57 million
May 2023 $2.45 million $0.62 million

Telegram Channel Administrator Earnings

In 2023, Telegram administrators earned through three main channels: advertising placement, selling goods and services, and partner programs.

Advertising placement was the most lucrative, accounting for about 69% of their income. Selling goods and services contributed 38%, while partner programs provided 15%.

Additionally, 12.6% of Telegram channel administrators earned over $1,300.

Based on the data, the optimal compensation range for a Telegram administrator is between $45,553 and $54,973, with an average salary of $50,160.

Telegram Funding Statistics

Since its inception in 2013 until March 2024, Telegram has raised $4 billion in funding.

The latest funding, totaling $330 million, came from capital bond sales in March 2024. Additionally, in June 2023, Telegram secured $270 million.

Date Funding Received
18th Mar 2024 $0.33 billion
18th Jul 2023 $0.27 billion
28th Apr 2021 $0.75 billion
15th and 13th Mar 2021 $1 billion
1 Mar 2018 $1.7 billion

Telegram Channel Statistics

The ‘Telegram Tips’ channel is the most popular on Telegram, with 10,892,338 followers.

Following it are Telegram Premium and Telegram News, which have 7.3 million and 7.1 million followers, respectively.

Channel News Number Of Subscribers
Telegram Tips 10,892,338
Telegram Premium 7,340,751
Telegram News 7,108,895
Proxy MTProto 7,108,506
Notcoin Community 6,102,462
iRO Proxy 4,444,398
Proxy MTProto 4,398,203
Communities 3,804,578
Wʜᴀʟᴇ | 💵 |Signal – Crypto – Forex – Bitcoin  3,466,286
ipapkorn 3,324,291

Telegram Investors

Telegram has 29 institutional investors. Notable investors include –

  • Mubadala,
  • Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners
  • Lightspeed Venture Partners

Each of these three invested $75 million in the app in 2021.

Popular Telegram Channel Categories

The News Channel is the most popular type on Telegram, followed by 85% of users.

Entertainment channels are the second most popular, and educational channels rank third. Political channels are the fourth most popular, followed by half of Telegram users.

Channel Category Share of Telegram Users That Follow The Category
News channels 85%
Entertainment channels 62%
Educational channels 58%
Political channels 50%
News from own industry 48%
Personal channels of friends 45%
Channels on a special military operation 36%
Channels of bloggers and celebrities 31%
Internal channels of companies 19%
Channels of brands/companies 17%
Channels on products and discounts 16%
Channels with job offers 14%
Channels for adults 13%
Darknet-channels 4%

Telegram Rating & Website Traffic

As of September 2024, Telegram holds a 4.7-star rating on Capterra. By February 10, 2024, Telegram ranked 6th in the social networking category on the App Store.

In 2024, Telegram’s website received 613.45 million visits. Of these, 24.36% (149.45 million) originated from the Russian Federation, highlighting strong user engagement in the region.

India and Brazil followed with approximately 41.06 million and 27.73 million visits, representing about 6.69% and 4.52% of the total visits, respectively.

This data indicates that Telegram has a substantial user base in Russia and notable engagement in India and Brazil.

Country Traffic Share Total Website Visits (All Devices)
Russian Federation 24.36% 149.45 million
India 6.69% 41.06 million
Brazil 4.52% 27.73 million
United States 3.94% 24.15 million
Ukraine 3.85% 23.64 million

Telegram Availability

Telegram is available for download in around 175 countries via the iOS App Store.

On the Google Play Store, it can be downloaded in 133 of the 141 countries where the store operates. Additionally, Telegram is available on Windows in 107 of the 109 countries where the Windows Store is active.

Telegram E-commerce Related Statistics

Reports indicate that Telegram achieved the highest sales volume by selling goods sourced from China, totaling $12 million.

Digital equipment sales followed closely, generating $5.52 million. Other significant contributors included consumer loans, apparel, and shoes, notably increasing overall sales.

Segment Sales Volume On Telegram
Goods from China $12 million
Digital Equipments $5.52 million
Consume Loans $3.12 million
Apparel and Shoes $2.14 million
Sport $0.86 million
Work and Education $0.57 million
Hypermarkets $0.45 million
Healthy and Beauty $0.25 million
Furniture and household goods $0.063 million
Food Delivery $0.057 million

Telegram Features

Telegram’s group chats can accommodate up to 200,000 members.

Users can upload files up to 2 GB in size, while premium users can upload files up to 4 GB.

The platform hosts over 10 million bots, enabling developers to create simple chatbots and mini-apps.

Besides these, in 2024, Telegram introduced more than 15 new features, namely recommended channels, a profile view option, the ability to showcase your channel and birthday on your page, and enhanced moderation tools for group admins.

In addition, the new upgraded Telegram allows users to pin as many as 3 stories to their profile.

Session Durations On Telegram

Telegram reports that the average session duration is 1 minute and 21 seconds.

This indicates that each time users open the app on Android, they spend approximately 81 seconds using it. Among social media apps on Android, Telegram ranks 8th in session duration.

Social Media Platforms Average Session Duration
YouTube 7 minutes 25 seconds
TikTok 5 minutes and 56 seconds
Facebook 3 minutes and 42 seconds
Instagram 2 minutes and 44 seconds
Pinterest 2 minutes and 11 seconds
X (Twitter) 2 minutes and 11 seconds
Snapchat 1 minute and 23 seconds
Telegram 1 minute and 21 seconds
Line 1 minute and 21 seconds
LinkedIn 1 minute and 13 seconds
WhatsApp Messenger 1 minute and 6 seconds
FB Messenger 1 minute and 6 seconds

How Much Time Do Telegram Users Spend On The App?

As per the January 2024 report, Telegram reported that users spend an average of 3 hours and 45 minutes monthly on Telegram.

This places Telegram 8th among social media platforms regarding user time spent.

Social Media Platform Time Spent On The Platform Per Month
TikTok 34 hours
YouTube 28 hours and 5 minutes
Facebook 19 hours and 47 minutes
WhatsApp Messenger 17 hours and 6 minutes
Instagram 15 hours and 50 minutes
Line 8 hours and 14 minutes
X (Twitter) 4 hours and 40 minutes
Telegram 3 hours and 45 minutes
Snapchat 3 hours and 33 minutes
FB Messenger 3 hours and 21 minutes
Pinterest 1 hour and 49 minutes
LinkedIn App 51 minutes

Most Expensive Telegram Username

The username ‘@news’ holds the highest price for a Telegram username on the auction platform Fragment.

Sold in November 2022 for 994,000 Toncoin, its value has since risen to approximately $5.81 million as of April 2024. The second most expensive Telegram username sold for $5.27 million on Fragment.

Fragment, launched in October 2022, is a platform for buying and selling Telegram usernames using the cryptocurrency Toncoin.

Telegram Security Statistics

In August 2024, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested after regulatory bodies accused the app of facilitating illicit activities. The charges included drug trafficking and distributing child sexual abuse images.

French media reported that Durov was detained under an arrest warrant, alleging that Telegram was involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and other offenses. Some other security issues faced by Telegram are –

  • SEBI uncovered a stock-price manipulation scheme on Telegram; the group owner received â‚ą20 lakhs in commission.
  • Two men in Bhopal, India, were arrested for defrauding a doctor of â‚ą38 lakhs by impersonating police officers.
  • National exam UGC-NET and NEET-UG papers were leaked on Telegram on June 19 and May 3, 2023.
  • Scammers were selling phishing tools on Telegram for as little as $230.

Telegram vs Other Mobile Messenger Apps

As of April 2024, Telegram ranks as the fourth most popular mobile messaging app globally, trailing behind WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook Messenger, which have higher monthly active users.

Mobile Messaging App Number Of Monthly Active Users
WhatsApp 2000 million
Weixin/ WeChat 1,343 million
Facebook Messenger 1,010 million
Telegram 900 million
Snapchat 800 million
QQ 554 million

Telegram Ad Network Platform

The latest addition to the Telegram family is the Telegram Ad network. This platform allows users to create and distribute sponsored messages on Telegram channels with at least 1000 subscribers.

Channel owners receive up to 50% of the revenue generated from the ads displayed on their channel, making it a profitable opportunity for those managing popular channels.

The platform provides advertisers with a targeted way to reach specific audiences by selecting relevant ad channels. However, advertisers must pay broadcasting fees to feature their ads on these chosen channels.

After creating a sponsored message, advertisers can set a price per 1,000 views, referred to as Cost-Per-Mille (CPM). The starting rate for CPM is 0.1 Toncoin.

Telegram Ads gives advertisers access to over 4,000 active channels, connecting them to over 75 million subscribers. These channels boast an impressive average engagement rate of 28%.

Countries Telegram Is Banned In

Telegram is permanently banned in 2 countries, namely –

  • China
  • Iran

Telegram Statistics

  1. Telegram users rack up over 1 trillion channel views every month. (Source – telegram.org)
  2. In 2023, Telegram led the instant messaging category with a 37.68% market share. (Source – whop.com)
  3. As of February 2024, Telegram’s official LinkedIn page lists its number of employees as ranging from 11 to 50. (Source – whop.com)
  4. Telegram’s expenses surged from $11 million in 2013 to $595 million in 2023. (Source – whop.com)
  5. In December 2023, Telegram released its 10th update of the year, the most extensive bot update in the platform’s history. (Source – whop.com)
  6. In 2023, approximately 50% of small businesses advertised on Telegram worldwide had a monthly budget of up to 25,000 Russian rubles (about $270). (Source – whop.com)
  7. In 2023, about 20% of large businesses set aside a monthly budget of 101-250k Russian rubles ($1,100 – $2,700). (Source – whop.com)
  8. In 2023, 25% of Telegram users subscribed to over 50 channels. (Source – whop.com)
  9. A study conducted in January 2024 showed that 2.4% of active social media users aged 16-64 identified Telegram as their favorite platform. (Source – whop.com)
  10. Between April and June 2023, Android app users accessed their Telegram app 38.6% of the time. (Source – whop.com)
  11. In 2022, the Pew Research Center identified Telegram as one of seven alternative social media platforms advocating free speech. (Source – whop.com)
  12. So far, Telegram hasn’t spent a single penny on advertising. (Source – whop.com)
  13. In mid-January 2021, the app quickly gained 25 million users in just 72 hours. (Source – financesonline.com)
  14. In 2020, reports indicated that over 15 billion messages were exchanged on Telegram. (Source – financesonline.com)
  15. Telegram users send over 70 billion messages daily. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  16. In 2020, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fined Telegram $18.5 million following a dispute with the company over its cryptocurrency venture. (Source – financesonline.com)
  17. In 2019, the app was downloaded nearly 400,000 times in the Netherlands. (Source – financesonline.com)
  18. In May 2020, Belgium recorded the highest number of Telegram downloads, reaching 30,643. (Source – financesonline.com)
  19. Telegram grew in popularity in France, with 305.31 thousand downloads from the Apple App Store in 2021. (Source – financesonline.com)
  20. 8% of people get their news and information from the app. (Source – financesonline.com)
  21. According to 2020 reports, Telegram holds a 4% market share among messaging services in Australia. (Source – financesonline.com)
  22. Telegram offers a collection of 20,000 stickers. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  23. After the Facebook and Instagram outage on October 4th, 2021, Telegram saw a considerable boost, gaining 70 million new users within 24 hours. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  24. In February 2020, Telegram received 184,920 downloads on Android devices in Germany. (Source – financesonline.com)
  25. Reports indicate that 22% of Brazilian Telegram users use the app nearly every day. (Source – financesonline.com)
  26. Russian users spend the most time on Telegram of any country, averaging 5.1 hours per month. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  27. In 2021, Telegram became the most installed non-gaming app globally, with over 63 million new installs. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  28. In Spain, 31% of internet users prefer using Telegram for online shopping. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  29. Telegram has 257,000 users who subscribe to paid services. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  30. Between January and October 2019, 150 far-right channels emerged on the Telegram. (Source – marketsplash.com)
  31. In South Africa, only 19.7% of people use Telegram. (Source – financesonline.com)
  32. Approximately 18 million people in Uzbekistan use Telegram. (Source – priordata.com)