Exporting Telegram Contacts & Phone Numbers to Excel/CSV: What Data You Can Really Extract in 2026
Every week, sales leaders get pitched sketchy bots promising to 'extract 100% of mobile phone numbers from any Telegram channel'. Anyone who pays $100 for that learns the hard way: you either get an empty column or recycled 2020 data-breach dumps full of disconnected numbers and GDPR landmines.
Key takeaway
Here is the real engineering truth: when a Telegram user sets Settings -> Privacy -> Phone Number -> Nobody, Telegram's servers never transmit their phone over MTProto (phone = null). However, across B2B, real estate, e-commerce, MENA, CIS, and LatAm business groups, 8–18% of operators leave their phone public on purpose (or list WhatsApp/calendars in Bio), while 85–92% expose an active @username and 100% carry a permanent user_id.
1. What Telegram's MTProto Protocol Actually Exposes (No Myths)
Understanding what comes directly from live Telegram profiles saves your team from buying stale leaked databases that wreck cold-call connect rates:
- Public profile phone numbers (`8–18%` in commercial niches): wholesalers, real estate brokers, logistics operators, agency owners, and regional founders frequently keep their work phone visible so partners can reach them fast. TGParse extracts these live numbers cleanly alongside country ISO flags.
- Direct contact info inside Bio (`another 5–12%` in B2B): even users who hide their system phone field routinely paste their website, Calendly, email, WhatsApp link, or secondary work handle in their 70-character Bio.
- Active `@username` handles (`85–92%` of active authors): the primary identifier for direct Telegram outreach and CRM enrichment.
- Permanent numeric `user_id` (`100%` of profiles): even if a prospect changes their
@usernameand display name next month, their numeric Telegram ID never changes.
Why 'ID-to-Phone breach matching' destroys B2B sales trust
Underground bots that claim 70% phone match rates stitch old leaked food-delivery or fintech tables onto Telegram IDs. Beyond severe GDPR / TCPA compliance liability, ~35% of those SIMs have been reassigned, and starting a B2B call with 'How did you get my hidden personal number?!' kills enterprise deals on the spot.
2. Inside a TGParse .xlsx / .csv Export: Every Column Explained
A raw list of handles forces SDRs to fly blind. Enriched context turns cold outreach into warm conversations. Here is what every row in a TGParse export contains:
TGParse Spreadsheet Columns & Sales Use Cases
| Column | Sample Value | How Sales & Growth Teams Use It |
|---|---|---|
| Phone + Country | +97150... (AE) / +447... (GB) | Time-zone routing, geo filtering, and WhatsApp/call outreach where public |
| Username | @marcus_ops | Direct t.me/marcus_ops link for personalized DM sequences |
| Telegram User ID | 604918274 | Immutable deduplication key across HubSpot / Pipedrive / Clay imports |
| Full Name & Premium | Marcus Vance · ⭐️ Premium | First-name personalization + paying-subscriber signal (Telegram Premium) |
| Bio | Co-founder @ShipFast · 3PL EU | Instant ICP role check (separating buyers from competing freelancers) |
| Messages & Sample Text | 6 msgs · 'Anyone using a reliable EU 3PL for supplements?' | Ready-made icebreaker quoting their exact question in the group |
| AI Score & Reason | Match · E-com founder seeking 3PL | One-line AI reasoning explaining why the lead passed your semantic filter |
3. Why Native .xlsx Beats .csv When Opening Lists in Excel
Double-clicking a raw .csv file in desktop Microsoft Excel triggers two infamous silent bugs that ruin lead lists every day:
- Broken non-Latin characters (Mojibake): Excel on Windows still defaults to legacy ANSI encodings when opening CSVs directly, turning Cyrillic, Ukrainian, Arabic, or accented European names into unreadable garbage.
- Scientific-notation corruption (`9.71501E+11`): Excel treats 11–15 digit phone numbers and Telegram
user_idvalues as giant floats, displays them asE+11, and permanently zeroes out the trailing digits the moment you hit Save.
When to pick .xlsx vs. .csv in TGParse
Whenever a human will review, sort, or filter the sheet in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, download Excel (.xlsx) — phones and user IDs are locked as explicit text strings, columns are pre-sized, and Unicode characters stay crisp. Use CSV (exported with UTF-8 BOM) when feeding files directly into Clay, HubSpot, Python scripts, or outreach tools.
4. 5-Minute Workflow: Deduplicating & Importing Into Your CRM
- 1
Merge multi-group scrapes and deduplicate on user_id
Active buyers in a niche usually belong to 3–4 overlapping Telegram groups. Deduplicate on `user_id` before launching outreach so two SDRs never pitch the same founder twice in one morning.
- 2
Split your sheet into two outreach tiers
Route leads with public phone numbers + business Bios + Premium badges to high-touch manual outreach (custom Telegram DM or WhatsApp). Route the broader
@usernamecohort into paced, contextual DM campaigns. - 3
Map 'Sample Text' and 'Source Group' into CRM custom fields
When importing into HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Close, map the user's chat quote right onto the contact record so reps have instant context when a prospect replies.
Clean Telegram Export Checklist
- Downloaded .xlsx for human review in Excel / Google Sheets (prevents E+11 number truncation)
- Used UTF-8 .csv for automated CRM, Clay, or outreach tool ingestion
- Deduplicated multi-chat exports strictly by numeric user_id
- Segmented VIP leads carrying public phones, founder Bios, and Telegram Premium
- Preserved the Sample Message column for personalized first-line outreach
Extract a live lead list from any Telegram chat in 2 minutes
Members, message authors, reactors, and channel commenters — with public phones, bios, and AI scoring. 200 free contacts right after sign-up.
FAQ: Exporting Telegram Contacts & Phones
Which industries have the highest share of public phone numbers on Telegram?
Real-world commercial verticals lead by far (14–22% public phones): real estate, construction, freight & logistics, wholesale trade, automotive, and local SMB groups — especially across MENA (UAE), CIS, Turkey, and LatAm. In privacy-heavy crypto or software engineering chats, expect 3–7% public phones and 90%+ @username reachability.
What can I do with active authors who have neither a public phone nor an @username?
Roughly 8–12% of Telegram users haven't set a public @username. Because TGParse captures their message quote and timestamp from the group, you can still reply helpfully right inside the public thread to invite a DM.
Can I re-download my .xlsx or .csv file later without spending credits again?
Yes. Every completed task stays saved in your TGParse dashboard — you can switch filters or re-download .xlsx and .csv exports anytime from desktop or the Telegram Mini App at zero extra credit cost.