# LonamiWebs/Telethon

Pure Python 3 MTProto API Telegram client library, for bots too!

Repository: https://github.com/LonamiWebs/Telethon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/telethon
Homepage: https://docs.telethon.dev
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: library, telegram, telegram-api, telethon, mtproto, python-library, hacktoberfest
Archived: true
Last push: 2026-02-21T21:11:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 68, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3659, "days_push": 193, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 12059, forks 1644 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:51.642855+00:00)

## What it is
Telethon is a pure Python 3 asyncio MTProto library for interacting with Telegram's full API, either as a user account or a bot, serving as an alternative to the HTTP Bot API. It wraps Telegram's low-level protocol so developers can send messages, download media, and handle events with simple Python code.

## Use cases
- build a telegram bot in python
- automate sending messages to telegram channels
- download media from telegram chats
- scrape telegram group messages
- create a userbot that reacts to new messages
- interact with telegram api without the bot api

## When to choose
- you need full Telegram client capabilities beyond the Bot API, such as user accounts or raw MTProto access
- you want an asyncio-native Python library with event handlers for new messages
- you need to download or upload media programmatically at high speed

## When to avoid
- you only need simple bot features and prefer the official HTTP Bot API's simplicity
- you cannot accept the risk of account bans from third-party client usage
- you need a library in a language other than Python

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, sdk, developer-tools
- domain: messaging-platforms, apis, developer-tools
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: telegram, mtproto, asyncio, bot-api-alternative, messaging, automation

## Member repositories
- LonamiWebs/Telethon (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.642855+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:14:58.091257+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/LonamiWebs/Telethon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:51.642855+00:00, sha 4e85ad976fcf)
  - homepage: https://docs.telethon.dev (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:29.787838+00:00, sha 7a1d38c98f07)
  - site_page: https://docs.telethon.dev/en/stable/basic/installation.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:29.796626+00:00, sha 1533ee3d5375)
  - site_page: https://docs.telethon.dev/en/stable/quick-references/faq.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:29.798382+00:00, sha 287a70ba4a15)
  - site_page: https://docs.telethon.dev/en/stable/misc/changelog.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:12:29.800952+00:00, sha dfca623bc5d0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.