Telegram System Limits
Every application has to define system limits. These limits are set to allow the system to function and help to curb user abuse.
Some of Telegram's limits are widely known or understood, some of them are less obvious and are not something the average user will bump up against.
Accounts
- Username (e.g. @RobertWallis) - 5 to 32 characters
- Bio - up to 70 characters
- First Name length - from 1 to 64 characters
- Last Name length - from 0 to 64 characters
- Self-destruction period if no activity - 1, 3, 6 and 12 months (6 by default)
- Spam ban - 3 days or more
- Channels and supergroups number you can be member of - up to 500
(including ones you own) - Saved GIFs number - up to 200
- Video-avatar duration - up to 10 seconds
- Group and channel creation - up to 50 in a day
- Accounts number (official clients) - up to 3
The account self-destruction period is a setting which I think other platforms should look at implementing. Nice one Telegram.
Chats and groups
- Participants (limit can be raised) - up to 200,000
- Number of admins in groups - up to 50
- Number of bots in groups - up to 20
- Pinned chats in main list - up to 5 chats or channels + 5 secret chats
- Group name and description - up to 255 characters
- Message editing - in 48 hours after sending; unlimited in Saved and for admins with pinning rights
- Photo and video self-destruction - 1 to 60 seconds
- Recent actions (subscriptions, posts, etc.) - last two days
- Mentions number in a single message - up to 50, else notifications won't be sent
- Visible messages number in group - 1,000,000 last messages
- Pinned messages number - unlimited
- Number of participants to see statistics - at least 500
- Username change reservation - about 15-30 minutes
(time before username will be available for everyone, not just the original owner) - Group-promoted stickers - groups with 100+ participants
Messages / Channel posts
- One message length - up to 4,096 characters
- Media captions - up to 1,024 characters
- File size limit - up to 2.0 GB
- Video message duration - up to 1 minute
- Images and videos in single message (album) - up to 10 items
- Scheduled messages number - up to 100 items
- Schedule range - up to 365 days
The media captions length limit is one I have personally bumped up against whilst using the react client, only because it is currently not indicated in that particular client yet.
Channels
- Public usernames number for a single account - up to 10
(including groups) - Length of @username - 5 to 32 characters
- Channel name and description - up to 255 characters
- Posts editing - unlimited
- Channel subscribers number - unlimited
- Visible subscribers for channel admin - 200 people
- Channel deletion - channels with more than 1K subscribers can be deleted only with Telegram support
- Private channel access without subscription - up to 5 minutes once a day
- Inviting users - up to 200 people
- Number of subscribers to see statistics - at least 50
- Username change reservation - about 15-30 minutes
(time before username will be available for everyone, not just the original owner)
One channel limit I am still looking for is the channel admins limit. If you know that please let me know in the comments.
Folders
- Folders amount - up to 10 folders
- Pinned chats in a folder - up to 100 chats
Folders is a fantastic recent feature, well suited for power users.
People Nearby
- Visibility range - about 12 kilometers
- Visible users amount - up to 100 people
- Visible geochats number - up to 10 closest
There has been some recent irresponsible media coverage of Telegram's people nearby feature. Keep front of mind that it is off by default and users turn this feature on: indicating that they wish to be visible to others nearby.
Bots
- Bots number (created by @BotFather) - up to 20 items
- Length of @username for bots - 5 to 32 characters
- Bot info length (/setabouttext) - up to 120 characters
- Bot description length - up to 512 characters
- File upload limit (BotAPI) - up to 50 MB
- File download limit (BotAPI) - up to 20 MB
- Message forwarding - up to 2,000 per hour
- Keyboard buttons number - up to 100 entities
- Message formatting data - up to 10 KB
- Messages frequency - up to 30 messages per second; 20 per minute for public chats and channels
(can be raised by BotSupport) - API requests frequency - up to 30 requests per second
(can be raised by BotSupport) - Commands amount (in BotFather) - 0 to 100 commands
- Command length (in BotFather) - from 1 to 32 characters
- Command description length (in BotFather) - from 2 to 256 characters
- Bot /start payload length - up to 64 characters
Interesting for developers.
Search
- Global search results - up to 10 items; up to 3 for Android
- Minimal query length for global search - at least 4 characters
Discovery is Telegram's weak spot, but I would argue that a Telegram channel or group which supports your brand or activity should be discovered from links you have placed on your website!
Stickers
- Added packs number - up to 200 items
- Favorite stickers number - up to 5 items
- Stickers in a pack number - up to 120 for static, up to 50 for animated
- Sticker size - one side equal to 512px, the other side 512px or less; strictly 512x512 for animated
- Animation duration - up to 3 seconds
- Sticker file size - up to 512 KB for static, up to 64 KB for animated
- FPS - either 30 or 60
People love Telegram for the huge variety of stickers.
Telegrah
- Accounts number in @telegraph bot - up to 5 items
- Article size - up to 64 KiB
A very useful micro-blogging addition to use with Telegram.
Miscellaneous
- Video avatar properties - 800x800px, up to 2 MB
Conclusions
When I discovered these limits what struck me was how well thought out and reasonable they seem to be.
Do any of these cause you problems? Or need changing? Let me know in the comments.
