Telegram Users by Country 2026: Statistics, Sources and Ad Prices

How many people use Telegram in 2026: the short answer

Telegram has over 1 billion active users, according to its own FAQ (read on 14 October 2026). Pavel Durov, Telegram’s founder, announced “significantly over 1 billion monthly active users” on 19 March 2025, and in 2026 he was still writing of “over a billion users” (21 July 2026) and “our billion+ users” (31 August 2026). Telegram does not publish a regular breakdown by country. Among the countries we cover, the two largest audiences with a sourced number are India — “150 million ordinary Telegram users”, in Durov’s post of 16 June 2026 — and Russia, where the measurement company Mediascope put Telegram’s monthly reach at 93.6 million people in December 2025. For Uzbekistan and Spain only shares exist: Telegram usage above 88% of the internet-connected population, and 17.4% of weekly internet users. For every other country, the figures that circulate online could not be traced to a primary source, so we quote none.

That is the honest state of Telegram statistics in 2026: one official global number, one official country number, a few independent measurements, and a lot of untraceable estimates. This page keeps only the first three. Every figure carries its source and date, every country links to its full guide, and next to each country sits a number only an advertiser can measure: what a thousand Telegram Ads impressions actually cost there on our own accounts in the 30 days from 14 September to 13 October 2026.

What Telegram itself says about its users

A worldwide figure should come from Telegram itself. Here is what its own channels say, with dates:

• “Over 1 billion active users.” The Telegram FAQ also calls Telegram “one of the top 5 most downloaded apps in the world”.
• “Significantly over 1 billion monthly active users” — Durov on 19 March 2025, adding that Telegram had become “the second most popular messaging app in the world (excluding the China-specific WeChat)” and that on average each user opens Telegram 21 times a day and spends 41 minutes in it.
• “Over a billion users” (21 July 2026) and “our billion+ users” (31 August 2026) — Durov’s 2026 posts keep the same order of magnitude; none of them gives a more precise number.
• “Every month, 1 billion Telegram users generate 1 trillion views in public broadcast channels” — the front page of Telegram Ads, read on 14 October 2026. That is the inventory the ad platform sells.
• Over 15 million Telegram Premium subscribers — Durov on 27 May 2025. Premium matters to advertisers: Telegram’s Premium FAQ says official sponsored messages “will be hidden for users that subscribe to Telegram Premium”.
• The EU ceiling. Under the EU Digital Services Act, Telegram states in its FAQ that the parts of its service that qualify as “online platforms” had “significantly fewer than 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU” over the six months to August 2026. That is an upper bound for part of the service, not a count of EU users.
• India: 150 million. The one country figure we found in Telegram’s own channels in 2026: “150 million ordinary Telegram users in India” (Durov, 16 June 2026).

That is all we found. Telegram publishes no country ranking, no per-country monthly active users and no demographic split, so any “Telegram users by country” chart that does not name a source is someone’s estimate.

Telegram users by country: the table

Two tables. The first holds the countries where a Telegram figure traces back to a source we opened ourselves. The second holds the countries where it does not — and instead of an estimate, it gives the size of the online population, so you can see the scale of the market without being told a Telegram number nobody can back up.

The price column is our own measurement: CPM (cost per thousand impressions), CTR and the number of impressions behind it, for campaigns targeted at exactly one country, 14 September – 13 October 2026. Every price stays in the currency its account is billed in — euros on Euro accounts, TON (now called Gram) on TON accounts, Stars on Stars accounts — and is never converted. Every country carries its price together with the impressions behind it, so you see the base of each row.

Countries with a sourced Telegram figure

Country	Telegram users	Source and date	Our CPM · CTR · impressions, 14 Sep–13 Oct 2026	Guide
India	150 million; earlier count: 120M+ monthly active	Pavel Durov, 16 June 2026; data.ai via TechCrunch, 1 October 2022	0.42 TON · 1.85% · 8.6M (TON); €0.16 · 0.00% · 2.1k (Euro)	guide
Russia	93.6M monthly reach; 74.3M average daily reach	Mediascope, December 2025, via 3DNews, 29 January 2026	€1.33 · 0.61% · 4.8M (Euro); 99.75 Stars · 0.33% · 1.0M (Stars, one account 72%)	guide
Uzbekistan	over 88% of the internet-connected population (a share, not a count)	Times of Central Asia, 10 December 2025 — the publication’s figure	0.31 TON · 0.59% · 2.9M (TON)	guide
Spain	17.4% of weekly internet users use it habitually (a share, not a count)	CNMC household panel, Q4 2025, published May 2026	0.59 TON · 5.27% · 1.2M (TON)	guide
European Union	significantly fewer than 45M average monthly active recipients of Telegram’s “online platform” features (a ceiling, not a count)	Telegram FAQ, EU Digital Services Act disclosure, as of August 2026	see Germany and Italy below	guide

For scale, the same four countries have 1.03 billion (India), 136 million (Russia), 46.1 million (Spain) and 33.1 million (Uzbekistan) internet users, per DataReportal’s Digital 2026 reports for India, Russia, Spain and Uzbekistan, data for October 2025. We do not multiply a share by a population to manufacture a user count: a survey share times an internet population is an estimate, and this page has none.

Countries with no reliable public Telegram figure

Telegram does not publish user numbers for these countries, and our country guides found no figure that traces back to a primary source — the numbers that circulate come from statistics sites that do not show where they got them. So the second column is the internet population, not Telegram users: DataReportal’s Digital 2026 count for October 2025, which tells you how big the online market is. None of these reports lists Telegram. Sorted by internet population.

Country	Internet users, Oct 2025 (DataReportal)	Our CPM · CTR · impressions, 14 Sep–13 Oct 2026	Guide
United States	324M	0.57 TON · 1.81% · 6.9M (TON)	guide
Indonesia	230M	2.52 TON · 3.31% · 1.5M (TON)	guide
Brazil	185M	0.59 TON · 2.59% · 2.1M (TON, one account 75%)	guide
Pakistan	117M	0.28 TON · 1.63% · 25k (TON)	guide
Mexico	110M	1.61 TON · 3.76% · 312k (TON)	guide
Egypt	98.2M	0.24 TON · 3.19% · 4.5M (TON)	guide
Philippines	98.0M	1.37 TON · 2.66% · 188k (TON)	guide
Vietnam	85.6M	3.45 TON · 8.46% · 730k (TON)	guide
Bangladesh	82.8M	0.35 TON · 4.64% · 2.1M (TON)	guide
Turkey	77.5M	0.39 TON · 0.99% · 640k (TON)	guide
United Kingdom	68.1M	0.33 TON · 3.09% · 1.5M (TON)	guide
Thailand	67.8M	1.61 TON · 1.79% · 64k (TON)	guide
South Africa	51.7M	no single-country campaigns this month	guide
Colombia	41.7M	0.18 TON · 20.11% · 530k (TON)	guide
Argentina	41.6M	0.83 TON · 4.76% · 191k (TON)	guide
Morocco	35.5M	0.65 TON · 2.46% · 222k (TON)	guide
Malaysia	35.4M	1.91 TON · 1.39% · 1.7M (TON)	guide
Saudi Arabia	34.4M	1.17 TON · 1.22% · 6.7M (TON)	guide
Ethiopia	29.5M	0.16 TON · 2.17% · 32.0M (TON)	guide
Peru	28.4M	0.56 TON · 0.43% · 314k (TON)	guide
Kazakhstan	19.5M	no single-country campaigns this month	guide
Chile	18.8M	no single-country campaigns this month	guide
UAE	11.3M	3.98 TON · 2.61% · 2.5M (TON)	guide
Israel	8.72M	no single-country campaigns this month	guide
Qatar	3.10M	2.50 TON · 2.50% · 571k (TON, one account 70%)	guide
Germany	—	0.20 TON · 2.32% · 1.4M (TON)	guide
Italy	—	0.25 TON · 4.63% · 475k (TON)	guide
France	—	0.23 TON · 14.44% · 16k (TON)	guide
Belarus	—	0.19 TON · 0.00% · 4.9k (TON)	guide

Our Germany, Italy, France and Belarus guides quote no internet-user figures, so that column is empty for them. South Africa, Kazakhstan, Chile and Israel had no single-country campaigns in these 30 days. The country guides carry longer measurement windows.

Region by region

CIS: Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus

Russia is the largest audience in the region with a sourced number: 93.6 million monthly reach and 74.3 million average daily reach in December 2025, measured by Mediascope — before the access restrictions of 2026 that our Russia guide walks through, so read them as a ceiling. Russia is also our biggest Euro market: €1.33 per thousand impressions at 0.61% CTR on 4.8M impressions from 19 accounts, 62% of all Euro-account impressions this month, with no single account above 18%; this month’s data has no TON row for Russia. In Uzbekistan the Times of Central Asia puts Telegram usage above 88% of the internet-connected population (33.1M internet users); TON accounts paid 0.31 TON at a 0.59% CTR, the lowest CTR in the table after Belarus and Peru, with one account supplying 70% of the row. Kazakhstan (19.5M internet users) and Belarus have no sourced Telegram figure; Belarus measured 0.19 TON per thousand on 4.9k impressions, and Kazakhstan had no single-country campaigns this month.

South Asia: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

India is the largest Telegram audience with a sourced number among the countries we cover: 150 million users in Durov’s post of 16 June 2026, against the 120 million-plus monthly active users data.ai counted in 2022 — inside an online population of 1.03 billion. It was also the second-biggest country row of our month, after Ethiopia: 8.6M impressions at 0.42 TON per thousand and 1.85% CTR on 8 accounts, with no account above 39%. Pakistan (117M internet users) and Bangladesh (82.8M) have no traceable Telegram count; Pakistan measured 0.28 TON per thousand at 1.63% CTR on 25k impressions, and Bangladesh 0.35 TON at 4.64% CTR on 2.1M impressions.

Middle East and North Africa

No country in the region has a sourced Telegram count, and it holds the most expensive row of the month as well as some of the cheapest: Algeria measured 0.16 TON per thousand on 1.4M impressions. Egypt measured 0.24 TON per thousand at 3.19% CTR on 4.5M impressions — among the cheapest impressions anywhere — while the UAE, with 11.3M internet users, measured 3.98 TON, the most expensive country row of the month. Saudi Arabia carried 6.7M impressions at 1.17 TON and 1.22% CTR, Qatar 2.50 TON, Morocco 0.65 TON, and Kuwait, which has no guide of its own, 1.45 TON. Turkey, between Europe and Asia, measured 0.39 TON at 0.99% CTR. Israel had no single-country campaigns this month.

Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia

Indonesia has the region’s largest online population, 230 million, and no traceable Telegram count; it measured 2.52 TON per thousand at 3.31% CTR. Vietnam is the outlier: its telecom department ordered providers to block Telegram in a letter dated 21 May 2025 (Al Jazeera), yet our Vietnam-targeted campaigns delivered 730k impressions this month at 3.45 TON and the third-highest CTR of any country, 8.46%, after Colombia and France. The Philippines (98.0M internet users) measured 1.37 TON per thousand at 2.66% CTR on 188k impressions, Thailand (67.8M) 1.61 TON on 64k, and Malaysia 1.91 TON at 1.39% CTR on 1.7M.

Latin America: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Chile

No Latin American country has a sourced Telegram count; our Brazil guide notes that DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report does not list Telegram there at all. Prices this month: Brazil 0.59 TON at 2.59% CTR on 2.1M impressions (one account supplied 75%), Mexico 1.61 TON at 3.76%, Argentina 0.83 TON at 4.76%. Colombia (41.7M internet users) measured 0.18 TON per thousand on 530k impressions at a 20.11% CTR — the highest in the table — and Peru (28.4M) 0.56 TON at 0.43% on 314k; Chile (18.8M) had no single-country campaigns this month.

Europe: the EU, Spain, the UK, Germany, Italy, France

The only Telegram-side number for Europe is a ceiling on part of the service: the features that count as “online platforms” under the Digital Services Act had significantly fewer than 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU in the six months to August 2026. Spain is the one European country with survey data — 17.4% of people who use the internet at least weekly use Telegram habitually, against 94.6% for WhatsApp (CNMC, Q4 2025). And Europe holds the three cheapest rows of the month: Denmark, Norway and Portugal at 0.15 TON per thousand, on 13k impressions each. Germany cost 0.20 TON on 1.4M impressions, Austria 0.20 TON on 1.3k, France 0.23 TON with a 14.44% CTR on 16k, Italy 0.25 TON with a 4.63% CTR, the Netherlands 0.27 TON at 1.98% on 2.0M and Romania 0.28 TON at 4.39% on 75k. The UK cost 0.33 TON at 3.09%, Switzerland 0.55 TON at 2.43% on 223k and Spain 0.59 TON with a 5.27% CTR on 1.2M. The Europe guide covers the rest of the continent.

Africa: Ethiopia, South Africa

Egypt and Morocco sit under North Africa above. South of the Sahara, Ethiopia has 29.5 million internet users — 21.7% of its population — and South Africa 51.7 million. Neither has a sourced Telegram count. Ethiopia was the biggest country row of the month and the cheapest south of the Sahara: 32.0M impressions at 0.16 TON per thousand and a 2.17% CTR; South Africa had no single-country campaigns this month. Their guides cover the crypto and advertising rules that decide what can run there.

North America: the USA

The USA is the largest online population we cover — 324 million internet users — and has no traceable Telegram count. It delivered 6.9M impressions at 0.57 TON per thousand and 1.81% CTR, from 3,587 campaigns, the most of any TON country row this month. Canada measured 0.40 TON per thousand at 2.23% CTR on 655k impressions; Mexico sits under Latin America.

Where Telegram Ads is cheapest and most expensive this month

All figures from our accounts, 14 September – 13 October 2026, single-country campaigns only, every country with impressions in the window. TON rows are compared with TON rows; the two Euro country rows are compared with the Euro average.

• Cheapest impressions (TON accounts): Denmark, Norway and Portugal 0.15 TON per thousand (13k impressions each), Algeria and Ethiopia 0.16, Syria 0.17, Colombia 0.18, Senegal 0.18 (223 impressions), Belarus 0.19 (4.9k), Germany 0.20.
• Most expensive (TON accounts): the UAE 3.98 TON, Vietnam 3.45, Indonesia 2.52, Qatar 2.50. The UAE costs about 27 times Denmark, Norway or Portugal (3.979 ÷ 0.150), 25 times Ethiopia (3.979 ÷ 0.159) and 20 times Germany (3.979 ÷ 0.197).
• Highest CTR: Colombia 20.11%, France 14.44% (16k impressions), Vietnam 8.46%, Portugal 6.38% (13k), Spain 5.27%, Argentina 4.76%, Bangladesh 4.64%, Italy 4.63%. Lowest: 0.00% — no clicks — in Belarus (4.9k impressions), Honduras (16), New Zealand (4) and Mozambique (2); then Peru 0.43%, Uzbekistan 0.59%, Bahrain 0.61%, Iraq 0.75% and Turkey 0.99%.
• Cheapest clicks: Colombia 0.001 TON, France and Portugal 0.002, Norway 0.003, Denmark, Italy and Austria 0.005, Romania and Algeria 0.006. Most expensive clicks: Peru 0.469 TON, the UAE 0.153, Malaysia 0.133, Qatar 0.100, Saudi Arabia 0.096.
• Euro accounts: two country rows this month — Russia at €1.33 per thousand on 4.8M impressions and India at €0.16 on 2.1k — both below the €2.05 average across all Euro campaigns. The TON average across all TON campaigns was 0.78 TON.
• Audience size does not set the price. India, the largest sourced audience on this page, cost 0.42 TON per thousand; the UAE, with 11.3M internet users, cost 3.98 TON.

The full month — niches, destinations, cost per click and what €500 buys — is in Telegram Ads prices, October 2026. Longer-run country tables are in Telegram Ads CPM by country.

How to read these numbers

Monthly active users, downloads and ad reach

Three different numbers get called “Telegram users”, and they are not interchangeable:

• Monthly active users. Telegram’s billion is a monthly-active figure, in the 2025 announcement’s own words. A monthly figure is always larger than a daily one: Mediascope’s Russia numbers for the same month are 93.6 million monthly and 74.3 million daily.
• Downloads. “One of the top 5 most downloaded apps” counts installations, not people: one person can install an app on several devices and more than once.
• Ad reach. The ad platform describes itself as “sponsored messages in public one-to-many channels with 1000+ subscribers” (Telegram Ads, Getting Started), and campaigns can also target users and bots directly — our month includes all three. Premium subscribers do not see sponsored messages. So the audience you can buy in a country is always smaller than the people who use Telegram there.
• Shares. Uzbekistan’s 88% and Spain’s 17.4% are shares of internet users. They tell you how common Telegram is, not how many people that is.

Why sources disagree

• They measure different things. A company statement, an analytics firm’s model, a measured audience panel and a household survey each count something different.
• They are from different years. India’s 120 million is from 2022; the 150 million is from 2026. An “exact” number with no date is worth little.
• They use different bases. Total population, internet users and weekly internet users give very different percentages for the same app.
• Many have no source at all. For most countries on this page, the figures that rank in search come from statistics sites that do not show their method. Our guides traced them and dropped every one that led nowhere.

Why a TON price and a euro price are not comparable

Telegram bills each account in one currency: Euro accounts in euros, TON accounts in TON (now called Gram), Stars accounts in Stars. The TON price moves every day, so converting 0.42 TON into euros at one day’s rate turns a measurement into a guess. Compare TON rows with TON rows and euro rows with euro rows. This month Euro single-country volume sat in Russia (4.8M impressions; India’s Euro campaigns added 2.1k), so the other countries carry TON prices — and Russia has no TON row.

Reach these users with a Euro account

The audiences in these tables are reachable from one account. Adsly opens Euro accounts in 48 hours from payment — no KYC, no documents, no company of your own, and you pay in any crypto. Why a Euro account:

• Every Euro account is a World account: every available country, chosen per campaign — India on Monday, Germany on Tuesday, the UAE next week, from the same budget.
• Ads can link to any website. On self-serve accounts Telegram’s own getting-started page says “Links to external sites are not allowed”.
• A direct line to Telegram moderation.
• Everything in euros — budget, spend, CPM and reports — with Adsly Pro Panel on top of the account on ads.telegram.org.

Regular niches start from a €500 ad budget, €650 in total; the order form shows the exact total for your niche before you pay.

Open a Euro account — questions go to @adsly_pro.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many Telegram users are there in 2026?

Over 1 billion active users, according to Telegram’s FAQ. Pavel Durov announced “significantly over 1 billion monthly active users” on 19 March 2025, and his 2026 posts still speak of “over a billion users” (21 July 2026) and “our billion+ users” (31 August 2026). Telegram has not published a more precise 2026 number.

Which country has the most Telegram users?

Telegram publishes no country ranking. Among the countries with a sourced figure, India is the largest: “150 million ordinary Telegram users in India”, Durov wrote on 16 June 2026. Russia follows, with a monthly reach of 93.6 million measured by Mediascope in December 2025. Large online populations such as Indonesia or the USA have no traceable Telegram count, so they cannot be ranked honestly.

How many people use Telegram in India?

150 million, in Pavel Durov’s post of 16 June 2026 — the one country figure we found in Telegram’s own channels this year. The earlier named count is data.ai’s: more than 120 million monthly active users, reported by TechCrunch on 1 October 2022. India had 1.03 billion internet users in October 2025 (DataReportal). On our TON accounts India cost 0.42 TON per thousand impressions at a 1.85% CTR this month.

How many Telegram users are there in Russia?

Mediascope measured Telegram’s monthly reach in Russia at 93.6 million people and its average daily reach at 74.3 million in December 2025 (reported by 3DNews on 29 January 2026). Those figures predate the access restrictions of 2026, so read them as a ceiling. On our Euro accounts Russia cost €1.33 per thousand impressions at a 0.61% CTR this month.

How many people use Telegram in Europe?

There is no total. Telegram’s only European figure is a ceiling: under the EU Digital Services Act, the parts of its service that count as “online platforms” had significantly fewer than 45 million average monthly active recipients in the EU in the six months to August 2026. Spain has survey data — 17.4% of weekly internet users use Telegram habitually (CNMC, Q4 2025). No other European country in our guides has a traceable figure.

How many people use Telegram in Spain?

The CNMC’s household panel for the fourth quarter of 2025, published in May 2026, found that 17.4% of people who use the internet at least weekly use Telegram habitually, against 94.6% for WhatsApp. Spain had 46.1 million internet users in October 2025 (DataReportal). That is a share; we do not turn it into a user count.

How many people use Telegram in Uzbekistan?

The Times of Central Asia wrote in December 2025 that Telegram usage exceeds 88% of Uzbekistan’s internet-connected population — the publication’s figure, not Telegram’s. Uzbekistan had 33.1 million internet users in October 2025 (DataReportal). Our TON accounts paid 0.31 TON per thousand impressions there this month.

How many Telegram users are there in the USA?

No reliable public figure exists: Telegram does not publish one, and the numbers that circulate could not be traced to a primary source. What is documented is 324 million internet users in October 2025 (DataReportal). Ads do deliver: our US-targeted campaigns served 6.9M impressions this month at 0.57 TON per thousand and a 1.81% CTR.

How many Telegram users are there in Indonesia, Brazil or Egypt?

None of them has a reliable public figure. What can be sourced is the online population: 230 million internet users in Indonesia, 185 million in Brazil and 98.2 million in Egypt in October 2025 (DataReportal). Our measured prices this month: Indonesia 2.52 TON, Brazil 0.59 TON, Egypt 0.24 TON per thousand impressions.

Does Telegram publish user numbers by country?

Not as a regular statistic. Telegram’s FAQ gives the worldwide total and the EU ceiling required by the Digital Services Act; Durov’s channel occasionally names a country, as with India’s 150 million in June 2026. Everything else on this page comes from independent measurements — Mediascope, the CNMC, data.ai — each named with its date.