Where Telegram channels send their readers: YouTube, Instagram, VK and MAX
26% of active public Telegram channels linked to YouTube in their last 100 posts, 18% to Instagram, 15% to VK and 14% to MAX, Russia's state-backed messenger, which 29% of Russian-language channels now link to
YouTube is the website Telegram channels link to most: 26.3% of the 178,199 active public channels linked to it in their last 100 posts, followed by Instagram (17.9%), VK (15.5%) and MAX (13.8%). 79% of active channels linked to at least one website outside Telegram, and 51.8% of all posts carry a link. The data covers 256,822 channels read between October 26, 2026 and November 1, 2026.
Which websites do Telegram channels link to most?
Platforms are grouped by family, so youtu.be and youtube.com count as YouTube. Shares are of active channels with at least one such link; a channel counts once however many times it links. The second table shows single domains.
| Platform | Active channels linking | Share of active channels | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | 46,912 | 26.3% | 741,402 |
| 31,890 | 17.9% | 462,644 | |
| VK | 27,589 | 15.5% | 466,075 |
| MAX | 24,687 | 13.8% | 887,167 |
| Link shorteners | 16,541 | 9.3% | 226,318 |
| Google Docs, Forms and Drive | 15,078 | 8.5% | 87,053 |
| X (Twitter) | 14,120 | 7.9% | 250,804 |
| 11,527 | 6.5% | 196,204 | |
| 11,508 | 6.5% | 206,323 | |
| TikTok | 10,180 | 5.7% | 95,927 |
| Ozon and Wildberries | 7,417 | 4.2% | 178,040 |
| App Store and Google Play | 7,219 | 4% | 61,039 |
| Telegraph | 6,436 | 3.6% | 97,176 |
| Rutube | 6,295 | 3.5% | 52,495 |
| Dzen | 4,753 | 2.7% | 52,086 |
| Domain | Share of active channels | Links |
|---|---|---|
| youtu.be | 19.3% | 316,458 |
| youtube.com | 18.2% | 418,901 |
| instagram.com | 17.9% | 460,754 |
| max.ru | 13.8% | 886,584 |
| vk.ru | 9.4% | 182,907 |
| x.com | 7.4% | 215,711 |
| vk.com | 7% | 178,387 |
| facebook.com | 6.2% | 191,009 |
| vkvideo.ru | 5.4% | 58,060 |
| forms.gle | 4.5% | 38,578 |
| docs.google.com | 4.3% | 29,662 |
| clck.ru | 4.1% | 69,504 |
| tiktok.com | 3.8% | 69,962 |
| telegra.ph | 3.6% | 93,713 |
| rutube.ru | 3.5% | 52,457 |
| play.google.com | 3.4% | 39,008 |
| wa.me | 3.1% | 96,237 |
| ozon.ru | 3% | 52,134 |
| whatsapp.com | 2.9% | 67,891 |
| wildberries.ru | 2.8% | 120,646 |
| dzen.ru | 2.6% | 51,676 |
| bit.ly | 2.5% | 61,958 |
| apps.apple.com | 2.4% | 21,564 |
| github.com | 2.2% | 44,699 |
| vt.tiktok.com | 2.2% | 20,484 |
How many Telegram posts carry links?
51.8% of the 24,465,971 posts carry at least one link, and 5.2% show a link preview. The median channel linked to 5 different websites in its last 100 posts; the 90th percentile channel linked to 22.
Links between Telegram channels
84.7% of active channels link to something on t.me, and 75.6% point to other public channels or posts. This is how channels cross-promote. Private invite links appear in 25.5% of channels, boost requests in 3%, sticker and emoji packs in 0.7% and proxy links in 0.5%; the last are covered in our proxy catalog.
| Kind of link | Active channels | Share of active channels |
|---|---|---|
| Links to other public channels or posts | 134,735 | 75.6% |
| Private invite links (t.me/+) | 45,428 | 25.5% |
| Boost requests (t.me/boost) | 5,286 | 3% |
| Sticker and emoji packs | 1,328 | 0.7% |
| Proxy links | 956 | 0.5% |
Which platforms each language links to
Uzbek-language channels lead on Instagram at 47.8%. Russian channels lead on both VK (32.3%) and MAX (29.1%). Arabic channels link to WhatsApp most often (19.1%). Chinese channels link to YouTube least, at 2.7%.
| Language | YouTube | X (Twitter) | TikTok | VK | MAX | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russian | 29.6% | 16.3% | 4.9% | 2.3% | 6.6% | 2.6% | 32.3% | 29.1% |
| English | 26.1% | 15.2% | 17.5% | 5.9% | 4.7% | 9.6% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Persian | 11.8% | 27.8% | 4% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 4% | 0% | — |
| Arabic | 21.3% | 12.9% | 5.9% | 13.9% | 6.7% | 19.1% | 0% | — |
| Uzbek | 38.5% | 47.8% | 13.5% | 20.8% | 4.1% | 2.6% | 0.3% | 0.4% |
| Chinese | 2.7% | 1.1% | 3.9% | 0.9% | 0.4% | 1.6% | 0% | — |
| Spanish | 34.7% | 20.4% | 17.1% | 12.7% | 11.6% | 15.7% | 1% | 0.5% |
| Ukrainian | 39.5% | 40.1% | 13.3% | 30.4% | 14.7% | 4.2% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| Burmese | 8.9% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 20.4% | 10.1% | 0.1% | — | — |
| Italian | 38.5% | 18.6% | 10.4% | 18.8% | 6.3% | 6.9% | 0.3% | 0.9% |
MAX in Russian-language channels
29.1% of active Russian-language channels linked to MAX, against 32.3% for VK and 29.6% for YouTube. MAX is a messenger backed by the Russian state and launched in 2025. Across all languages 13.8% of active channels link to it. Our earlier study of channel descriptions up to August is in MAX links in Telegram channels.
Forms, app stores, marketplaces and shorteners
Google Docs, Forms and Drive links appear in 8.5% of active channels and app store links (App Store and Google Play) in 4%. Ozon and Wildberries are linked by 4.2%, Amazon by 0.9%, AliExpress and Temu by 0.9%. Link shorteners are used by 9.3%, and Telegraph, Telegram's own long-read tool, by 3.6%.
What this does not measure
We count links in post text and buttons of the last 100 posts, not in channel descriptions. A link counts once per channel for shares. Shortened links are counted as the shortener domain, not the page behind them, and a channel's own website is not distinguished from other sites.
Questions and answers
Which website is linked most often from Telegram channels?
YouTube is the most linked website: 26.3% of active channels linked to it in their last 100 posts, with 741,402 links in total.
How many Telegram channels link to Instagram?
17.9% of active channels (31,890) linked to Instagram in their last 100 posts.
How many Russian Telegram channels link to MAX?
29.1% of active Russian-language channels linked to MAX, against 32.3% for VK and 29.6% for YouTube.
What share of Telegram posts contain a link?
51.8% of posts contain at least one link, and 5.2% show a link preview.
How many Telegram channels share private invite links?
25.5% of active channels (45,428) shared at least one private invite link (t.me/+) in their last 100 posts.
Method
Posts. The last 100 posts (up to 119, whole pages) of 256,822 public channels from the TGScope index, read from the public web version of each channel between October 26, 2026 and November 1, 2026. The channels are the largest public channels in the index by subscribers; channels without a public web page are not included.
Active channels: latest post at most 30 days before collection: 178,199 channels. The median active channel's 100 posts cover 75 days.
Languages and topics: TGScope channel labels, available for 169,749 of the 256,822 channels; groups with fewer than 300 active channels are not shown.
Links are the URLs in post text and in inline buttons, by host name (www. removed); platform families group hosts (youtu.be and youtube.com = YouTube; x.com and twitter.com = X; vk.com, vk.ru, vkvideo.ru = VK). Shares are of active channels with at least one such link in their last 100 posts.
Data and citation
The aggregates behind this article are in one file: telegram-links-statistics.json. It holds counts and shares only.
To cite this study: